Alonso cracks.... and the championship situation now...

ralf fan · 12 Jun 2005, 19:54 (Ref:1326630)

Well first signs of him losing his cool during a GP .... he was extremely frustrated with Fisi and then slammed it into the wall when atleast 8 pts were there for the taking...

that leaves Kimi 22 pts behind. He will be running last in qually at Indy while Alonso will run 3rd....

Game on...

Oaksnaf · 12 Jun 2005, 19:58 (Ref:1326642)

Malaysia: tyre valve fell off loss of points
Imola: loss of win
Nuburg: Loss of win

Without those problems he would be very well leading the WC.
But this result basically cancels out Nuburg now, so its back to 22 points. That is still a whole 3 grandprix that Kimi has to finish and Alonso doesn't to claim back that gap.

There is still a while to go in the championship, but as some said last GP 'it is a turning point' well this GP it was a complete U-turn you could say.

McLaren have a pace advantage of Renault and they are going to haul them in, how fast....dont know. But its going to be close come seasons end.

It is very much, as you said, game on.

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 19:58 (Ref:1326644)

I didn't see anything too alarming with Alonso today. He was pushing hard, trying to stay ahead of two superior McLarens.

It was easy to make a small error like he did.....especially with the barrier so close at that turn and the track surface resembling something from a certain street track used in the turbo era!!

As for losing his cool with Fisi, well, that was strange admittedly. But Fisi was rather roadblockish.

Oaksnaf · 12 Jun 2005, 20:05 (Ref:1326654)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

I didn't see anything too alarming with Alonso today. He was pushing hard, trying to stay ahead of two superior McLarens.

It was easy to make a small error like he did.....especially with the barrier so close at that turn and the track surface resembling something from a certain street track used in the turbo era!!

As for losing his cool with Fisi, well, that was strange admittedly. But Fisi was rather roadblockish.

It was really a GP of silly mistakes that cost big-Button-Monty are a few of the big names, JV not so big (now).

But yes Alonso was getting very very frustrated by his team-mate Fisi who clearly was loosing pace due to a problem which he eventually retired from. But if you are going to try and get past, its best not to whinge about it, just get on with the job and if you get close enough to him then he should yeal being your team-mate.

But as Fisi said, his championship is his concern. So really Fisi had every right to stay where he was, he was leading the race, and if it where Kimi behind him he would be doing everything to keep him behind. Its not like Fisi was 'defensive' driving, its just that Alonso wasn't really close enough come overtaking opportunities.

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 20:09 (Ref:1326663)

Oh, don't get me wrong, Fisi did nothing wrong. He is there to race and I appalud that.

He was just strabgely slow. Whether that was down to his problem that eventually led to his retirement, I don't know. But he was abcking Alonso into the McLarens which seemed a little daft.

Paarma · 12 Jun 2005, 20:11 (Ref:1326668)

Knowing McLaren's reputation concerning reliability I would wait until the checkered flag of the the very last gp before making any conclusions. Lots of things can happen during the very last lap

. But I think Renault has made some progress. They were quite fast today, even though they were on the same strategy as McLaren. It would have been interesting to watch the JMP and Alonso duel had Alonso not crashed into the wall.

luke · 12 Jun 2005, 20:13 (Ref:1326671)

Glad how the race went, they were dropping out like flys.

Also glad we're now level to what the Nurbirgring should have been like and now the championship is back on hand.

Come on Kimi!!!!!

Redlake27 · 12 Jun 2005, 20:15 (Ref:1326679)

I still wouldnt underestimate Schumacher....... if Bridgestone get it right for the 'summer races', he could creep back into contention

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 20:20 (Ref:1326685)

It isn't just Bridgestone though...

pD F1 · 12 Jun 2005, 20:21 (Ref:1326688)

Do you think Ferrari and Michael Schumacher have a chance of the titles? Its encouraging, or discouraging for some that they've had a successful race, on a hot track and he's only 10-15 points behind Kimi himself, one win for him at Indy and a no score for Kimi and aurely he'll have to be considered a contender for the title, and add to that, Ferrari have their strongest tracks still to come in Monza, Suzuka, Spa and possibly Silverstone, Magny-Cours and Indianapolis.

Whatever, it should be a fascinating title showdown, between certainly two and possibly 3 contenders 'duking it out' as Mr Allen says.

Oaksnaf · 12 Jun 2005, 20:22 (Ref:1326689)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

It isn't just Bridgestone though...

Yep it takes more than good tyres to win races. But as you could see with Albers, Bridgestone did improve.

