Full Throttle

Playing every bit the Hare from the well known fable, Michael Schumacher bolted from his pole position into the lead. Turning laps 3 seconds quicker than the field thru his lap 9 pit stop (first of three) he never looked back as he captured his sixth victory in seven races.

Rubens (tortoise) Barrichello “plodded” along with a heavier fuel load and a two stop strategy to finish 17.989s behind Michael and gave Ferrari its fourth 1-2 finish of the season, and extend its manufacturers points lead over Renault. So all is right with the world again, if you bleed Ferrari Red Acrylic paint.

Takuma Sato, on his way to a first ever podium finish, assumed the role of race goat with an ill-advised pass of Barrichello that mandated a pitstop for front wing placement. Two laps later he was gone in a cloud on oil smoke for the second week in a row. As can be imagined Barrichello isn’t happy

“I think I lost a part of my bargeboard and aerodynamically, especially at high speed, the car felt a bit strange,” he said. “So, I was lucky that the race was getting towards the end. I am sorry to say it but I think it was a bit too amateur from Sato to do that because he wasn’t in a position to actually try and overtake.

“He came completely sideways and luckily I saw the nose coming and I just took avoiding action and I was lucky that nothing else broke on my car. I just took that avoiding action which I think kept me alive.” “He could have eventually overtaken me because he was fast enough but he didn’t need to do it on that lap,” Barrichello added. “He wasn’t in contention on that lap.”