Schumi grabs 85th victory of the career.

FERRARI ARE BACK.

Renault's winning streak and Ferrari's long spell away from the top step of the podium came to an end when Michael Schumacher scored his 85th career victory at the San Marino Grand Prix. In a reversal of last year's race, Schumacher had to defend under strong pressure from Alonso in the closing stages, while behind them McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya had a fairly uneventful afternoon to finish third.

It was clear and sunny on race day, with a track temperature in the mid forties at the start. Pole sitter Schumacher got away in the lead, followed by the Honda of Jenson Button. Rubens Barrichello's Honda lost out two places to Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Alonso and at the back of the field there was a big crash for Christijan Albers.

The MF1 got tagged from behind by Yuji Ide's Super Aguri and barrel rolled into the gravel at the Villeneuve chicane, coming to rest upside down. It was a bit of a shocker but Albers emerged unscathed, actually looking more annoyed than anything else. The safety car was deployed while the MF1 was retrieved and Ide went into the pits for a while.

Albers feels that the Super Aguris are being unnecessarily aggressive in trying to get ahead at of MF1 at the start. "They are taking too many risks, and we saw today how dangerous this can be. I don't understand this tactic, because I would have conceded the position to (Ide) had he been in a position to take it," he commented.

Barrichello was down to fifth behind Alonso, then came the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher, Montoya, Jarno Trulli's Toyota and the Williams of Mark Webber in eighth. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren had a poor start and lost two places to 10th. The safety car period was only a couple of laps and off they went again.

Tonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso spun but recovered and Trulli was another early retiree, into the pits with a steering gremlin. "Everything was all right at first," said the Italian. "But after a couple of laps something failed on the steering column and I had no steering." So far this season Trulli has ended up on the wrong side of most of Toyota's misfortune.

Outside the top 10 the order was Jacques Villeneuve's BMW Sauber 11th, Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella 12th, Nico Rosberg's Williams 13th and the Red Bull of David Coulthard 14th. The tail enders were Nick Heidfeld's BMW, Scott Speed's Toro Rosso, Christian Klien's Red Bull, Liuzzi, the MF1 of Tiago Monteiro and Takuma Sato's Super Aguri.

Ide had managed to return to the track, for data collection if nothing else as he was a few laps down. The order was fairly static and after a dozen laps or so Raikkonen in ninth was already some 20 seconds behind Michael and Button. Barrichello was the first to pit around lap 15 and Button was in shortly afterwards, apparently on a three-stopper.

Ralf peeled in a lap later and on track Massa was holding Alonso behind him while Michael was belting out fastest laps at the front. A little tactical play by Ferrari there perhaps -- by the time Massa went in for his stop Alonso was over 12 seconds behind Michael. The German took his first trip into the pits shortly afterwards, leaving Alonso in the lead.

Montoya and Raikkonen were then up to third and fifth respectively but McLaren was not really making much of an impression on the race. They pitted in quick succession around lap 23 and Alonso followed suit a couple of laps later. He got out in front of Button and then it was Michael, Alonso, Button, Massa, Montoya and Webber making up the top six.

Montoya was closing on Massa and the Ferraris seemed to struggle with the tyres in the middle stint of the race. Michael was lapping in the 1:27 area and Alonso in the 1:25, rapidly catching the leader. Button's chance at fighting for the podium was scuppered by a messy pit stop when the fuel rig got stuck on the car.

The lollipop man lifted and Button accelerated out but the fuel hose was still attached. A couple of the pit crew got knocked over then the nozzle broke off and was stuck in the car. Button stopped in the pit lane and waited for a mechanic to come and remove it before he could get going. None of the crew was injured. Meanwhile, Alonso was now very close behind Michael -- would he try and get past or wait for the Ferrari to take its second stop? Ide eventually retired for good when he went off track at the Variante Alta, which bought out the yellow flags. Alonso was biding his time and having the odd look at Michael but it was a bit of a cat and mouse game.

