Alonso ambushes Schumacher

Before I begin the race review, I've got to talk about one man, Patrick Faure, without whose contribution, Renault would not have garnered the two championship trophies last year. Renault and Faure officially made the announcement this afternoon. In the twenty-seven years that he has been with Renault, Faure has served at Renault Austria , and Renault UK and Renault France. In 2001, he was named as Executive Vice President of Renault and President of the Renault F1 team. Since January 2005, Faure has devoted himself exclusively to his duties as President of the Renault F1 team. Patrick Faure would be replaced by another Renault veteran, Alain Dassas, currently Senior Vice President of Financial Operations and member of the management committee. Thanks Pat, for the wonderful years!

First things first, and it was Alonso, who drove as if Suzuka had happened last weekend. Schumacher, then, was second, and he drove as if last year had not happened, and he was back from a wonderful 2004 season in which he won thirteen of the eighteen races. And then, there was Raikkonen, whose race bore semblance to his season last year, wrought with traumatic qualifying sessions, followed by brilliant performances, leaving the audience enthralled and wondering as to what would have happened if the Finn had started from the front line. Would he have almost lapped the entire field like Senna did at Donnington, 1993? And a very special mention to Nico Rosberg, who came in seventh, in a debut that's probably comparable to the mercurial Schumacher's blitz at Belgium, 1991.

A qualifying session that was probably as interesting as all qualifying sessions of last season put together set up a brilliant and totally unexpected grid, with two Scuderia's on the front row. Messrs Alonso and Button were third and fourth, counting on their horse-power's to get them ahead of the rejuvenated prancing horse. But that was not to be, and Massa confirmed that the Ferrari pecking order still worked by fending off Alonso at turn one. Michael gained, but Alonso pipped Massa soon. Button, who lost ground during the first round bickered with his team mate Barrichello for fourth position. After a couple of laps, he gained it for good. Rosberg spun on lap one and there was in-fighting at Toyota for positions I wouldn't care to remember.

In the meanwhile, Raikkonen, who started at the back of the grid was behaving as if the track was empty, and raced to thirteenth before I could say 'abracadabra'. Todt must be happy, I would say. Michael and Alonso parried with brilliant laps, even as Liuzzi raised eye-brows, going quickest through the speed-trap at a crazy 190 mph. Rosberg went in for a nose change and returned, and promptly raced past most old pro's. By lap five, the mobile-chicane a.k.a Trulli had gathered enough F1 cars behind him for the crowd to click at gleefully. On the other side of the track, Massa tried to take out Alonso and nearly did. He went into the pits a little later, and stayed there for a whole minute. Is this Todt's way of saying 'Welcome to Michael's team' ?

In other regular and expected developments, Raikkonen had past four other cars in as many laps, and was upto ninth.

At the end of lap 11, Button pulled off a brilliant move on an unsuspecting Montoya, perhaps the Briton is finally beggining to show his 'class', something that the British media had prophecized, only a hundred races earlier. What followed were pitstops, with all cars going in, and Raikkonen racing as if he were in the early 90's when no pit-stops existed. Sources close to the Ferrari pits said that several house-flies had entered Jean Todt's mouth during the time he kept it open - the thirty laps Raikkonen went without a pitstop. On the other side of the track, Rosberg had passed his team mate, making up for lost time.

Michael the magnificient posted some of the most brilliant laps of the race, and when on lap 32, he skidded because of the mobile-chicane, the Renault radio of Alonso cackled 'We need to be closer'. But frankly, was that a personal comment from Flavio that he did not like Alonso moving over to McLaren for 2007?

Lap 41 deserves special mention, for Nico, son of Keke Rosberg, proved that he had inherited his father's racing genius by posting a best lap of 1:32:408. A couple of laps later, he made a superb move on Red Buller Klein, taking seventh spot from the bewildered Austrian. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was all over the back of Button for third slot, the final place on the podium. The other HONDA, the one that Barrichello literally ushered, was having gear-box problems, and it was evident that the Brazilian would not bother the score-keeper. Alonso kept his cool after the second set of pitstops and emerged the leader, thanks to a slow Ferrari pit-stop. Surely, this is all Michael could do, given that Alonso has a machine thats superior to Michael's 248 F1.

In the end, it was Alonso, Michael, Raikkonen and Button followed by Montoya, Webber, Nico and Klein. Massa put up a good fight to come in ninth. The other's did what they consider their duty, which is to fill up empty slots on the number card.

I was dissapointed though, with the Super Aguri, for I expected Sato to do some lawn-mowing for the Sakhir folks. But clearly, I did not expect the BMW's or the Toyota's to perform the way they did this race. Perhaps, just perhaps, this would be a one-off, and the teams would bounce right back at Malaysia? Lets hope!

Schumacher, that old wily fox is right back in action, and frankly I don't think he's going to allow Alonso and Raikkonen to gallop ahead like they did last season. Talking of Raikkonen, I sincerely wish that he would be a little more careful during qualifying, or is it just that he prefers competition and challenges? Anyway, adios till the next race.