renault lost imola

[imola]

ferrari will not get carried away. the race was in fact lost by renault, and it wasn't by much. f1central sums it up nicely. if it wasn't for the four blessings ferrari had at imoloa, they would not have been on the top step of the podium.

1. have the race been at a track like the nurburgring, quickest man fernando alonso would almost certainly have found a way past slower race leader michael schumacher
2. just how much was the runaway title leader ever going to risk in order to take a stab up michael's inside
3. a few more degrees of italian sunshine might have further 'grained' the bridgestone tyres out of speed
4. renault's questionable decision to pit alonso early for his last pitstop almost certainly sealed the spaniard's second-place fate.

blessing it was for ferrari. four things to make it all go wrong, but none of it happened. with that, ferrari took a very crucial win for the team, and to become the first team to beat renault this season.

how michael came out in front of the renault was just unbelievable. considering michael was driving around 1.27 to 1.28 a lap, and alonso capable of lapping 1.25 to 1.26, it was actually all advantage to renault. yet after the debatable pitstop by renault, michael was still able to speed through in front of alonso.

with that said, i don't think it was a bad call by renault to bring alonso in. because no matter when the team choose to bring him in, being in superb shape as compared to michael, alonso should have no problem ending up ahead. i am sure most people expected that to happen. i believe even alonso thought that would happen.

i would say ferrari made a great move by pitting right after renault, probably sensing that traffic would come into play. all credit to the strategists. michael did his part as well, driving a relatively faster in-lap to make it a perfect pistop. from that point on michael just needed to drive his pace and alonso couldn't threaten a bit.

besides, it's about time another team won. i am most happy with that. i don't care who's on top, just as long as it's not renault. i want a more competitive season, not a renault runaway like last year. honestly, i get a little sick watching renault do so well. mclaren, honda, and toyota, work harder and challenge a bit more!

next race will be a totally different story. nurburgring will provide more overtaking chances. at a circuit where ferrari normally can't perform, they are about to face a tougher time. they need to sort out their tyre issues, else they probably would only be fighting for points. renault is still very dominant, and being slightly unfortunate at imola, they would be looking to win the next one. personally, i believe it wouldn't be a problem for the blue team.

winner of the race:
ide is the biggest winner of the race. he won the dumbest driver of 2006, the slowest driver on the grid, the most forgettable performance, and of course he won the ticket out of f1 indefinitely. congratulations ide!

no really, ferrari is the biggest winner.

loser of the race:
poor rubens. his chance to finally shine turned out to be one of the worst performance. after qualifying a respectable third, he had a horrible start which ended him in fifth. and after the first pitstop, we lost contact with him till the very end, where we found out he only managed to finish 10th. how he managed to finish behind button, after button's disastrous pitstops, i don't quite understand.



previous posts:
melbourne: renault completes hat-trick
melbourne: jenson grabs pole down under
sepang: sepang revealed more problems
sepang: engine changes dominate qualifying
bahrain: thrilling bahrain
bahrain: an exciting start to 2006


[tagged: ferrari, imola, michael schumacher, formula 1]