Michael was really quite slow by then -- backmarkers Klien and Liuzzi, who they had recently passed, were actually catching them up again and in turn a concertina effect was rippling down the field. Massa and Montoya, who had been some 20 seconds behind the leaders in third and fourth, had closed the gap to 14 seconds.

Alonso was really harassing Michael and Renault tried a tactical switch on the Spaniard's second pit stop -- Alonso went in early rather than run to the end of his fuel load. Massa dived in as well, followed by Michael shortly afterwards. It was a snap decision by Renault that didn't work as Michael rejoined in front of Alonso again.

Somewhere along the line Klien retired with a hydraulic failure and it was a bad day for Red Bull as Coulthard was out with a driveshaft problem not long afterwards. "I had a problem getting away in the pits, I don't know if that was something to do with it," Coulthard said. "We're simply not quick enough at the moment."

Raikkonen was running third but had another stop to make and Montoya had cleared Massa in his second stop. Once Raikkonen had ducked in again the points order was then Michael, Alonso, Montoya, Massa, Raikkonen, Webber, Button and Fisichella. Montoya was 14 seconds behind the battle that was going on for the lead.

Alonso was still on Michael's rear wing but not finding a way past -- naturally the Spaniard wanted to get ahead but second was only ceding two points to Michael in the championship, which was not worth taking any big risks over. He perhaps might have had a chance in the closing laps but it never panned out.

Alonso clipped the kerb quite hard through the Villeneuve chicane and went wide, which lost him time, then on the next lap he made another little mistake and dropped back further. With only a couple of laps to go he was not close enough to the Ferrari to take chance even if he fancied it. The order held to the chequered flag, to the delight of the tifosi.

Michael's 85th win was deserved and Ferrari looked much more competitive at Imola, although there are evidently some issues still to resolve. Really Alonso should have been able to get past Michael, if not in the middle stint then in the second pits stops, but this time around it was Ferrari that got the upper hand.

Alonso had a fairly feisty drive but knew it was not worth taking too many chances. Renault is clearly still very competitive but are the rest starting to close in? Fisichella picked up to come home eighth after starting 11th but to be honest he really shouldn't have been that far back on the grid to begin with.

Ron Dennis sure likes to talk about Raikkonen, blaming traffic and all sorts for the Finn's less than noticeable afternoon, and yet he hardly mentioned Montoya, who outperformed Raikkonen in both qualifying and the race. It was a decent enough drive by Montoya and Raikkonen, fifth, wasn't bad either but McLaren lacked its usual flair.

Massa didn't do anything mad for once and finished where he started, in fourth. He too suffered in the middle stint, which probably lost him his first podium, but it was a clean and confident drive from the Brazilian. Webber perhaps wrestled the most out of his car, bringing the Williams home in sixth. Teammate Rosberg was a vague 11th.

Button recovered slightly from his pit stop problems to cross the line seventh but it was another disappointing day for Honda. Barrichello, who had performed well in qualifying to start third, went backwards and ended up outside the points in 10th. Button had the pace early in the race but something always seems to go wrong.

Toyota was also disappointing again, with Trulli's retirement and Ralf finishing ninth. The BMWs came home nose to tail with Villeneuve 12th and Heidfeld 13th, a rather poor performance after the promise of Melbourne. Both Toro Rossos finished, Liuzzi 14th and Speed 15th and Monteiro was last across the line in 16th.

After the excitement of Melbourne, Imola was fairly sedate by comparison. There were periods of tension when Michael and Alonso were scrapping but really it was more about strategy than track action. However, it's not a bad thing to see a different team take the win -- Renault needs some competition before it gets too far ahead.

The question remains of whether this is the start of Ferrari's resurgence or if it's just something about Imola that gives the team that extra edge. The red revival didn't happen last year but it's not wise to count Ferrari out too easily. Final top eight classification: M. Schumacher, Alonso, Montoya, Massa, Raikkonen, Webber, Button, Fisichella.

