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French Grand Prix Fan Reviews and Comments |
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French Grand Prix Fan Reviews and Comments |
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Drivers Championship
Constructors
Championship A
number of readers have sent in their reviews and comments about the race
and we have decided to publish some. Yaman from India writes: The French GP: Magny Cours is a superb circuit and is very
hard on brakes. So, Ralf Schumacher used his Williams with skill and
managed to put it ahead of his brother Michael Schumacher by just a
hundredth of a second to grab his first ever pole in his 4 1/2 year
career. David Coulthard once again drove a storming last lap to go one
better than Mika Hakkinen his team-mate. Jarno Trulli once again impressed
with a 5th position while Juan Pablo Montoya in the second Williams
qualified 6th. Poor Mika! The Flying Finn's 'Season from
Hell' only got worse as he stalled on the formation lap. He tried along
with the McLaren mechanics to get his car started but was unsuccessful and
he made his 6th DNF out of 10 races this season. This was the 5th time a
McLaren has stalled on the grid. Three times for Mika while Coulthard has
stalled twice. A most alarming statistic! Meanwhile, the five red lights had gone out
and GO was signalled. Ralf got off to a great start and so did Montoya who
made it to 4th. Michael was slow of the line nearly losing a place to
Coulthard in the process. Ralf started to open a gap and slowly built a
2.5 second gap over his brother. Coulthard stayed on the pace with a
similar gap between him and Michael. Barrichello was definitely in trouble
and at some point during the first few laps (after a discussion with Ross
Brawn on the radio) opted to make three pit-stops. Ralf was the first of
the frontrunners to go into the pits and had a bad stop of 10+ seconds.
Michael meanwhile drove fast and when his turn came his pit-stop clocked
just 7.7 seconds. Superb! Coulthard also clocked a satisfactory time to
keep him in third place but must have been shell-shocked to hear that he
had been handed a 10 second stop-go penalty for speeding in the
pit-lane! Michael, now virtually unchallenged was comfortably in the lead. Ralf in 2nd and Barrichello with a storming and desperate (not to mention frustrated) Coulthard behind him. Trulli is in 5th ahead of Nick Heidfeld in 6th benefiting from the retirements ahead of them. Coulthard smashed the lap record as he caught up with Barrichello and made constant attempts to get past Barrichello who was soaking up the pressure (not like a sponge). The formers attempts went in vain though as Barrichello stayed put in that 3rd place. Michael wins ahead of Ralf and Barrichello. Coulthard, Trulli and Heidfeld make the top 6. This was Michaels 50th win, just one behind the great Alain Prost. He leads Coulthard by 31 pts in the drivers championship. A gap that is fast becoming unassailable. Ralf goes 3rd, ahead of Barrichello by 1 pt. Montoya remains on 12 points and Mika on 9. Heidfeld now joins the Finn for joint 6th position. Ferrari are now 52 pts ahead of their nearest rivals McLaren, but its a matter of time before Williams take second spot in the constructors championship. According to me, that is. The British Grand Prix of Silverstone is next. Be sure to watch Michael virtually seal his 4th drivers title in 2 weeks time ( According to me, that is ). |
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