The Reign in Spain
Spanish Grand Prix

By Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media

Michael Schumacher celebrated his 200th Formula 1 grand prix in a style he is certainly used to by now, jumping for joy on the top spot of the podium. In doing so, he is also perfect for the season with five wins in a row. This ties Nigel Mansell's record from 1992 driving a Williams. If only Sir Frank still had the magic with a BMW lump.

The elder Schumacher put any doubt aside on who was faster during Saturday's qualifying session. The BAR-Honda of Jenson Button was quick through the first two sectors, but an off trashed his hopes of a repeat pole. Schumacher had a good start, but the Renault of Jarno Trulli got the jump and lead until his pit stop. Then, for those that haven't been paying attention:

Michael puts in a quick lap, pits perfectly, and comes out ahead. Leaving the field behind. Even with a broken exhaust.

His team mate followed him home in 2nd, a little closer because Michael backed off. Slightly.

Renault finished well, overshadowing BAR-Honda's latest results by finishing 3-4. The Italian Jarno Trulli managed to keep his run together and ended up ahead of the home town favorite, Fernando Alonso. The results solidified the French team's second place standing. Who says the French don't make reliable cars? Both cars have finished every race so far.

Takuma Sato tried to keep up after qualifying 3rd, but ended up behind the two blue and yellow cars at the checkered flag. Still, a very respectable finish, and ahead of both McLarens and both BMW-Williams cars. His team mate, Jenson Button, still smarting from his poor qualifying lap, captured the last point of the day.

Ralf Schumacher showed up the trash talking Juan Pablo and finished way back in 6th, but not only did he get points, he finished. May not be a great result, but at least he didn't go complaining about it. The Columbian's day was done when his brakes decided to take the day off. They almost took the front jack-man off at the knees as well. No injuries, but there is one less Montoya fan out there. I feel sorry for the seven that are left.

The other two points that were on the table were taken by Fisichella driving last year's Ferrari, I mean the Sauber. The Swiss team has been struggling a bit. Word in the pit lane is that they have been doing lots of development work on the chassis and that 2004 will be more of a learning year.

Speaking of learning, McLaren really have managed to stuff it all up so far, haven't they? Darth Vader's team had so much trouble last season that they used the previous year's car. This season's car is so bad that Ron Dennis has been looking in museums to find a car that may work. Fat Albert (Norbert Haug) keeps saying that Mercedes is committed. To what, losing? Kimi summed up the weekend with "we just couldn't do better today as it was clear we were not quick enough." Really? DC's comments were "very difficult race as obviously our performance was down." You don't say?

The Woking team is currently in fifth place in the championship. The fourth place team, Williams-BMW, has six times as many points. Ferrari has 16.4 times as many points. Looks like Montoya picked the right team to go to next season.

The race had a rather high attrition rate with only thirteen cars still running at the end. Both Jordans were gone. One Jag, one Toyota. Both Minardis failed, but that just took out two moving chicanes.

There were rumors floating around that Jacques Villeneuve may be coming back to F1. I hope so; I'll never run out of copy.

The fans are still complaining that the races are boring and there is no passing. Just wait until the next race if you don't want to see passing. Yep, in two weeks we're going to Monaco.