But i would say some nice tweaking of aero/chassis balance and even weight distribution have helped a lot in recent results for Ferrari.

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 20:24 (Ref:1326692)

They are still comparitively nowhere though. Take the safety car and incidents out of the equation and where would they have been?

That performance gap will take some closing!

Oaksnaf · 12 Jun 2005, 20:27 (Ref:1326696)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

They are still comparitively nowhere though. Take the safety car and incidents out of the equation and where would they have been?

That performance gap will take some closing!

Cancel out the safety car and you would see Michael and Rubens and extra 30-40 seconds adrift.

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 20:33 (Ref:1326704)

Precisely. Quite frankly, their pace is bordering on pathetic.

I expect they'll be strong at Indy for some reason though. Then again, I've said that about most races this year....

pD F1 · 12 Jun 2005, 20:34 (Ref:1326708)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

They are still comparitively nowhere though. Take the safety car and incidents out of the equation and where would they have been?

That performance gap will take some closing!

Do you think they'll win at all this season then? Unthinkable from last season, but I suppose you can't rule it out now. From now on, which race(s) do you think they will be favourites for the victory in?

Knowlesy · 12 Jun 2005, 20:37 (Ref:1326711)

Indy, Silverstone and any wet races they should be strong.

But really, it is hard to see where they can get a win without a host of retirements and a large slice of luck. A winless season is a real possibility, it'd be like 1990 into 1991 for them!

I'm sure they'll find something, but when......who knows?

Snrub · 12 Jun 2005, 21:42 (Ref:1326779)

To me this race should take some of the steam out of the Alonso hype. His team had it right when he was whining about Fisi. He was a second a lap faster, he should pass Fisi. Obviously Fisi wouldn't have made it too hard for him, but he had to give it a go rather than feel sorry for himself.

Later when he was unable to match JPM's pace, he cracked under pressure and stuffed it in the wall. There's been a lot of comparison between Alonso and Kimi and "who's better." To me it's obvious.

BootsOntheSide · 12 Jun 2005, 21:48 (Ref:1326787)

The championship is back into Kimi's hands - this race returns to a sitautionw here Kimi will eb champion if he wins every race. That comment about McLaren's reputation for unreliability seemed a bit strange - they've only had 1 mechanical failure all season.

beau1 · 12 Jun 2005, 21:55 (Ref:1326796)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knowlesy

They are still comparitively nowhere though. Take the safety car and incidents out of the equation and where would they have been?

That performance gap will take some closing!

anything can happen in Formula 1 and it usual does

**Adam43** · 12 Jun 2005, 22:07 (Ref:1326806)

The crash was a big and possibly costly mistake. Although at the moment he is still 22 points ahead. Cracks? That is perhaps a bit strong, every driver makes mistakes, but it hasn't helped.

Logrence · 12 Jun 2005, 22:36 (Ref:1326835)

McLaren are on a roll, this won't help Renault but I'm quite sure they aren't worried yet.

Sodemo · 12 Jun 2005, 22:40 (Ref:1326840)

I don't think it was a full gone conclusion that Kimi would have won at Imola, his failure happened early in the race, when we had no idea about fuel loads, and Michael was on form that race.

Raven · 12 Jun 2005, 22:55 (Ref:1326845)

That was just what Alonso didn't need to do. This was looking like an ideal weekend for him where he could've beaten a healthy but slightly lacklustre Kimi and stretched his lead in the WDC. 22 points doesn't look so comfortable when you think what could have been.

True, McLaren are looking a lot more reliable than Renault at this stage in the season. Fisi continues to have a torrid season since winning Melbourne - and very little of it has been his fault. You'd think that some of those gremlins might start creeping across into Alonso's car unless Renault can get them ironed out.

Indy should be a strong track for Renault but they'll be on the back foot with such early qualifying slots.

Kicking-back · 12 Jun 2005, 23:19 (Ref:1326857)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paarma

Knowing McLaren's reputation concerning reliability

McLaren have been very reliable this year.

Raikkonen at Imola is the only "reliability" DNF they've had.

Better than Renault, Ferrari, Williams etc etc

Menelaos · 13 Jun 2005, 00:39 (Ref:1326909)

The problem is that that DNF happened when Kimi was 90% winning the race, or in the worst case 2nd or 3rd. Although I think he would have certainly won.

The thing with Renault is that Alonso has had absolutely no problems this far, while Fisico has problems in each and every GP. So, statistically it MUST happen to Alonso sometime too, and that could give an extra 6-10 points to Raikonen. Then it will be really good. Ah, if that thing had lasted for an extra lap in nurburgring now it'd be 10 points

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