Michael Schumacher drove to a record fifth victory at Monza this weekend, but unfortunately it will be his last. During the press conference after the race, he did confirm the speculation that has been circulating in the press and among the tifosi for the last several weeks that this will be his last season in Formula One. The race was his 90th win and the scuderia's 190th. Fans will tell their kids and grandkids that they were able to see arguably the best driver of the modern era in action. But before we get ahead of ourselves and start thinking about the past, we still have three races left and I need to write the report for this one.
Michael only had one driver to contend with most of the race and that was pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was able to keep the lead for the start of the race and then it became classic Ferrari with the German coming out ahead after a round of pit stops and never really looking back. With the announcement later in the day that the Finn will be making the move to Maranello next season (Italian Ice?), the conspiracy theorists out there started to wonder if he deferred in fighting for the win to allow Michael to close the gap in the battle for the championship. The sober among the crowd will realize that yes, he had the fastest lap of the race, but it just didn't come together for the race. The tifosi hope that the Finn will be the one at the top of the podium come this time next year.
Michael Schumacher and Luca di Montezemolo
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The star of the race was actually the driver that came in third place. Robert Kubica managed to get a podium in only his third race in F1 and he drove the wheels off of the BMW. The young Pole drove a hell of a race and is now only one point behind the untalented driver that he replaced. It is going to be funny as hell if he is able to jump ahead of Villeneuve in the championship before the end of the season. Maybe it is only a matter of time (and a ton of development work on the BMW) that we'll see "Pole on pole" as a headline.
Giancarlo Fisichella tried to show that he can be number one next year with the French based team by finishing in fourth place after his team mate blew his engine (and possibily his chances of repeating as drivers champion). But spreading chunks of finely machined engine parts on the straightaway did manage to puncture Massa's front right tire and knock him out of the points for the weekend. Fourth place didn't pay enough points to keep Ferrari from taking the lead in the constructor's championship. But Flabio was complaining that the FIA was starting to look like Italian football. But then again, Flabio tends to complain about everything. Even supermodels can't make him happy.
Piero Ferrari and Michael Schumacher
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It was a good weekend for the Japanese teams, as well. It was better for Honda with Jenson Button finishing in fifth place ahead of his Brazilian team mate. But fifth place isn't a win and unless there is a five car pile up before the end of the season, I'm predicting he's a one hit wonder. Jarno Trulli tried to earn his paltry sum compared to his over rated (and over paid) team mate and finished with two points in seventh. Surely Toyota has to wonder if this is worth all of the fuss (and billions of yen) they've thrown at it. How many times did they try to win Le Mans before they gave up?
The last point of the weekend went to Nick Heidfeld in the other BMW. Not a great drive from an experienced driver, but it really isn't that great a car this year either. I'm guessing that Kubica's stock value has gone up in Switzerland.
Felipe Massa
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All of the Red Bull family of cars finished, unfortunately, none in the points. And Ralf Schumacher saved his team from total humiliation by finishing ahead of the remaining not-so-Super Aguris. Had Sato-san passed him, I could see the younger German being fired.
With Alonso's DNF, Schumacher has closed within two points with three races left. The race promoters are happy, maybe they will have sell out crowds if this goes down to the wire. The tifosi are hoping for it to end sooner than that, but in any case, it has gotten interesting. Racing picks up in two weeks in Shanghai. Unfortunately, I will not be in attendance having been to the last two. I'm going to get my fair skin sunburned on a beach in Thailand that Sunday, but I might watch the race poolside.
Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa
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Race Results
