F1: Chinese GP 2006

Well, an eventful race to say the least! Renault throwing the race away, not once but twice, handing the ten points - and the lead in the Driver's Championship - to Michael Schumacher. Renault's first problem came at the first pit stop, with Alonso apparently having to change his front tyres at his first stop leading to reduced grip and performance in his second stint. Eventually he had to give way to his Renault teammate, Fisichella, and a few minutes later to Schumacher. Then Renault made a huge tactical error by calling Fisico into the pits a lap after Schumacher for the crucial second stop and the change to dry tryes, unfortunately for Fisico, this meant that, with Schumacher bearing down on him with warm tyres, he had no grip through the still wet turns 1 and 2 - Schumacher taking the lead by diving up the inside.

Curiously, Renault's Pit Wall had a power cut mid-race, I wonder when the conspiracy theories on this will start!

I'm amazed that Coulthard didn't get a drive through penalty for his turning in on, and hitting, Felipe Massa - which put the young Brazilian out of the race with suspension damage. Massa was very forgiving, saying it was just a racing incident brought about by the damp conditions, but DC knew he was there and shouldn't have turned in when he did. Juan Pablo Montoya has been penalised for far less!

You have to feel for Kubica, he was on a one stop strategy and was looking good for a strong points finish, unfortunately his stop for dry tyres was just too early and the next lap of sliding of the track at nearly every corner, meant he had to pit again to go back to intermediates, killing all hope for the promising Polish driver.

Jenson Button's chances for the win were finished almost before they began, with his Honda eating it's rear tyres in the first stint, forcing the Honda team to change the rears at the first stop, which as with Renault was the downfall of the race. Jenson's 4th place finish came about thanks to another Honda powered Driver - Takuma Sato - who, whilst being lapped at the second to last corner of the last lap, pulled out of Jenson's way straight into the path of Heidfeld's BMW that Jenson was trying to overtake! Barrichello at this point went into the back of Heidfeld, allowing De la Rosa to overtake them both! Sato has since been disqualified from the race for ignoring blue flags, Albers had 25 seconds added to his race time for the same offence.

Webber drove a solid Race for Williams, finishing in 8th after starting 14th. He took the last points paying position from Coulthard, who had steering problems following his collision with Massa.

Once again, a little bit of rain improves the race spectacle for the fans, and with both Schumacher and Alonso on 116pts, it's set up nicely for the next two races at Japan and Brazil - I'm still hoping that Alonso retains the Title.

Compton GP Star Drive Michael Schumacher [Ferrari]

edit@1450

As I sit here watching the ITV 're-run' of the race a few more thoughts are coming my way, first of all is that I can't believe how much they have edited out of what is supposed to be an 'as live' replay. It's disgusting.

Secondly, I remember thinking during the live show about DC (again!) having communication problems during qualifying causing him to stay out too long, apparently. Why can't they just admit that they aren't quick enough?! Anyway, I forgot to post that last time, so I thought I'd put it out there now!