Fisichella leads Renault one-two in Malaysian GP

It was a Renault one-two on the podium at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the first for the team since it returned to F1 in 2002 as a works outfit, with Giancarlo Fisichella taking the victory from pole position. Teammate Fernando Alonso, who started seventh, worked his way up and beat Honda's Jenson Button for second in the last round of pit stops. In what was an interesting, if fairly sedate, race Button finished third.

At the start pole-sitter Fisichella made a clean getaway, as did second-placed Button. The Williams drivers were having a little battle of their own, Nico Rosberg pushing Mark Webber wide as he tried to defend his third spot, and a flying Alonso took advantage as they squabbled. The Spaniard went round the outside of turn one to take third.
Kimi Raikkonen was a first lap casualty when his McLaren rear ended into the barriers with a suspected suspension failure, thanks to a nerf from behind by Christian Klien's Red Bull. It was hard to see what happened but Klien was in the pits quickly afterwards with suspension damage to the front of his car.
"I cannot change anything about it and it wasn't my fault, but these things happen," said a remarkably philosophical Raikkonen. "I think Klien hit me from behind and broke my rear suspension."
Meanwhile, those relegated to the back with engine penalties were making swift work of moving up the grid. Red Bull's David Coulthard was up to 11th from 19th, the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher from 22nd to 13th, Ferrari's Felipe Massa from 21st to 14th and Rubens Barrichello moved his Honda up from 20th to 15th.
Michael Schumacher, who dropped 10 places in qualifying due to his engine change, started 14th and got his Ferrari up to 10th in the opening laps. At the front it was Fisichella leading Button and Alonso, then came Webber and the remaining McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld had a good start and had improved to sixth, followed by Rosberg, who had dropped down a little after the skirmish with Webber at the start. Toyota's Jarno Trulli made up a couple of places and completed the points-scoring positions in eighth.
Rosberg got past Heidfeld but the move and his efforts in qualifying came to nothing when the Cosworth V8 let go in a cloud of smoke and flames a couple of laps later. "It started off well but I can't change anything," Rosberg echoed Raikkonen. "Maybe I can improve my first lap performance (next time) as I had a bad start."
Webber was closing on Alonso and Heidfeld was back to sixth, with Montoya still between him and Webber. Rosberg's exit had promoted the second BMW Sauber of Jacques Villeneuve into eighth, while Michael and Coulthard had moved up to complete the top 10.
Ralf and Massa were also still improving, 11th and 12th respectively, but for Red Bull it was game over. They had managed to get Klien back out on track after the incident with Raikkonen but he had problems. Meanwhile, Coulthard had gone into the pits stuck in sixth gear and their respective woes ended in a double retirement for the team.
"It was a hydraulic leak," Coulthard explained. "I lost power assistance going through the chicane. Of course, the gearbox is controlled by the hydraulics and I lost sixth gear." The cause of Klien's retirement was also an eventual hydraulic failure.
Back on track Michael had dispatched Villeneuve for seventh and Fisichella was belting out fastest laps at the front. Behind Ralf and Massa, 10th and 11th by then, was the Toro Rosso of Scott Speed and Barrichello, who was struggling to make up ground as quickly as his fellow back-of-the-grid starters had done.
Trulli, who was running sixth, hardly seemed to put up a fight as he was overtaken by Michael, Villeneuve and Massa all in successive laps at the same corner, turn one. Webber and Ralf were the ones who kicked off the first pit stops, around lap 15, but Webber then exited the race with a hydraulic problem.
"My start wasn't too bad, but Fernando's was phenomenal," Webber said. "He closed up really quickly from behind me and passed me. This was a shame because it prevented us from running at our own pace. The hydraulic problem came on as I was on the start-finish line. My engineers confirmed it was terminal, so we had to stop."
Fisichella went in for his first stop a couple of laps later, leaving Button in the lead until the Honda also dived in. That promoted Alonso to the front, but while the Spaniard went 10 laps further into the race than teammate Fisichella did before visiting the pits, he was still on a two-stopper.
Further down the field MF1's Christijan Albers was up to 13th, followed by the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato and Tonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso. The second MF1 of Tiago Monteiro was next and the last of the remaining cars on track was Yuji Ide's Super Aguri. They were all having their own little fights but the attention was firmly on the front.
