Now that was a race.

Petroltorque

TOIT punching in laps 2s a lap faster than the opposition. Looks like they got fire and brimstone powering their machines.
For me Alonso's going to spend the rest of his season defending his lead from the faster Macca and TOIT machines.

MinardiP1

Looks like things are dire at Williams. At least Webber and Heidfeld are sucking somewhat equally.

Sadly, it looks like Webber is a qualifying master (like Trulli is/was) but just can't hang on or move up in a race, and he always seems to lose a place or three at the start. :(

These new regs have made overtaking a real problem for everyone. Webber got screwed by being on the same strategy as Trulli initially, but he shouldn't have been behind Trulli in the first place!

Bugger the speed, make the races 10 laps longer and bring back slicks and downforce. :P

Petroltorque

Webber made 3 mistakes, one at the start, another with Sato and another allowed Villeneuve to get by. There's no point qualifying well and then throw it away in the race.His stocks falling. Can't say much about Heidfeld no coverage of him.

Minardus

The last 5 laps between M$ and Alonso were breathtakingly suspenseful.
Thank god he defended !!!!!

Re. Minardi: I hope they collected enough data whilce the cars were running to prepare well forwednesdays and thursdays testsession.

Bantamtim

I would've loved to have seen the last five laps, but instead ITV decided to show an ad-break, meaning that I missed four of them...

xiola

Best race in years!

Alonso is the man - cool under pressure. And McL & Honda are coming up quick, there's going to be lots of different winners this year, I think

Minardus

NO MIRACLES TODAY

IMOLA, ITALY, April 24, 2005

Minardi F1 Team drivers Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher may have retired from today’s San Marino Grand Prix, but the Faenza squad was able to take heart from the fact it had debuted its new Minardi Cosworth PS05 and taken away a great deal of useful data from the weekend. Both cars were forced into retirement as the result of gearbox-related problems, Friesacher coasting down the pit lane on lap nine with what turned out to be a broken clutch shaft, and Albers running well until lap 20, when a serious fluid leak was discovered during the first scheduled pit stop and the team had no choice but to retire the car in order to avoid damage to the new gearbox The outcome of today’s race was scant reward for the monumental effort put in by team personnel over recent weeks to ensure a pair of Minardi Cosworth PS05s were able to compete in this weekend’s race, but all concerned could take heart from the progress that has been made in a very short time and the potential that clearly exists for the future.

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS

Time: 1 min 27.420 secs Chassis: PS05/01
“The first thing is that we did some race laps today and learned a lot about the new car. During the first stint, I had strong oversteer, which we were going to deal with at the pit stop, but unfortunately, there was quite a bad leak from the gearbox and I was not able to continue. I wish we could have delivered a better result to the guys for all the work they have put in, but it was not possible this weekend. We’ll see what we can do in Barcelona.”

PATRICK FRIESACHER

Time: 1 min 28.334 secs Chassis: PS05/02
“The start was not too bad, and I was quite happy with the opening laps, as I was ahead of Christijan and able to stay with Monteiro, but then suddenly, as I was accelerating out of the last corner, it seemed like something broke. Generally, the car felt good today, but we need to find some more downforce. We’ll be working on this area when we test at Mugello on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.”

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth


“Despite a valiant effort by the drivers and the whole team, it wasn’t really a surprise that reliability stopped both Minardis in today’s race, as one has to consider that this is the first serious outing for the PS05. Both failures were gearbox-related, and hopefully, this week’s Mugello test will give the team the opportunity to perfect certain aspects of the car. On a positive note, though, we believe the overall potential of the new package, especially of the Cosworth TJ2005 engine, bodes very well for the future.”

I thought we didn't have the new gearbox yet !!!!!!!!:o

[Edited on 24/4/2005 by Minardus]

Ste

Absolutly amazing race!!!!!

So exiting!!!!!!! esp the last few laps!

from about lap 9 there were only 2 cars on track, everyone was just ignoring everyone else, so tense, amazing!!!


Not a bad race for my first gp!!!

TheDriver

I guess I was watching another feed or something.

After 20 laps, with both Minardi cars out of the race, I just started to work on other stuff. Kept the telly on though, but ignored it most of the time.

Saw the Schumacher-Alonso fight. Yes, good perhaps, but the amazing lack of overtaking opportunities in this track made it much less exciting than it could have been.

Preferred the flyaway races.

Jello_Biafra

This was the best performance I can remember Schumi putting up in a long long time. Absolutely amazing to watch.

Cheers Alonso.

Homer

Great race to watch, no question.

Alonso was doing very well! And now, it seems that we have four teams at the top very close to each ohter: Renault, TOIT, McLaren and BAR.

