Fantastic race ... I was on the edge of my seat throughout. Michael did a superlative drive - his performance this weekend underlines why he is unquestionably the best driver in the world. The only Bridgestone runner to qualify in the Top 13 and an amazing drive to clinch the win. Excellent timing on the pit stops by Ferrari - it all worked to perfection. Hopefully we will get a repeat in Suzuka and this time perhaps Felipe to gather decent points too. Good job by Scott Speed in the first part of the race but I dont know why he went backwards after the first third of the race.
Regardless of what Fisi did, it was a gutsy move for MS to pass on the inside with half his tires in the wet! I think Master Schumi willed Fisi's car to stay away and not push him into the grass.
I thought so as well. MS even clapped when FA was given his trophy. It didnt appear so when MS was given his. FA is just a little B%$#@!!!!
Massa made the pass for points but came into corner 1 too fast. DC wasn't going to just concede the position. Good try by Massa. I'd rather he get knocked out of the race than to not score because of a pedestrian drive.
Actually, Fisi should be disciplined for attempting to take out Schumaker. That move out of the pits reminded me of MS on JV at Jerez.
Schumacher proves again why he is the master and reigns supreme among F1 drivers. WHAT A RACE. I will sorely miss MS after this year but he certainly is going out on top. He's better than guys 15 years younger - he's the best on the whole grid. I consider it an honor to have been able to watch his mastery all these years - so sad it will end. As for the race- Alonso is a chump and a chimp in looks and in action. His yammering about how he's confident belies his true feelings. Many times, when Renault appeared to have the advantage, Ferrari snatched it away. When things were even, Ferrari outperfomed them. Ferrari certainly has better odds of winning the WDC than Renault with Alonso. I SINCERELY hope MS goes out winning his 8th at the final race of his career. It would be the most perfect result possible. As for the Renaults, I think its crap that they are not going to say anything about team orders. Hmmm... Fisi is 15 seconds up on Alonso with 7 laps left.... "suddenly" his pace slows up and Alonso passes him. Yeah RIGHT. Why is that rule never enforced? Clearly they knew the gap between Fisi and Alonso, and between Alonso and Heidfeld, so they told FIsi "you can drive REAL easy, let alonso by, and still keep 3rd without having to speed up after Ferdi goes by, and nobody will suspect a thing". BS! I can't WAIT to see Flavios meltdown when Alonso loses the WDC after being up 20-some points with Ferrari floundering. Renault as a team is melting down now - Flavio with his wild accusations against Ferrari in Monaco, and against the FIA a race or two back, and his snide comments towards MS this race. It's all going to blow up in his face and I cant wait to see it.
Yah, I saw that too -- half his RF was soaked, meaning he make the inside move on half a tire! Yowza. Otherwise it was pretty much as Schumi said in the post-race: if Schumi had trouble with T1 on cold drys, it was a given that Fisi would, too. Prolly too late. This is what I don't like about drivers getting boosted into a top machine too early. Learning to lose gracefully is what you do in the second rank machines. Alonso can take solice from knowing that he'd been beaten by the best there is. He just has to stop buying his own hype about being better than Schumi. One season of tire advantage and he thinks he's become Senna? Damon Hill, maybe. For me, one of the most depressing things about Schumi's retirement is that next year, the two Ferrari drivers *combined* are still younger than me. That's something Schumi has to look forward to: the point when you realize that your first "real" racing car now qualifies as an antique.
Team Ferrari won over Team Renault, no doubt. Renault: 1. Bad decision on changing front Int. tires 2. Bad re-design or mishandling of center lock hub mechanism 3. Over confidence and bad karma to FA and the whole gang. Ferrari: 1. Perfect strategy for changing conditions 2. No mistakes in pit. 3. Michael drove his arse off. If Massa had not had problems, we'd have the constructors lead still. So that' the only sore spot. Overtaking on the track was virtually impossible off the single track line, so I can't blame him. DC did chop Massa. But that is DC. Even though Renault was faster except for the middle stint, Ferrari made up with sheer determination and grit. Good job.
Anybody notice Alonso rolling his eyes in the post race press conference over a number of MS comments? I have to say, the boy is cracking. He wants it badly. He wants to win head to head against Michael more than any other driver out there and he knows he only has two more races to do it. Anything can happen, but the momentum has certainly moved dramatically to Ferrari. Coming from 25 points down, even if MS and Ferrari don't win the title's, it sure been a great year and a great way for MS to finish off his career. BTW, I'm glad I stayed up late too watch.....although it put me in the wife's dog house enough where I had to skip our Ferrari Club gathering this morning to get my arse back out of the dog house...which I did ;-)
Sato disqualified for late race block http://formula1.com/race/news/5050/767.html I don't know if I agree with this -- no matter where he went, he was going to block somebody racing for position in that corner. He's not the best driver, and he's not in a good car, but he was simply stuck between a rock and another rock at that moment. Besides, I recall that it was Rubens who barrelled into the back of that logjam, smacked another car and improved his finishing position. Where's his penalty?