Alonso led Fisichella and Button rejoined behind third-placed Montoya after his stop. He was pressuring the McLaren, but not really too hard as Montoya was yet to pit. Heidfeld was doing a calm and controlled job in fifth, followed by Michael, Villeneuve and Massa up into the points in eighth.
However, due to the different strategies the pit stop shakeout was not yet complete. Next into the pits were Michael, Montoya and Villeneuve, which left Alonso, Massa and Barrichello the last to go in. Alonso finally ducked in on lap 26 but evidently would have to stop again. He rejoined third behind Fisichella and Button.
Massa was up to fourth when he went in and rejoined eighth, and the Ferrari youngster did not have to stop again. Barrichello was also on a one-stopper and was last to make his way into the pits but the strategy was wasted when a few laps later he got a 10 second stop and go penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Ide was the next to retire, with an unspecified mechanical problem, and the Super Auri pulled off on the grass. Barrichello, who had been held up by a scrap between Sato and Monteiro, went in for his penalty, and Button got similarly stuck behind Sato and one of the Toro Rosso cars who were then having a duel.
Fisichella took his second stop and Button dived in as well to escape the traffic. They retained formation and rejoined in second and fourth with Montoya in between them. Alonso was back in the lead until his second stop and had just enough time in his pocket to charge through for a quick splash-and-dash and get out ahead of Button.
Michael went in for his second stop and it was a close call with teammate Massa as he rejoined the track. The Brazilian didn't back off and led Michael through turn one, although the German was very close. Massa stayed there to the chequered flag, with Michael tagging behind for the remaining 10 laps or so, unable to get past.
With only eight laps to go Heidfeld, who had been doing a sterling, if quiet, job for BMW in fifth, suffered an engine failure. A big disappointment for the German and a shame for the team, which had made a step forward this weekend.
In the final laps Liuzzi got past Albers for 11th, which will probably make MF1 start complaining about Toro Rosso's V10 again, and somewhere along the line Speed retired with a suspected clutch problem. Positions held to the flag and Fisichella took the victory ahead of teammate Alonso and Button.
"It was the perfect afternoon for me, but it was very tough mentally and physically," said the winner. "I found it hard! It was really, really hot. I began feeling tired from mid-race onwards, but I knew it would be tough and that I had to fight all the way to the end. There was no other option, because I had to attack. I didn't want to lose concentration, and I am really pleased with the result."
Alonso was satisfied with second. "My only chance was to make up a lot of positions in the first corner, and I took some big risks on the first lap," he said. "That paid off and I was running third straight away. After that we fine-tuned our strategy so we could get past Button and finish second... Today was about damage limitation, and it is a better result than I expected."
Button complained about backmarkers and, unsurprisingly, would have preferred the win. "I'm obviously pleased to see us back on the podium but it was the top step that we had in mind, so we are a little disappointed," he remarked. "We want to be winning races and today showed that we are in the fight, but there is still a lot of work to be done before we can achieve that target."
A strangely subdued Montoya finished fourth -- the McLaren didn't really seem to have the pace to make any impact on the race, although Montoya didn't have any complaints afterwards. Massa led Michael in fifth and sixth respectively; a very good result for Massa after he started seven places behind.
The Brazilian drove a fine race from the back of the grid and scored his first points for Ferrari. Michael also did a good job from a midfield start but lost out to Massa's one-stop strategy. Given Ferrari's engine woes this weekend it was almost a surprise to see them finish at all.
Villeneuve bought his BMW home seventh, although it will be scant compensation for losing Heidfeld. Ralf gleaned one point in eighth for Toyota, from 22nd, and Trulli finished ninth with a broken diffuser. Barrichello struggled to the flag in 10th, followed by Liuzzi, Albers, Monteiro and final-finisher Sato.
Renault is making good use of its early strengths but Honda is not far behind. Well, Button isn't anyway. It's not easy to judge McLaren with only one car but the Woking squad didn't seem to be on the pace of Renault and Honda this time. It's difficult to compare Ferrari due to the start positions but they appear to be reasonably competitive.
Toyota didn't really live up to expectations, although Ralf did a good job to find one point, and Williams' double retirement was a let down. Problems aside, BMW appeared generally much improved but Red Bull wasn't on track long enough to find out.