No comment about Minardi, I look forward to Mugelli next week.

Walker

I hate to say this but Jordan's were really fast. Karthikeyan had 12th fastest lap in the race, even faster than Webber's best !!! And they were chasing Red Bull's most of the race.

Things didn't look good for us. But once we get the new gearbox and do some testing next week...

forzaminardi

even more exciting from the track side seriously good stuff, good to see the banner up there:hehe:

Carthorse

Yes- sad coincidence that the Jordans were so fast this weekend.

silverghost

We rerally are at the start of a classic period for F1, don't ya think? MS still hacks it, Alonso and Kimi as superstars (maybe Montoya too...), lots of competitive teams and drivers. Today was a taster of just how great it could be. If the politics doesn't screw it up of course.

Stan

Sadly, it looks like Webber is a qualifying master (like Trulli is/was) but just can't hang on or move up in a race, and he always seems to lose a place or three at the start. :(

Finally, someone who shares my opinion about Webber.

That surely took some time....

Walker

Webber is über mensch, he rarely makes mistakes. Today he did because the car is almost undriveable and engine power was limited. He is definetily the future champion. As an ex-Minardi driver he should receive our full support.

Fox_Mulder

Rarely makes mistakes? Webber has always won races in the junior categories but never a single championship because of making silly mistakes often. Not in karting in Australia, Formula Ford in Australia, FF in Britain, F3, F3000, or in sports cars. He's just not good enough and easily cracks under pressure.
Karthikeyan was amazing today! I think it's not only the car that is Minardi's problem.

dst

Viva la Villeneuve! Good to see Jacques get it together. Impressive stratagey from Ferrari and a doubt planting drive by Schumacher with an excellent pass of Button.

MinardiP1

Settle down with the Webber bashing - Aussies can criticise him, no one else can ok! ;)

His car was pretty awkward looking today, and it appears from his comments that Herr Thiessen and his cohorts may have tweaked Webber's engine to ensure it didn't blow up as the race went on. Looking at Heidfeld's qualifying, Webber may have stuck that Williams further up on the grid than it deserved to be (no excuse for fluffing the start Mark :( )Let's see how he goes with a new engine that's allowed to rev in Barcelona.

As for his fastest lap being slower than Karthikeyan's - when did he ever once have some clear air! :o

Well done to JV, thrilled to see the media will have to find someone else to pick on, even though I fear that will be Williams.

Neil_s

from next race we will see TOIT taking over....

yesterday's race showed how the new TOIT car was simply wonderful despite MS mistake in qualifying.

still a bit unreliable though (asked Barrichello!!!)

i hope the PS05 will be finetuned - we do not afford too much DNFs! To get in the points we need to finish races at least!

Yes Jordan was super yesterday and did a great show in all their limitations. At least they didn't get a point - we would have been fu..ed

Petroltorque

Sam Michael's already sticking the knife into Webber. Seems to your suggestion that only Aussies can criticise him. Michael said Webber's car had no problems. Heidfeld's race craft is way ahead of Webber's I'm afraid. Its what one would expect from a driver who's won a major formula.

MinardiP1

C'mon Petrol, you're drawing an awfully long bow there if you're referring to this comment by Sam:

Sam Michael, Technical Director: "It is obviously both a disappointing result and day overall. We had a poor start and we spent the whole race in traffic. Clearly we have to improve this for the future. That said, the car's competitiveness was not as bad as it might have appeared due to the traffic but it's certainly not where we expected to be. We had no mechanical problems at all."


Webber's comment was that his engine was sluggish from being 'slowed down' (I assume rev limit) after 2 GPs. I don't think Michael's comment is necessarily addressing that.

Stop deliberately shit-stirring you miserable poop! ;)

Walker

Webber 7 points
Heidfeld 6 points


Enough said :)

Clown

Eh.. I fell asleep in the last 10 laps :P


(cos I hadn't slept for a damn long time)

MinardiP1

I'd love to rest on that Walker, but it's actually 7 points all after the Williams/FIA appeal against Ralf's dangerous driving.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns14680.html

Minardus

Nice detail is that Alonso had his engine "slowed down" as well.
Will be nice to see how he holds up against M$ in Barna when he gets his RS25B-spec engine !!!!!

salvo

the indian guy was very fast all the time. So close to coulthard... it will be hard to close the gap.

MinardiP1

I'm not at all surprised to see Karthikeyan being a bit of a hotshoe. He's certainly opening a few eyes and good on Trevor Carlin for giving him a shot at F1.

Hope they keep him next year.

Minardus

BTW, what was wrong with Monteiro's car??
He did 4 stops !!!:o

salvo

Monteiro himself?:hehe: