Category: Motor Racing

Fernando Alonso dominated the British Grand Prix with a lights to flag victory. The Spaniard was in the ‘zone’ and simply drove away into the lead and recorded his fifth win of the year.

The Renault star shook off an early challenge from his two main rivals, Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher, taking control at the first round of pit stops before disappearing into the distance.

Kimi and Michael was left trailing in the wake behind the winning Renault so it was a battle between second place. Initially, Kimi held the track position but during the second round of pitstop, despite taking less fuel than the McLaren, Michael got ahead in his Ferrari. The German was able to do this by setting faster laps than Kimi and thanks to an early call by Ferrari’s strategist Ross Brawn, he made it into P2.

McLaren was shocked to see Michael ahead of Kimi. But in the end, the car was simply not fast enough to challenge Renault and Ferrari. Kimi had no answer over Michael and gradually lost touch during the final stint of the race, almost falling into the clutches of Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. But the Finn held on for the final podium spot to move ahead of the Italian into a clear third place in the Drivers’ standings.

Felipe Massa finished fifth after a solid drive in the second Ferrari, while Juan Pablo Montoya brought a slightly damaged McLaren home in sixth. The Colombian had been hit by Jacques Villeneuve’s BMW Sauber at the Copse corner, damaging his right-side sidepod, and spent the first stint bottled up behind the other BMW of Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld finished ahead of his BMW Sauber team-mate in seventh with Villeneuve the last point scorer.

As for Jenson Button, he had a race and weekend to forget. After suffering the embarrassment in qualifying, his Honda developed an oil leak and he was out within ten laps… Oh dear. Button was deeply disappointed to let down his home fan at Silverstone. Even though he started 19th on the grid, Jenson made good progress in the early stages of the race and was behind David Coulthard’s Red Bull ready to overtake. But alas, he is suffering so much bad luck recently and another non-finish will hit hard on Jenson’s confidence.

It was a commanding victory for Fernando Alonso, the 12th Grand Prix win of the Spaniard’s glittering young Formula 1 career and his fourth of the 2006 season.

With Michael Schumacher at the back of the grid, Alonso had a new challenger to battle with for the race win, McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.

The pace of Kimi and Fernando at the front was impressive. Lap after lap, the two cars were trading fastest times. Initially Mark Webber in the Williams couldn’t keep up, but after the first rounds of pit-stop, the Australian was soon on their tail as the leading Renault slowed down his pace.

It looked like we would have a three-way battle for the race victory, but unfortunately Webber’s Williams suffered an engine failure. Then during the safety car period, Kimi’s McLaren experienced an engine problem as well!

That left Alonso in the lead, with Juan Pablo Montoya in second position. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli should have finished third but he too suffered a problem, just five laps from the end. Honda’s Ruben Barrichello was initially in P3 but had a drive-through penalty after speeding in the pitlane.

So a dream result for Red Bull’s David Coulthard, who finished third. It has been quite a while for DC to finish in a top threee position and it was nice to see him wearing a Superman cape on the podium!

What about Michael Schumacher? He drove a solid race from the back and managed to finish fifth! Just behind his ex-Ferrari team-mate Barrichello. Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella pulled off some exciting overtaking moves during the race and the Italian finished sixth.

So what happen in qualifying? Well, Michael Schumacher ‘stopped’ his Ferrari at the La Rascasse corner… Later that eventing, the race stewards concluded that he deliberately blocked the track in the closing stages of qualifying, preventing rivals from beating his time. And so the seven-time World Champion started the race right at the back. In the race, he got the job done and finished in the points.

Fantastic result for Fernando Alonso, as he wins his home race and becomes the first Spaniard to win the Spanish Grand Prix in Formula One history.

Alonso drove a faultless race with no mistakes with consistence laptimes. His team-mate, Giancarlo Fisichella, was there for support but couldn’t match the pace and dropped behind to finish third.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher tried his best and managed to get ahead of Fisichella after the first pitstop. But he didn’t have the speed to catch the race leader. Second place was his result.

Behind the leading three, Felipe Massa continue his good form with fourth place ahead of McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen. When will win see the Finn and the McLaren team win again? Honda’s Jenson Button was disappointed – yet again – to finish a distant sixth but he is looking forward to the next race in Monte Carlo, as Jenson goes quite well there. His team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished seventh with Nick Heidfeld in the last scoring position in the BMW-Sauber.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher scored his 86th Grand Prix win at the Nurburgring after an epic contest with Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

Alonso led from the start on pole position but lost out in the second pit-stop as Schumacher was carrying more fuel and had the fastest car to ‘leap ahead’ of the Spaniard.

The German had three extra laps before his pit-stop and with the speed of the Ferrari 248, he was in a comfortable position to gain the lead and ultimately, the race win.

Not a thrilling Grand Prix in my opinion, it was all down to tactics in the pit-stop strategy. But it does indicate that Michael and the Italian team are back in the hunt for the World Championship.

Felipe Massa drove well and finished third. This was the Brazilian first podium with Ferrari. McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth and I reckon he is disappointed to finished outside the top three, despite an engine upgrade from Mercedes-Benz. When will we see McLaren win again?

Honda’s Rubens Barrichello finished fifth ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault. Williams’s Nico Rosberg drove a great race to seventh, considering he started from the back after a ten-grid engine penalty. While BMW Sauber driver, Jacques Villenuve, had a solid race to finish eighth.

The next race is the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona and Fernando Alonso hopes to achieve a good result in front of his passionate home crowd.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher won today’s San Marino Grand Prix (April 23rd) after beating Fernando Alonso at Imola. This was the German’s 85th Grand Prix victory and his first in this year’s championship.

