European GP Race: Let's Go Home..


By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
July 23 2007

From a neutural perspective, the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring will be remembered for years to come for many reasons. But if you are a Panasonic Toyota Racing fan, it will be one you will want to forget soon. Jarno Trulli came home effectivley last in 13th place after making 6 pit stops and finishing a lap down.

 

As he said in the team post-race press release, he was in the wrong places at the wrong time, with the wrong decisions at the wrong time. Being on the wrong tires, and pitting in all out of sync with the other cars didn't help. Ralf Schumacher meanwhile was having a reasonably good race, he was fighting in a big group of cars consisting of Red Bull's David Coulthard, Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and The BMW-Sauber's of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. Ralf made a mistake on the exit of turn 14 and that allowed Nick Heidfeld to get a whiff of an overtaking maneuverer into the final corner. Making a ''optimistic'' maneuverer Heidfeld stuck is nose up the inside but 2 into 1 didn't go and Heidfeld ran into the side of Ralf taking him out of his home race. Another race without points for Toyota. 2007 just got a little tougher...


Meanwhile, reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso took his third win for Mclaren and his third of the 2007 season, to close the gap in the World Championship to just 2 points behind his British Team Mate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton himself came home a disappointed ninth, just short of a World Championship point. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was unhappy to be second after a sudden rain shower with 8 laps to go bought all the drivers into the pits for a final tire stop eroding Massa's 6 second advantage over Alonso. When the exited the pits Alonso was all over the back of the Ferrari and going into the Ford corners Alonso overtook Massa round the outside, the two cars touching as they did so but Alonso was clear and went on to take the flag by just over 8 Seconds.


Red Bull's Mark Webber took only his second career podium, the first being at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix for Williams. The Australian had to fight hard for it though, a number of small errors on the final lap allowed Williams-Toyota driver Alexander Wurz to close right up making it a mad dash for the line but Mark beat the Austrian Williams driver to it, making Wurz settle for a still very good 4th position!


Scottish veteran David Coulthard had a very good race after starting 20th, the Red Bull driver came home a very good 5th! Just behind his team mate and Wurz. Despite having brain fade at turn 2 both of the BMW-Sauber drivers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica came home 6th and 7th....it will sure be a very ''interesting'' post race debrief at BMW-Sauber...it is not the pair's first collision.


Renault took a gamble on tire choice towards the end of the race, putting their Finnish star rookie Heikki Kovalainen on intermediate tires before the rain came down. Kovalainen was 5th at this point but the gamble did not pay off, Kovalinen lost time and track position meaning he ended up in 8th place at the flag, pipping Lewis Hamilton the the final point and once again ahead and humbling his vastly more experienced team mate, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella as well.


Honda continued their struggle with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello coming home a distant 11th ahead of Super Aguri rookie Anthony Davidson with Jarno rounding out the finishers.


Rain played a major part, particularity at the start and in the opening laps, causing a river down at turn 1 and the eventual red flagging of the race. Six cars ended up in the barrier at turn 1, the first to go was Honda's Jenson Button who was running a strong 4th at this point hanging on to the back of Massa and Alonso. Lewis Hamilton was next to go, but he managed to keep his engine running and with the help of the marshals he was away and back running. Hamilton was still in the gravel when Spyker's Adrian Sutil exited at very high speed. The German rookie narrowly missing Hamilton's Mclaren. The most expensive car park in the world just got a bit busier when the American racer Scott Speed slid off on the river. More came down, this time it was one the home drivers, Williams' Nico Rosberg exited just tapping the side of Button's vacated Honda. It was a STR double wamy, with Speed already in the wall, Italy's Vitantonio Liuzzi came down the pit straight backwards narrowly avoiding the Safety Car as he bounced over the turn 1 curve. Liuzzi gently tapped the side of the safety tractor but thankfully nothing too serious.


Amongst all of this, came one of the best fairytale stories of F1 history. Markus Winkelhock, making his one-off F1 debut for the Spyker team came into the pits before the start to change to a better tire for the rain....amongst all the chaos and confusion, the German rookie found himself leading the European Grand Prix in a Spyker! He didn't just lead the race but convincingly so, with a gap of over half a minute to Felipe Massa. However his 5 minutes of fame were up, when the race was red-flagged. Winkelhock led away on the re-start but down into turn's 1,2 and 3 he was gobbled up by Alonso and Massa and the two Red Bull's. By the end of the third re-start lap, he was already in 16th place. And on lap 15 he had soon retired with a mechanical failure. But that was be-side the point, Winkelhock had impressed many in F1 and had led his first and home Grand Prix, no one can take that away from him! Happy days! (unless your name is Christijan Albers that is...)


The other retirements were pole-sitter Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari, who had slid out of the pitlan entrance on the end of the first lap, putting himself out of contention and the other being Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato.


2007 European Grand Prix 2007, Nurburgring: Race Result:

  1. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Vodafone Mclaren-Mercedes

  2. Felipe Massa (BRZ) Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

  3. Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull Racing

  4. Alexander Wurz (AUT) AT&T Williams-Toyota

  5. David Coulthard (GBR) Red Bull Racing

  6. Nick Heidfeld (D) BMW-Sauber

  7. Robert Kubica (POL) BMW-Sauber

  8. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) ING Renault F1

  9. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Vodafone Mclaren-Mercedes

  10. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) ING Renault F1

  11. Rubens Barrichello (BRZ) Honda Racing

  12. Anthony Davidson (GBR) Super Aguri-Honda

  13. Jarno Trulli (ITA) Panasonic Toyota Racing


Not Classified

Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari

Takuma Sato (JPN) Super Aguri-Honda

Markus Winkelhock (D) Spyker-Ferrari

Nico Rosberg (D) AT&T Williams-Toyota

Adrian Sutil (D) Spyker-Ferrari

Scott Speed (USA) Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Jenson Button (GBR) Honda Racing