formula one / Indy

[Novice#41]

Schumacher needs just 1 point now!

By Vinesh Nair
Monday, 29 September , 2003, 08:15

When the rain Gods smile, there is just one taker and that one is no other than quintuple World Champion, Michael Schumacher, who came from 7th on the grid to clinch his 70th F1 Grand Prix win and take the Championship down to the final race in Japan with just 1 point required for an unprecedented World Record 6th Driver's title.
The critics have often said that Schumacher turns into a mermaid or something of the like when it rains, but watching the Champion take the competition apart earlier this Sunday was watching driving mastery at its very best.

Michael Schumacher who came into the US Grand Prix with barely 3 points of a lead over Juan Pablo Montoya, needed to consolidate his situation going into the final race in Japan and proved to the World that he could soak up all the pressure with the manner in which he went into lap 1.

Michael, starting in 7th place alongside ailing McLaren driver David Coulthard took out a fairy tale start to move up the grid ahead of team mate Rubens Barichello into fourth place.

However, Barichello's race was one of his shortest and yet another DNF when friend and fellow Latino Montoya took him out in what seemed like an open assault on the Ferrari driver. The result - a drive through for JPM and you can be sure that you have not heard the end of that yet!

Meanwhile, Schumacher kept the pressure on the Toyota of Olivier Panis and effectively moved into third place behind brother Ralf and race leader Kimi Raikkonen when the rain began to pour down...

While most of the runners had finished their first round of pit stops, it was apparent that Schumacher was running a heavier fuel load but a wrong choice of tyres for the World Champion just before the rain, meant that he would have to return to the pits while fellow Bridgestone runners, Nick Heidfeld and Frentzen gained the upper hand.


However, Schumacher started to chip away on the competition in perfect fashion, lapping challenger Juan Pablo Montoya and passing Kimi Raikkonen before taking the race lead.

The choice of strategy seemed just perfect and any doubts of the Ferrari strategy not coming into play at Indy were cleared when Schumacher made a perfectly timed third stop to get onto the dry weather tyres and take it away from the rest of the field in the laps to come.

Michael Schumacher scored his 70th Grand Prix win with over 20 seconds to spare over McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen who finished in a strong second position.

However, the Championship hopes for Juan Pablo Montoya went up in smoke as he remains 10 points behind Schumacher. Even if he were to win in Japan, Schumacher would take top honours as he has won six races this season.

Hence, the only realistic championship challenger now remains the young Finn Kimi Raikkonen who needs to win in Japan and make sure that Michael Schumacher does not finish the race there. It could happen but if you were to consider Schumacher's record in Japan, you would think hard.

Ferrari gained the upper hand in the Constructor's Championship as well to go three points clear of Williams BMW and this one sure is going all the way down to the wire in Japan.

Formula 1 racing being the gamble that it is today could still mean that Schumacher and Kimi have everything to play for in Suzuka in 2 weeks time.



goooooo schumi !!!

just 1pt and the 6th F1 world champion title is yours!