F1-Blog

Italy show who’s boss

Again the Italians have shown the French who's boss. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher romped to a convincing win in the French GP ahead of Alonso in second.

The Bridgestone shod Ferrari showed it's dominance yesterday in qualifying, where the Ferrari drivers locked the front row of the grid up with ease.

Ferrari seem to have had a step up in performance, bringing there 'new' car to the French GP seems to have paid off well for the team, the Ferrari has had some Major additions and changes to it this race, although it is not a 'B' car apparently. Bridgestone have picked their game up as well, as seen by the uplift in performance of the Toyota cars, although the Toyota seems to have improved quite dramatically as well.

Renault seemed to struggle at their home race, Alonso did not seem to be in the same race as Michael.

The only time the Renault car showed any chance of getting ahead of the Ferrari was during the start, however even the fast starting Renault cars need a little space to work there magic. The Magny-Cours track however has a very short run to the first corner.

Massa played rear gunner for the first stint of the race, allowing Michael's tyres to go through their graining period, and for him to run off and hide with a 6 second gap between him and his team mate Massa in second.

Massa pitted first on lap 18, the Ferrari team put a new set of Bridgestone tyres onto the car. The first lap pace of the Bridgestone tyres allowed Massa to hold onto his track position ahead of the Renault of Alonso. Alonso pitted on lap 19, he then fell to 5 seconds back of Massa.

Rubens retired his Honda with what looked like engine issues on lap 19 as well. The Honda car's performance all weekend has been weak. A good quote from Rubens team mate Jenson Button "we (Honda) have a lack of overall speed, that comes from a lack of engine power and from a lack of down-force, that's all we are lacking at the moment, and also we are lacking in reliability" So then Jenson, your lacking a race car when you think about it.

The Toyota cars of Ralf and Trulli showed that the qualifying pace they had was genuine, both cars running long on their first run. Ralf pitting on lap 22 had a problem with the left wheel and his stop ended up taking 17 seconds, dropping him to 7th.

Trulli came under threat from Raikkonen, he held out well, but then it seemed that the McLaren left the Toyota standing coming out of the slow corner approaching the Nurburgring chicane. It was however later noticed that the Toyota was having engine troubles. Trulli retired later on lap 40.

De la Rossa showed that he is not afraid to have a go, he dived passed Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber 'Twin Tower' car at the Adelaide hairpin. Showing that he could handle the step up to race driving now that Juan Pablo has been sidelined.

The Williams cars seem to struggle every race, and this race was no different. Lap 39 saw Webber's rear left tyre de-laminate and throw him into a spin. No sooner had he recovered to the pit lane and replaced the wheel, it happened again. The car was retired as unsafe, and Webber's team mate Rosberg had his car called in to check it over for the same issue. It seemed to be an overheating issue, although if Rosberg's car was not having the same problem it must have been a setup issue with Webber's car.

Alonso was switched onto a two stop strategy, Renault filled the car to the end of the race on lap 42, this made the Renault heavy and allowed both Massa and Ralf to start to catch the Renault.

Ralf then made his stop on lap 46, also on a two stop strategy and came out ahead of the Ferrari of Massa. Massa however stopped on lap 53 and joined the track ahead of Ralf, ending the Toyota teams chances of a podium.  

Michael then made his last stop on lap 55 with no incident. Jenson retired his car on lap 61, ending a bad day for the Honda team.

The Hockenheim grand prix is next, Renault have already said that a revised car will be at the German track. Alonso will be hoping the changed Renault will be able to challenge the Ferrari and Bridgestone challenge, as we will be hoping for a more interesting race.

Results

1.  M SCHUMACHER  Ferrari      1h32m07.803s
2.  ALONSO        Renault      +10.1s
3.  MASSA         Ferrari      +22.6s
4.  R SCHUMACHER  Toyota       +27.2s
5.  RAIKKONEN     McLaren      +33.0s
6.  FISICHELLA    Renault      +45.3s
7.  DE LA ROSA    McLaren      +49.4s
8.  HEIDFELD      BMW          +1 lap
9.  COULTHARD     Red Bull     +1 lap
10. SPEED         Toro Rosso   +1 lap
11. VILLENEUVE    BMW          +1 lap
12. KLIEN         Red Bull     +1 lap
13. LIUZZI        Toro Rosso   +1 lap
14. ROSBERG       Williams     +2 laps
15. ALBERS        Midland      +2 laps
16. MONTAGNY      Super Aguri  +3 laps
R.  BUTTON        Honda        +9 laps
R.  WEBBER        Williams     +17 laps
R.  TRULLI        Toyota       +31 laps
R.  BARRICHELLO   Honda        +52 laps
R.  MONTEIRO      Midland      +59 laps
R.  SATO          Super Aguri  +70 laps

Fastest lap: M SCHUMACHER  1m17.111s