Sorry for Australian GP

Due to some problems, I could not cover Australian GP here.
Hoping that I get time to write about San Marino GP.

Inexperience takes 2nd Ferrari off the podium

Start of race. Schumi is first. Mansa 2nd, Alonso 4th. 5 lights illuminate and they go off. Alonso starts off fast. Mansa feels pressure. Almost looses his place in the straight. Corner 1, Alonso easily overtakes Mansa. Mansa is frustrated. Mansa tries everything to get ahead of Alonso. Now Mansa would try overtaking maneuver near the turn at the end of long straight. Mansa and Alonso go wheel to wheel. All of sudden Mansa applies brakes. Mansa spins. Alonso survives by fraction of a second. Mansa damages his tyres. Pits. Rear tyre on the ill-fated Ferrari gets jammed. Pit stop takes 44 seconds. Its almost race over for Mansa.

Although I am not denying the excellent driving skills Mansa has.
This incident clearly shows inexperience of Filipe.

Alonso continues winning rally. Schumi joins second.

2005 Champion Fernando starts 2006 season by winning Bahrain GP. Renault proved their dominating performance once again today. But Ferrari were not far back. The two drivers, Michael and Fernando were playing cat and mouse for almost 16 final laps of the race. They were absolutely matching each other's speed to 100th of a second. This clearly shows that Ferrari are back.

Bahrain GP: Qualifying results

1 M. Schumacher
2 F. Massa
3 J. Button
4 F. Alonso
5 JP. Montoya
6 R. Barrichello
7 M. Webber
8 C. Klien
9 G. Fisichella
10 N. Heidfeld
11 J. Villeneuve 12 N. Rosberg 13 D. Coulthard 14 J. Trulli 15 V. Liuzzi 16 S. Speed 17 R. Schumacher 18 C. Albers 19 T. Monteiro 20 T. Sato 21 Y. Ide 22 K. Raikkonen

Its a Ferrari 1-2, Schumi on the pole.

Michael Schumacher put Ferrari's woes of last year behind him and claimed pole position in qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. His best time was 1:31.431 but he came close to losing pole to his new teammate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was just a few hundredths behind to make it a Ferrari front row.


FERRARI ARE BACK.

Kimi starts, Completes warm lap, Suspension collapses, Comes back to the garage

Kimi Raikkonen came to grief after 10 minutes when the McLaren spun at turn 10 and the right rear wheel came adrift and the rear wing flew off. It was a rear suspension lower wishbone failure that was the problem; the session was red flagged and the car limped back to the pits, quite badly damaged at the rear.

New engines for new season

FIA has restricted engine choice to 2.4 lit V8 engines which are compact and lack power as compared to V10s that were being used till 2005.
This has required all teams to design and develop their cars keeping in mind the restrictions imposed by FIA.

Tyre changes are back.

Drivers are now allowed to change their tyres as many times as they want during the qualifying and race sessions. This will definitely help Bridgestone to be competitive with Michelins.

New Qualifying Format for 2006

FIA has changed the qualifying pattern for 2006 season,
The new format is,
Total qualifying session is of 1 hour.
a)
For first 15 minutes, all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into account only laps which were completed before the end of the period, will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.
-- 5 minutes break
b)
For next 15 minutes, the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into account only laps which were completed before the end of the period, will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.
-- 5 minutes break
c)
For remaining 20 minutes, the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the track.