Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 (edited) Michael Schumacher won yesterday's San Marino Grand Prix convincingly, only slowing down on the last lap after building a massive lead near the end. To his credit, he was driving at his best, hard-charging and unrelenting, and kept his composure despite just leaving his mother's bedside where she passed away Sunday morning. Teamate Rubens Barrichello finished third in what must be Ferrari's sigh of relief after a near-disastrous start to the 2003 season. Of course, he might still be frystrated that he couldn't unstick McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen from 2nd, despite pushing him at the end. The McLaren team did well to use a 2 stop strategy (as opposed to Ferrari and Williams' 3 stop) to make up for Imola's lack of overtaking oppotunities (only three proper moves during the entire race), as well as their cars' shortfall in all-out speed. Which leaves the new Flying Finn still 14 points ahead of Schumi in overall standings. With the new points system being what it is, MS could finish 1st in the next 7 races (with Kimi 2nd), and still only draw level with the young Merc driver. Here's a season that rewards consistency, and Kimi's the guy who's got it at the moment, standing on the podium in all four races so far. He's my man! Edited April 21, 2003 by Seansene ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yttrium Neutral Newbie April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 Yeah Kimi's still the man this season. He's been much more consistent than even his more experienced team mate David Coulthard.. who must be wondering what his place in the team will be next year I really admire McLaren's confidence in running a two-stop strategy despite having to run a higher fuel load during qualifying. I guess the gamble paid off as Williams and Ferrari both suffered from pit stop incidents that cost them dearly. As long as we have Kimi and the likes of Alonso, Fisichella and gang making a nuisance of themselves (as far as Ferrari is concerned) the 2003 season should still be worth watching. Jaguar and Jordan were let down by poor reliability this weekend, hopefully they'll put up a better showing in Catalunya! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Author Share April 21, 2003 Did you notice - all of the non-finishers apart from Villeneuve had Ford engines? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Author Share April 21, 2003 Oh another thing about Kimi - his answers are still so wooden... Q: Kimi, a two stop strategy, obviously compromised by your grid position but a great result in the end? A: Yeah, it was good drive for us, but the teamwork was great and the strategy worked quite well. I got quite a good start and then I tried to hold onto the leaders and everything went pretty well. Q:How much pressure was Fernando putting on you? A: Not much actually. I didn't have any problems actually, I just tried to keep up with the leaders and do my best. There were no problems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinal Neutral Newbie April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 Hmmm... and Villeneuve engine was a ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Author Share April 21, 2003 And another Kimi-kuote: Q: To the drivers. In the drivers' briefing were you allowed to cross the line at the pit-exit because some of the drivers crossed the white line and nothing happened? Raikkonen: I don't know even what line you are saying. There is some line but it goes over the exit and you need to drive over it otherwise you are never going to get on the circuit. (Laughter). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soya Supersonic April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 U mean u could understand what Kimi was mumbling about in his broken Finn-glish? Anyway, the race was a yawn-fest..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Author Share April 21, 2003 Fortunately I had other people to translate for me But yeah, there was hardly any overtaking in Imola... still, the results were acceptable Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 21, 2003 Author Share April 21, 2003 ...Weeee-tec! Aiyah, as long as our own engines don't fail... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yttrium Neutral Newbie April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 The Ford/Cosworth powered teams looked like they were doing well prior to Imola. Pity... and Imola isn't really a track that puts a lot of stress on engines . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yttrium Neutral Newbie April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 (edited) The commentators talked about that a few times... everytime one of the cars were coming out of their pitstop. But Kimi is right... even from the TV footage you can see that the white dotted line runs the whole length of the exit. There's no way to exit the pit lane unless the drivers can bunny hop their rides Edited April 21, 2003 by Yttrium Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super7 Turbocharged April 21, 2003 Share April 21, 2003 actually, in the first few laps, the onboard cam of m schumacher showed how he caught up with ralf just before entering some corners but saw ralf pulled away out of the corners (williams' immense acceleration...), and in some corners the cam showed how ralf's very late braking almost made micheal's front wings hit his back......... wish they show more onboard cam views in future races.... this makes me feel like i was the driver.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 22, 2003 Author Share April 22, 2003 My favourite view is from the front wings, next to the nose. Very dramatic, with an excellent view of teh racing line, and how rock-hard the suspension is... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman Neutral Newbie April 22, 2003 Share April 22, 2003 If you are interested in that kind of driver views, go to this website http://www.f1onboard.com That would wet your appetite for fast driving aka Shoemaker style ... but have a broadband connection at least and save the files to your harddisk to enjoy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 22, 2003 Author Share April 22, 2003 To be fair, not all of the non-finishes were due to engine failures. Some were due to the non-performance of the'standard' fuel rig... but it's quite strange how some teams don't get affected by this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yttrium Neutral Newbie April 22, 2003 Share April 22, 2003 Yes, this was the first time I've seen that view. That's probably closer to the view the driver gets than the view from the cam above the airbox. Noticed they also showed some view from the side of the driver. I wonder if that's from a camera inside the wing mirrors? Funny thing is the commentator was saying "look at how busy his hands are working the controls and the concentration on his face" I wonder how they could see his face with the visor down! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seansene 1st Gear April 22, 2003 Author Share April 22, 2003 They got nothing better to say lah... Anyhows, at the speeds they're going, they better be concentrating! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super7 Turbocharged April 22, 2003 Share April 22, 2003 i ever saw my fren's blood-shot eyes when he removed his full face helmet after doing 135kmh on a race kart for 20 laps (in a kart, you feel twice faster as the kart is only 1 inch above ground and it's fully open).... ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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