Boy, was I wrong about the race and I am glad I was wrong. I guess this is why I am here on Ferrarichat instead being in the Ferrari race control. Anyway, saw the race late last night live, screaming quietly to not wake up the rest of the family as MS passed RB, JB, FA, and GF. MS had help from above (And no, I am not talking about FIA ) and took full advantage of it. I think he down played his amazing drive as the nearest BS runner was way down in 9th or 10th I think. This has rank as one of the greatest race wins of his career so far. Simply amazing, simply Michael Schumacher.
"In F-1, there are drivers, there are champions...and there's Schumy." Good thing the race ended at around 4 PM. Just in time for FA's diaper change, feeding, burping and a little nap to soothe his screaming mimi's.
nice...u guys noticed how much of confidence Schumi had at the post race conference? he was beaming all over...lookin like..as if he's askin FA..' common...bring on whatever u got '.... perhaps this is best quote i've heard this whole year... "I am the oldest driver in the field and I can live quite well with that," said Schumacher. "It doesn't bother me because, fortunately, I'm not the slowest!" so Michael...i'm lookin forward to victory no. 92 next weekend. thanx so much for a heart stopping race... it was worth it..
So... is Massa still in the team next year? I think he hasn't been a good teammate as he hasn't helped Schumacher not at all * he wasn't supposed to win a (few races back @ Turkey) * he doesn't help him at all just look at Fischichella's performance he was watching Alonso's assets all the time. Ferrari has lost the lead in the Constructors championship ...
The SAs are constantly being penalized for ignoring blue flags. One of Yamamoto's four "stops" today was a drive-thru for blocking Schumi on one pass. Sato had to go somewhere -- but if you're the one getting the blue flag, where you go isn't the one and only dry line. Under the tail end conditions today, hogging the dry line is a hangin' offense, pard. I thought maybe the FIA would give him a ten spot grid penalty next race. (Sato had an engine change this race, and wound up exactly where he qualified.) Anyone think that maybe Toyota pulled both out-of-the-points cars so they'd have fresh engines for their "home" GP? (although Toyota's GP operation is in Germany) Japan is always billed as a big Toyota vs Honda fight. Still no mention anywhere about Renault team orders ...
It's official, sign me up for the I-Hate-Sato group! grrr That guy REALLY pissed me off on the last lap. The only reason he didn't get out of the way was because he just wanted that dry line. What a piece of work that guy is. Screwed up NH badly. Then Kubica was doing excellent, but came in too early for dry tires. Not sure what happened with FA when he was going much slower than MS and GF. I guess he had too much understeer with those non-worn down intermediates. Kinda hoped he would've won because MS will do better in the other two races imo. Massa once again showed he's worthless. Couldn't even pass Ralf for quite a while. Kubica ended up behind everyone and still got by into the points before his tire mishap.
A couple of races ago, we were discussing Fisi the same way -- not helping like Massa was. Massa's aid this race was by trying out dry tires before Schumi came in. That made Massa's one-stop race a two-stop. He was moving right up when the dry line finally appeared, but double stopping killed that. Despite that, he was fighting for 8th when he slid into DC, which was the end of that. Given that he started at the back, that wasn't too bad. He's no Schumi, but then, neither is Alonso, much less Fisi. de la Rosa is finishing races. It'll be interesting to see who has more DNF's next year: Alonso in the McLaren or Kimi in the Ferrari. Massa may wind up the #1 driver at Ferrari, if Kimi can't get to the finish line.
How true! Some fans are very finicky! I sure hope it is Kimi's car and not Kimi! If BMW and Honda are strong next season every race could be this exciting.
I wish they could do it like soccer games and leave the action on and scroll commercials around the picture. I have to admit I do like the excitment and banter of Bob Varsha, Steve Matchett, Dave Hobbs and Peter Windsor from pit lane. I always TIVO every race and tune in about 30 minutes after the start so I can fast forward through the commercials. Today, I could not wait so I caught up to live tv after the first three commercials.
Matchett's bias towards MS from his Benetton days is getting really old. None of the other guys have that. As they shouldn't.
