Warsteiner Grand Prix of Europe - 2005

Date: May 29th 2005   Weather:   Circuit: Nurburgring   Distance: 308.760 Km (60 laps x 5.146 Km)

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"Final lap, P1" was displayed on the McLaren pit board as Kimi Raikonnen flashed past the start finish line. However Kimi would not even make it past the first corner as his suspension failed in a spectacular way due to a delaminated, flat spotted, 50cent piece Michelin tyre. As championship leader Fernando Alonso drove past the debris of the McLaren a grin ear to ear emerged under the Spaniards helmet as he stretched his championship lead out by a further 10 points.

Commentator James Allen shouted "I told you he should have pitted" when Kimi’s suspension failed after a 10 lap whacking from an almost square tyre which bounced up and down around the circuit. "It was the common sense thing to do" Allen continued. If Kimi had of pitted he could have ended out with a sure podium finish and at least haul in some decent points. But this was not the case, McLaren risked everything and lost everything, and this is racing.

Apart from the devastating loss of Kimi on the last lap, David Coulthard, a renewed driver was in the chance of a podium finish for Red Bull Racing. However a stop go penalty for speeding in pit lane was handed out when DC got of the pit limiter a tad too early to pass the Minardi in pit lane. DC still managed to drag his car along to a fourth place finish quashing any claims that the square jawed Scotsman was past his best.

On the other side of the fence it was a dismal day for BAR, Sauber, Jordan, Minardi who all failed to represent any car speed whatsoever. Squandering at the back these four teams and eight drivers were lapping at the pace of Alex Yoong in a V8 Supercar, equating to no pace at all.

However, Nick Heidfield has happily been gifted his title of ‘Quick Nick’ back after a stellar drive to his second 2nd place in successive grand prix. Just is case you didn’t catch that, Nick finished 2nd for the second time this season. Battling Brazilian Barrichello emerged 3rd after a turbulent season at Ferrari. Riding on the same turbulent plane Michael Schumacher could fine no answers for no pace this weekend in his Red Ferrari finishing 31 seconds behind his team-mate and 18 behind DC who had a stop-go.

Another difficult weekend for Giancarlo Fisichella, who seems to have picked up some kind of curse after stepping onto the winners podium at Australia which DC also picked up in 2003. He looked destined for a good showing, but problems at the starting grid forced him to start from pit lane and really throwing any chance of a win out the cockpit. However Fisi did manage to conjure up some speed and almost caught Michael Schumacher at the end of the grand prix.

Behind Fisi was Juan Pablo Montoya the tennis player who is destined for Wimbledon. Unfortunately for the tennis champ Aussie Mark Webber was unable to turn his Williams into turn one hitting Montoya in the sidepod and consequently putting himself out of the race after another poor start from the Williams. Montoya however carried on as if nothing had happened and raced onto another point scoring position.

TNT Trulli N Toyota were no where to be seen this weekend. With claims that his sure podium finish was ripped away from him after the team were on the start line too long before the warm up lap. A stop-go was then issued to the Italian. Mentally battered he never recovered from such a shocking penalty. The porn star of the field Tonio Liuzzi didn’t impress us with his F3000 speed, consistently lapping slower than his square jawed team-mate, in the end finishing an uneventful 9th.

Apart from that there is no-one left to mention from the European Grand Prix/German Grand Prix number two/The trial and tribulations of Ralf Schumacher Grand Prix.

See you in Canada.

Statistics

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Summary



Result



Leaders