German GP comments

Another race, another win for Michael Schumacher.

From the outside Formula 1 may look boring, but if you take some time to watch it there's a lot of drama in a race. Early on it looked like there would be a great race for the lead with Kimi Räikkönen really pushing Michael hard. Then, for no reason, his tail wing just disintegrated and off into the wall he went. After that there was no one who could catch Michael. This was his 100th poll and 81st win of his carrier. His 11 wins (in 12 races!) ties his all time record for wins in a season. More impressive is the fact that Ferrari have gone 11 years without a mechanical failure. And this win also moved Ferrari past Ford for the most wins in GP history.

There were some great fights back in the pack. Starting off, poor Rubens Barrichello had some of his (in)famous luck and lost his front wing when he tried, ill advisedly, to make a pass early on and ran into the back of David Coulthard . DC was ok but it knocked Rubens completely out of contention. It also caused him to finish out of the points for the first time this season.

Juan Pablo Montoya started 2nd on the grid but the Renault of Fernando Alonso just blew past him like a rabbit past a turtle. The Williams-BMW really doesn't look good at all but JP is such a good driver he kept it on the track and finished 5th.

The story of the race, though, was Jenson Button. He qualified 3rd just hundreds of seconds behind JP but due to an engine change had to start 13th on the grid. He then proceeded to charge up to 3rd just behind Fernando. They then had one of the more enjoyable battles for position I've seen of late. Jenson made an awesome move on a part of the track that isn't one of the better passing areas and took 2nd.

I was a bit surprised that Takuma Sato was generally MIA this race.

It seems that there's nothing that can stop the Ferrari/Schumacher combination. But the BAR-Honda and Renault teams are trying quite hard. And the sleeper for this second half of the season could end up being McLaren-Mercedes. Despite Kimi's evaporating wing they could be very competitive.

Yeah, if Martians come down and steal Michael's car.