Schumacher Stuns All In A Fantastic Race

Schumacher Stuns All In A Fantastic Race

DCX

Starting 13th, nobody expected Michael to score many points, if any at all. The start saw no change in his position as he was held up by his brother Ralf and the other slower drivers in front of him. Schumacher advanced to tenth, but only after Kimi Raikkonen, Gian Carlo Fisichella and fellow Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello retired. Then the leaders started to pit and it was clear that Michael was not to be counted out just yet.

Immediately after Jenson Button took over the lead from a pitting Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap, showing that he had a substantial amount of fuel onboard during qualifying and was now light enough to put in some really fast laps. Schumacher kept throwing down fast lap after fast lap, giving himself a nice cushion of time in which he could move up the grid after pitting.

Reemerging in P3, Schumacher was still faster than the two leaders even with full tanks. Lapping 2 seconds a lap faster than Jenson Button, Schumacher caught up to the BAR Honda driver quite quickly. After 10 laps, Michael was right on Button's rear end, hounding him for what was now the race lead after Renault's Fernando Alonso had pitted. Jenson was definitely slowing up Michael and Ferrari's Ross Brawn was about to call Michael in to pit early when Schumacher got past the British driver. The two Williams of Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber were dicing it up when the leaders came up to lap them. This caused a problem for Button as he was forced into a small error, which allowed Michael to get the jump on him and slip past him through the tight chicane. There would be no pitting for Michael now as he began to pull away from button at an alarming rate.

Schumacher finally pits, but after being held up by Button he doesn't have a large enough gap to stay in front of Fernando Alonso. Reemerging behind Alonso, Michael shows the pace of the Ferrari once again as he closes up on the Spaniard within the next lap. Alonso and Schumacher battled it out for 10 laps, with Schumacher close on the Renault's gearbox at ever turn. This was an incredible battle but Fernando's ultra defensive line and Imola's lack of overtaking opportunities, Schumacher was just not able to get past the Spaniard.

Michael would finish an incredible 0.2 of a second behind Alonso, the closest finish in a Formula 1 race for several years. Here is what Michael had to say about his race:

“I am happy in one way and excited after such a race, but on the other hand, I am disappointed after making a mistake this morning, when I braked on a bump with a full fuel load and locked up a wheel. If not for that, this would have been a perfect day for us. But I have a second place and it is due to a stunning effort from everyone, the engineers, the test team, Luca Badoer, Marc Gene and everyone else who worked flat out since the last race. And big, big thanks to Bridgestone whose performance today is just a first step and there is more to come from them. There is more to come from us too and we are still in the fight. I was helped in getting past Jenson because the two Williams put some dust on the track and Jenson slipped on it a bit. I could see that Fernando was not that quick, but there was never a real opportunity to have a proper go at passing him. Basically, he had a good race today and made no mistakes. That’s why he won and I did not.”

Michael drove an incredible race one of his best ever, in fact it was one of the best races we have seen for several seasons. The pace of the Ferrari was spot on and if Schumacher had not have made an error during qualifying, he most certainly would have won the race in front of the thousands of screaming Tifosi. Still Michael did an incredible job and those screaming Tifosi were with him every lap of the race, decked out in red and cheering as loud as they could for their illustrious team.

April 24, 2005