Michael Schumacher dominated today’s United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis from the pole to the podium and he also set the fastest lap of the race for good measure. To add the icing to the cake his teammate Felipe Massa, who led the race until the first round of fuel stops, finished second to score maximum constructor points for Ferrari and help keep Schumacher’s rivals in the title chase at bay.
Giancarlo Fisichella took third for Renault with teammate Fernando Alonso in fifth. This ended Alonso’s streak of four wins and five poles and was the first time he missed being in the top-two all year long.
Jarno Trulli finished an incredible fourth after starting [last] from the pit lane after his rear suspension collapsed during yesterday’s first round of qualifying.
A first corner collision took out eight cars including both McLarens and U.S. favourite Scott Speed. No sooner had the safety car period ended five laps later than Monteiro and Sato got together in the same spot and two more cars were out of the race.
Three more, unconnected, mechanical retirements later and by the end of the race only nine cars were still running… and three of those were a lap down.
After last-year’s farcical non-race there have been questions as to whether this would be the last USGP at Indy but, judging by the large crowds, it seems that F1 fans are a forgiving lot. Today’s race wasn’t really anything to write home about but it was OK and, unlike yesterday’s NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, the fans got to see the “big one”, complete with a barrel-rolling BMW courtesy of Nick Heidfeld.
Last week Bernie Ecclestone diplomatically announced that Formula 1 doesn’t need America and, of course, he was quite right. However, quite a few of his sponsors do sell quite a lot of their products in America and they would rather like to be here so I expect that, in the absence of many other options, the contracts will eventually be signed for F1 to return to Indianapolis next year.
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher (GER) | Ferrari | 10 |
| 2 | Felipe Massa (BRA) | Ferrari | 8 |
| 3 | Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) | Renault | 6 |
| 4 | Jarno Trulli (ITA) | Toyota | 5 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso (ESP) | Renault | 4 |
| 6 | Rubens Barrichello (BRA) | Honda | 3 |
| 7 | David Coulthard (GBR) | Red Bull | 2 |
| 8 | Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) | Toro Rosso | 1 |
| Fastest Qualifier: Michael Schumacher (GER) | |||