A Grand Prix not to be forgotten - Shanghai 2006
I have been watching Formula One since 1998 and over the years I have watched quite a few interesting races. Rain, intermediate tyres, pit stop strategies, slipstream overtaking maneuvers, safety cars etc etc ... I have seen them all before. But yesterday night was one totally different story. For the first time I watched live Formula One on the internet. And for those who think that I watched it on some live streaming video...sorry you are mistaken.
f1.com provides something called live timing. All it has is a java applet which continuosly shows(almost real time) the lap times, sector times, fastest lap times, fastest sector times, personal best times and many more for each driver. No videos...no audio....just some basic text commentary, but without doubt a hell lot of technical info!!!!! And surprisingly I found it very interesting to watch a grand prix in this manner, I dont know why, maybe becoz schumi won????
But the race in itself was a very interesting one. Alonso was just flying in the initial stages and he had built up more than 20 seconds over his team mate fisichella, who was in second place.
But Alonso had an incident where he went offtrack and probably did some damage to his tyres. Micheal who struggled in qualifying was slowly making up places in the race. He overtook Button and Barichello and was right behing fisichella when he pitted (Poor Raiko....his bad luck with the f***ed up Mclaren continues....lets hope he has a better time at ferrari next season). After the first round of pit stops the positions at the top remained unchanged. But Alonso had changed his front tyres(new intermediate tyres) and his lap times very really slowing down. Fisichella and Micheal both overtook Alonso (how I wish I could see a video of this....should be there pretty quickly on youtube) Right after the second round of pit stops, Micheal overtook Fisichella and was in the lead....and without much truoble...maintained it right upto the chequred flag.
Although Alonso had his share of bad luck in the second round of pit stops, I thought it was near perfect drive by Micheal. Alonso tried everything that he could towards the end of the race when the track had dried out and was continuously setting fastest lap times almost every single lap. But the chequered falg was destined for Micheal, his first and last win at China.
With Micheal and Alonso on same points, I dont think an ardent follower of formula one can ask for more. Kudos to Micheal for this absolutely terrific comeback and lets hope that the last two races are as interesting as this whole season has been.
Long Live Micheal and Formula One
f1.com provides something called live timing. All it has is a java applet which continuosly shows(almost real time) the lap times, sector times, fastest lap times, fastest sector times, personal best times and many more for each driver. No videos...no audio....just some basic text commentary, but without doubt a hell lot of technical info!!!!! And surprisingly I found it very interesting to watch a grand prix in this manner, I dont know why, maybe becoz schumi won????
But the race in itself was a very interesting one. Alonso was just flying in the initial stages and he had built up more than 20 seconds over his team mate fisichella, who was in second place.
But Alonso had an incident where he went offtrack and probably did some damage to his tyres. Micheal who struggled in qualifying was slowly making up places in the race. He overtook Button and Barichello and was right behing fisichella when he pitted (Poor Raiko....his bad luck with the f***ed up Mclaren continues....lets hope he has a better time at ferrari next season). After the first round of pit stops the positions at the top remained unchanged. But Alonso had changed his front tyres(new intermediate tyres) and his lap times very really slowing down. Fisichella and Micheal both overtook Alonso (how I wish I could see a video of this....should be there pretty quickly on youtube) Right after the second round of pit stops, Micheal overtook Fisichella and was in the lead....and without much truoble...maintained it right upto the chequred flag.
Although Alonso had his share of bad luck in the second round of pit stops, I thought it was near perfect drive by Micheal. Alonso tried everything that he could towards the end of the race when the track had dried out and was continuously setting fastest lap times almost every single lap. But the chequered falg was destined for Micheal, his first and last win at China.
With Micheal and Alonso on same points, I dont think an ardent follower of formula one can ask for more. Kudos to Micheal for this absolutely terrific comeback and lets hope that the last two races are as interesting as this whole season has been.
Long Live Micheal and Formula One
posted by Wherever I May Roam at 6:10 PM
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