It was a carbon-copy of last year’s race as the Ferrari and Renault challenged each other for victory. This time it was Michael ahead of Fernando to take his first ‘proper’ win after an 18-month winless spell (not including that ‘farce’ race at Indianapolis back in 2005).

Good result for the Spaniard despite finishing a close second. Eight points would do nicely for his drivers’ championship. He should have won the race but the team took the risk to pit the car earlier than expected (in the second pit-stop), in order to get ahead of the Ferrari… It didn’t work out and Alonso tried his best to past the leading Ferrari in the closing stages of the Grand Prix.

McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya drove a solid race from seventh to finish third. But I expected a better result/pace from McLaren by now…

As for Jenson Button, he is suffering so much bad luck lately… Looked promising when he qualified second and was able to keep up the pace of Michael in the earlier stages of the race. It all went wrong during the second pit-stop when the lollipop man gave the all-clear signal to go, despite the fuel hose still attached to the car…

Wow, what a crazy and yet exciting Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. So much promise from Honda and Jenson Button to win his first Formula One race after qualifying on pole position. But alas, Button suffered bad luck and failed to finish on the last lap…

From hero in qualifying to zero in an action-packed race. Great win for Renault’s Fernando Alonso who extends his championship lead with 28 points with his first Australian Grand Prix victory. It was an easy race for Alonso, who overtook Button’s Honda on the first restart (after the Safety Car).

His team-mate, Giancarlo Fisichella, did his best after a mixed weekend. Confident that he will have a good result in Melbourne after his win in Sepang, Giancarlo stalled his car on the starting grid. Then spun during the first Safety Car period! And was lucky enough to grab fifth position when Button’s Honda engine blew up on the last two corners…

McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen finished second but had a moment when he overtook Button’s on the second restart. The Finn locked up going to Turn 1 as he made his past. This resulted in a ‘flat-spot’ tyre which damaged the end plates on his front wing. Meaning he struggle to keep up the pace with race leader Alonso. But the team changed the nose-cone/wing during another safety car period without losing track position.

Third place for Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher despite speeding in the pit lane and serving a stop-go penalty. Fantastic result for the German and the Japanese team after struggling in the last two races this year.

It was an entertaining race filled with many incidents including both Ferraris crashed out (Felipe Massa crashed into Nico Rosberg’s Williams and Christian Klien’s Red Bull Racing at the first corner; with Michael Schumacher losing control when behind Jenson). Juan Pablo Montoya’s embrassing spin during the warm-up lap! Then his car ‘shut-down’ when he nearly hit the wall at the same corner where Michael crashed… Home town hero Mark Webber was leading a race in his Williams but broke down before his first pit-stop. He was looking good for a podium finish.

As for Button, he should have come home fifth, but as he turned into the final corner his Honda engine detonated, engulfing the close-following Fisichella in an oily cloud of smoke. Whether Button could have coasted across the finishing line quickly became a moot point, as he was instructed over the radio to pull to a stop to allow Honda to make a penalty-free engine change before the San Marino Grand Prix.

Giancarlo Fisichella finally avenged the misfortune that has dogged him for more than a year by scoring the third win of his grand prix career in Malaysia on Sunday (March 12th).

The Italian started from pole position and drove a near-flawless race to withstand challenges from Honda’s Jenson Button and Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The world champion eventually leapfrogged Button to seal Renault’s first 1-2 as a constructor since the 1982 French Grand Prix and cement its status as the team to beat in 2006.

Even though Fernando was handicapped in qualifying by starting the race with a heavy fuel load (there was a problem with the refuelling rig), it was a great performance by the Spanaird to finish second and extend his championship over his rivals.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher had to start the race from 14th position after an engine change and finished the race behind his team-mate, Felipe Massa, in sixth.

As for Kimi Raikkonen? The luckluss Finn had to retire on the first lap when his McLaren was hit from behind by Christian Klien at the preceding corner and with broken rear suspension he was a passenger as his McLaren veered off the road at 130mph.

But it was a good day for Jacques Villenueve (BMW Sauber) and Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) who scored their first points with seventh and eighth respectively.

A good race for Renault and we will see if the French team can keep up with its impressive start to the season in Melbourne in two weeks time.

The opening round of the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship was great with plenty of racing action.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was a contest between the champions of the past and present – Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher – who both fought out a tense duel which resulted in victory for the Spaniard by only 1.246s.

Michael Schumacher’s pace signalled a major Ferrari revival this year, after the bitter disappointment of last year’s campaign. The 248 is competitive and this allow the German to fight for wins.

Michael came close to winning in today’s race (March 12th) but lost out – just – by Fernando and the excellent Renault team. It was very exciting as the Renault came out of the pits alongside the Ferrari into turn 1. Fernando edged out Michael and the race was won in a matter of inches!

Great team work by the Renault F1 team and even Fernando dedicated his latest victory to the winning organisation.

In third place, McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen drove an excellent race from 22nd position. The Finn held off Jenson Button, who gave a magnificent exhibition of overtaking as he fought to make amends from a poor start.

But the star of the race was Nico Rosberg. After a clash with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in the first corner on the opening lap, he pitted for brief repairs, losing 45 seconds, and then staged a superb recovery drive to seventh. On the way he twice set the fastest lap, leaving it at 1m 32.408s. Impressive!

“And it’s go, go, go!” The new F1 season is upon us. And with new rules, new drivers, teams and the return of tyre changing, this 18-race calendar will become the most exciting and unpredictable championship for quite a while. Walking Leaf brings you the low down in this year’s Formula One World Championship.
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