NewsOnF1 - The Real Race - Round 14

Michael showed today why he earns the big bucks. He also showed why Ferrari stayed with Bridgestone. Rubens and Ralf showed why Michael is the world champion and Kimi showed why he will be soon. David showed why he never will be and Juan Pablo showed why I should not have predicted his victory earlier this week. The Saubers showed why last years engines (even Ferrari ones) are not good ideas in the back end of their final season and Davidson showed why Minardi should send Yoong on a PR tour until after Japan.

In one of the most convincing display of the current season the pneumatic Frenchman blitzed the field. Bridgestone is a one team supplier with the other teams getting whatever suits the red cars – today what suited Ferrari sucked for the rest. Alan McNish got beaten by one Bridgestone runner, Villeneuve, plus the Ferraris, the rest of the Michelin drivers only got beaten by Ferraris. Of course the Minardi’s got beaten by everybody but that’s because they don’t have real engines not because they don’t have real tyres.

What happened today? The BMW engine should have delivered but it didn’t. Montoya should have delivered but he didn’t either. The McLaren came home from the wilderness and Kimi did deliver, big time. Trulli did well to be only 1.6 seconds off Michaels pace and Michael convinced me that, barring an accident (he doesn’t seem to be subject to mechanical issues like the mere mortals who drive the rest of the cars) nobody will touch the Ferraris this year.

The Belgian GP 'Also Ran' Award.

Belgium 2002 provided an amazing display of driver superiority for some teams, particularly given the fine weather. Michael outqualified Barrichello by 0.609, Raikkonen outqualified Coulthard by 0.609 and Webber outqualified Davidson by 0.608.

Davidson doesn’t need an excuse, he’s the number two driver and he did well to only drop 0.6 to the more experienced Webber on his second outing in the car. Barrichello doesn’t need an excuse, he’s the number two driver and nobody can touch an on form MS. David Coulthard really doesn’t need an excuse either, he just needs someone to gently explain that he’s the number two driver as well.

However, as long as he keeps deluding himself that he is top gun in the McLaren team he’ll keep winning Also Rans when he fails to deliver top gun results – like today.

The Belgian GP Qualifying Heroes

1. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, 3. Mark Webber

Want to send a comment to the Quali-flyer ? Click here

The Real Race - Drivers Standings - Round 14

Grid	Driver	Car	Team	Wins	Losses	Best	QualiPoints
1	M. Schumacher	1	Ferrari (B)	10	4	1	96
2	K. Raikkonen	4	McLaren Mercedes (M)	9	5	2	28
3	R. Barrichello	2	Ferrari (B)	4	10	1	73
4	R. Schumacher	5	BMW WilliamsF1 (M)	7	7	2	55
5	JP. Montoya	6	BMW WilliamsF1 (M)	7	7	1	84
6	D. Coulthard	3	McLaren Mercedes (M)	5	9	2	19
7	J. Trulli	14	Renault (M)	10	4	6	2
8	E. Irvine	16	Jaguar Cosworth (M)	8	6	8
9	M. Salo	24	Toyota (M)	13	1	8
10	J. Button	15	Renault (M)	4	10	6	1
11	P. de la Rosa	17	Jaguar Cosworth (M)	6	8	11
12	J. Villeneuve	11	BAR Honda (B)	7	7	9
13	A. McNish	25	Toyota (M)	1	13	10
14	G. Fisichella	9	Jordan Honda (B)	10	3	5	4
15	O. Panis	12	BAR Honda (B)	7	7	7
16	T. Sato	10	Jordan Honda (B)	3	10	12
17	F. Massa	8	Sauber Petronas (B)	4	10	7
18	N. Heidfeld	7	Sauber Petronas (B)	10	4	5	2
19	M. Webber	23	Minardi Asiatech (M)	14	0	18
20	A. Davidson	22	Minardi Asiatech (M)	0	2	20
-	A. Yoong	22	Minardi Asiatech (M)	0	12	19
-	H. Frentzen	20	Arrows Cosworth (B)	11	1	10
-	E. Bernoldi	21	Arrows Cosworth (B)	1	11	12

QualiPoints are awarded in the same way points are awarded to the top 6 drivers in a race. (i.e. 10, 6, 4, 3, 2,1)

Want to submit any comments you have on this section ? We'd love to hear from you. Fill in the form below.

The Real Race explained
Previous Race - Next Race
Main Belgian GP Page
Back to Top