Most of Italy breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday afternoon as Michael Schumacher gave the faithful hope that Ferrari has not forgotten how to win in F1. The German was able to convert his record setting pole (yes, I know, Senna set it with fewer starts and in less time) into his first win in what seems like quite a while. The Scuderia car was able to hold off current reigning world champion Fernando Alonso, but with the Spaniard finishing in second, the gap between the two only closed by two.
Flabio was sweating as the Ferrari team was able to pull a rabbit out of the hat on pit timings and Renault was unable to put together a legitimate challenge. The French team has to be concerned with Ferrari's performance; fans should hope that the season will be closer than it has been of late.
Michael got a good start ahead of Jenson "I-can't-do-anything-with-a-front-row-start" Button. Massa was able to stay ahead of Alonso and slow him down enough for the battle of the stopwatches to come out in favor of the red cars. The Brazilian probably drove a little too slowly in the effort and ended up in fourth, rather than a podium finish. Still, he's starting to get the point of being the number two driver with the team.
The first lap was highlighted by Albers and Ide-san getting together with the Midland going through a wild ride before ending up in the kitty litter. Ide-san wasn't even close to his team-mate's performance. Eventually the team will find a driver with deeper pockets and maybe more talent.
Hell, the safety car can lap the not so Super Aguri driver at this point!
Juan Pablo Montoya drove a rather uneventful race but did get the last podium spot. The McLarens were running heavy with fuel, but never really challenged for the lead. The Woking team still has their work cut out for them. The Columbian did finish ahead of the Finnish driver leading Ron Dennis to wonder exactly what he needs to do next year short of brining back Mika...
Past Kimi, it was more or less the also-rans. Williams is in trouble. They just seem like they've lost the plot (not that they've had it in a while) and have become a solid mid-field team. Both cars finished on the lead lap, but not many people noticed. Button ended up in seventh, pissing away another good starting spot after almost running over a few mechanics during a missed pit exit signal cue. As usual. And people think that he may be the second coming. Don't believe the hype...
He did finish ahead of a Renault. But finishing ahead of the lightning rod for a team's bad luck isn't saying much. It's not like he beat Alonso.
Honda was happy that they finished ahead of Toyota. Toyota is wondering where all of the yen is going with not a whole lot of hardware in the trophy cabinet to show for it. It's got to be a matter of time before they pull the plug on this distraction. Ralf finished ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Honda, so he might be able to keep his job for another week or so.
Rosberg finished in eleventh place and on the lead lap. More importantly, he finished ahead of Jacques Villeneuve. BMW has got to wonder why they went with Villeneuve. Surely the name recognition has got to be a bit tarnished by this point.
Toro Rosso? No wings this weekend. But they did finish ahead of the Red Bull guys.
Midland? Only family members were watching.
Super Aguri? Thanking their lucky stars that the 107% rule no longer applies.
Now that F1 is back in Europe the test teams can work on new bits up to times much closer to the start than the fly away races. Expect the engineers to be working longer hours to try and close the gaps. Ferrari has proved that they still can win but only time will tell if they're a one hit wonder or if this is a real trend. Racing continues at the Nurburgring on May 7th for the European Grand Prix. American race fans are hoping that the TV coverage doesn't take on the NASCAR for Dummies type tone that CBS did this weekend.
Race Results
