Quote:
Originally Posted by GUTIERREZ
I havent seen it yet, but heard something about a flat sending him back to 17th, and he drove back up to 4th? Was it good to watch?
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It was seriously one of the best drives I've seen him have. He started 10th and was absolutely slicing through the field early, working his way up to 6th through 7 laps and all over the back of Fisichella's Renault. He diced briefly with Fisico, passing him on the outside through turn 1 then suddenly the car snapped sideways and Fisi repassed him. Shortly thereafter he had to pit for a tire puncture and dropped back to 17th place, 75 seconds behind Massa. From that point on he was lapping almost 2 seconds faster than everyone but Massa, who was about half a second to a second slower. It was insane. He passed a few backmarkers easily, and after everyone else made their first pitstops (MS ended up taking gas during his puncture stop, and only made one other stop in the race - which makes his pace even more impressive, since he had a full tank and ran his second set of tire for so long) he was up to 8th and closing on Barrichello, before both he and Rubens made their second stops shortly after the midway mark. After final pitstops, Schumi flew past Rubens, who seemed to offer little resistance once he was caught (MS actually waved as he went past), for 7th. Somehow (a pitstop or retirement, I forget) he ended up in 6th and quickly closed the gap to Fisichella in 5th, and then spent several laps getting held up trying to get around him. After a long battle he passed Fisi and had around a 10 second gap to Kimi in 4th, which disappeared in a handful of laps. After a short, clean battle for 4th he took the position with 3 laps to go but didn't have enough time to catch Button and Alonso who were running 2nd and 3rd around 10 seconds ahead of him. In 3 laps he did manage to cut the gap in half and pull out a 5 second gap on Kimi, but the battle with Fisichella pretty much ruined any chance of catching those guys.
To give an idea of his pace today, here are the fastest laps for the race. And the truly impressive thing is, MS was running within a few tenths of his best lap anytime he wasn't in traffic, typically mid 12's, while everyone else was running high 13's most of the day:
1. Schumacher 1:12.162
2. Massa 1:12.877
3. Alonso 1:12.961
4. Button 1:13.053
5. Fisichella 1:13.121
6. Raikkonen 1:13.281
7. Yamamoto 1:13.379
8. Barrichello 1:13.391