Ferrari 1-2 Again, Is It Enough?

United States Grand Prix
By Erik Nielsen

Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

Bath Time!!!!

Michael Schumacher and Filipe Massa gave the tifosi the result that they have been waiting for quite some time and finished 1-2 at Indy this weekend. It didn't seem that long ago that those were the results for most race reports, but the competition has been bringing the fight to Ferrari and leaving the red cars in the dust as of late. While the die hard fan with three Ferraris in the garage and rosso corsa flowing through my veins was happy, the realist in me accepts the fact that Michelin supplied a much more conservative tire to make up for last year's fiasco and Renault just didn't have the speed this weekend. At any rate it made for a pretty good show

What really made for a great show but bad racing was the absolute cluster-stuff in turn one on the opening lap. Juan Pablo Montoya forgot how to brake (again, not that this should be a surprise to anyone) and slammed into the back of Kimi Räikkönen. Not really a way to win favors among the team. Then all hell broke loose with cars all over the place. With the Mc-Clunkers taking each other out, Button (who was looking for a more legitimate reason not to finish so far back besides the obvious excuse of lack of talent) crashed into Heidfeld and Scott Speed. Heidfeld held on as his BMW tried everything it knew to get airborne but just rolled several times. Fortunately there were no injuries. Montagny, Webber, and Klien found themselves out after a series of bang ups a bit further back in pack.

1-2-3... Michael Schumacher, Filipe Massa, and Giancarlo Fisichella pass the Ferrari team on the way to Parc Ferme.

The safety car came out for a bit as the mess was cleaned up and the marshals tried to figure out what happened. And shortly after the restart, Monteiro and Sato were out. By nine laps in, ten cars were out. But before all of the conspiracy theorist start writing nasty-grams to me, not all of the cars that crashed out were Michelin shod and crashed out rather than just pulled off the track. Mind you it would have been cute if there were only six cars running after the mess. Scratch that, it would have been funny as hell.

Massa lead for a while after the restart, but that brief bit of glory ended during the pit stops when Schumacher came out on a flyer and gained the lead when Massa pitted slowly. They would basically be untouchable after that point.

Think they're happy??

Fisichella tried as hard as he could, probably pleasing his team and possibily causing them to feel better about giving him the number one slot next year, and wasn't too far back to finish on the lowest level of the podium. The Italian knew that he was beat due to tires, but he did make a good effort.

Jarno Trulli finished rather high for a Toyota, in fourth place. Will the powers that be in Japan realize that the result would have been much different if there were more cars running at the end? They will probably blame the drivers and the drivers will secretly blame the cars. Outsiders to the team have just noticed that the team just can't seem to put together a complete winning package. You have to wonder how long their patience is to either win a race or withdraw (like they did from Le Mans) after being the bridesmaid, but never the bride.

Fernando Alonso tried to minimize the damage and held on for fifth place. The gap between him and Schumacher is getting smaller, but unless the performance differences stay going into France, it probably will be another Alonso year.

Schumacher watching the timing. Wait a minute! That's the football match!!!

Rubens Barrichello didn't do much other than finish on the lead lap. Oh wait, he did okay, he managed to finish. And, in the points. I hope the Brazilian is making more money than his team mate.

The Red Bull family had a great day with both "teams" finishing in the points. David Coulthard finished in seventh with the official Red Bull car and Vitantonio Liuzzi finished in eighth in the Toro Rosso car. Yes, a bunch of cars crashed out, but remember a few years back when it rained at Monaco?

The last finisher was poor Rosburg in the Williams. The decline of the once great English team has been painful for all who enjoy the sport to watch.

Why can't my garage look like this? I know. $$$$

So, as North America is all wrapped up for the year, the circus goes back to Europe for a while. The next race on the calendar is Magny-Cours, so we can be assured that Michelin will not be holding back (even though they announced that they will not be returning to F1 as the sole supplier). The tifosi are praying that the tide really did turn at Indy. We'll soon see.

Race Results

1	M.SCHUMACHER	Ferrari	1h34m35.199s
2	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 7.9s
3	FISICHELLA	Renault	+ 16.5s
4	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 23.6s
5	ALONSO	Renault	+ 28.4s
6	BARRICHELLO	Honda	+ 36.5s
7	COULTHARD	RBR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
8	LIUZZI	STR-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
9	ROSBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
10	R.SCHUMACHER	Toyota	+ 11 laps
11	ALBERS	MF1-Toyota	+ 36 laps, transmission
12	VILLENEUVE	Sauber-BMW	+ 50 laps, engine
13	MONTEIRO	MF1-Toyota	+ 64 laps, accident damage
14	SATO	Super Aguri-Honda	+ 67 laps, accident
15	BUTTON	Honda	+ 70 laps, accident damage
16	RÄIKKÖNEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 73 laps, accident
17	HEIDFELD	Sauber-BMW	+ 73 laps, accident
18	MONTOYA	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 73 laps, accident
19	WEBBER	Williams-Cosworth	+ 73 laps, accident
20	SPEED	STR-Cosworth	+ 73 laps, accident
21	KLIEN	RBR-Ferrari	+ 73 laps, accident
22	MONTAGNY	Super Aguri-Honda	+ 73 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	M.SCHUMACHER	Ferrari	1m12.719s

Driver's Championship Standings

1	ALONSO	Renault	88 Points
2	M.SCHUMACHER	Ferrari	69 Points
3	FISICHELLA	Renault	43 Points
4	RÄIKKÖNEN	McLaren-Mercedes	39 Points
5	MASSA	Ferrari	36 Points
6	MONTOYA	McLaren-Mercedes	26 Points
7	BUTTON	Honda	16 Points
8	BARRICHELLO	Honda	16 Points
9	HEIDFLED	Sauber-BMW	12 Points
10	COULTHARD	RBR-Ferrari	10 Points
11	R.SCHUMACHER	Toyota	8 Point
12	TRULLI	Toyota	8 Points
13	VILLENEUVE	Sauber-BMW	7 Points
14	WEBBER	Williams-Cosworth	6 Point
15	ROSBERG	Williams-Cosworth	4 Point
16	LIUZZI	STR-Cosworth	1 Point
17	KLIEN	RBR-Ferrari	1 Point

Constructor's Championship Standings

1	Renault	131 Points
2	Ferrari	105 Points
3	McLaren-Mercedes	65 Points
4	Honda	32 Points
5	Sauber-BMW	19 Points
6	Toyota	16 Points
7	RBR-Ferrari	11 Points
8	Williams-Cosworth	10 Points
9	STR-Cosworth	1 Points