German Grand Prix Review

The huge talking point in the days leading up to the race was undoubtedly the shock sacking of Heinz-Harald Frentzen from the Jordan team. It's probably worth saying a few words about it here. Immediately, the rumours were flying around as to why the German had been booted out on the eve of his home GP, and the most plausible of these revolved around HHF's possible links with Toyota for 2002. The pieces fit nicely in this scenario, and if he does end up at Cologne next year, the week's events make some sense.

Still, as an ambitious team boss, Eddie Jordan has shown in the past that stagnancy gets to him, and his drivers move on. The departure of Rubens Barrichello at the end of 1996 is a perfect example of this. This year, the combination of Jordan, Honda and Frentzen has been stagnant and disappointing, while Jarno Trulli is always on the verge of coming up with the goods even if bad luck thwarts him. Frankly, Frentzen's departure comes as little surprise, even if the timing was off, and even if the Toyota links are nothing but unfounded rumours.

And so it turned out. This qualifying session was the most dominant display by a single team for a very long time, as Juan-Pablo Montoya edged out team-mate Ralf Schumacher for pole, with both BMW-powered cars miles ahead of the McLarens and Ferraris. The Saubers proved that last year's Ferrari engines were still a formidable proposition in a straight line. Their perennial mid-year slump hasn't happened in 2001.

De la Rosa and Irvine would have been somewhat disappointed with only 9th and 11th respectively, having aimed for the top 8. Back in 10th, Trulli recorded his worst grid slot of the year (ironic that, now that HHF had been sacked), while the BARs still promise great things from race to race but simply never deliver, and Frentzen replacement Ricardo Zonta failed to cover himself in glory as he had done in Canada.

Then, when the lights went out, we had our second shock when Michael Schumacher's car began slowing, obviously with a drive problem. Schumi's Ferrari in trouble? Heaven forbid! After all, in the 17 previous races (including two Malaysian GPs), the German had racked up an amazing 10 wins, 6 seconds and only 1 DNF, for 136 points at an average of 8 per race.

All this was well and truly capped off when Luciano Burti's Prost speared into the back of the Ferrari and launched into the air, beginning to flip over a la Christian Fittipaldi and Pierluigi Martini at Monza in 1993. However, unlike Fittipaldi, Burti landed on his head. Except, he landed right on top of Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows, the impact of which righted the Prost and sent it spearing nose-first into the tyre barrier. I doubt this shunt will have much competition for crash of the year.

Poor Burti was stuck in no-man's land. Some suggest that he never saw the Ferrari - it's possible he did spot the slowing car, but understandably misread the speed difference. Besides, he had committed himself to going by the Ferrari's right, where there was no space by the time the Brazilian got there. He was lucky to walk away, as was Bernoldi, who must have had the shock of his life to see Burti land on top of him, upside down.

It's amazing how the FIA can never get it right as to when to stop a race and when to bring out a safety car. At Monza last year, and in Melbourne this year, when marshals were grievously injured, the red should have been shown. With the amount of debris on the track here, the red flag was probably the right call, but only before the drivers drove through the debris. Deploying the safety car first was a silly thing to do, but once all the drivers had slowly negotiated their way through the debris, throwing the red was pointless.

There was no incident going into the first corner the second time around, but while Montoya and Ralf skipped merrily away, we had the usual jostling from the rest of the pack heading down to the first chicane. The McLarens and Ferraris were getting too close for comfort, and as Schumacher pulled out of Mika Hakkinen's slipstream, he almost chopped the nose off David Coulthard's car. It was a close call, but he got away with it.

De la Rosa then slammed into the back of Nick Heidfeld's Sauber at the first chicane, the second time this year that Heidfeld has been eliminated by a bit of Jaguar brain fade (he fell victim to Irvine in Canada). Pedro's brake lock-up was one of the more unprofessional bits of driving we've seen in a long time, and on any other day might have earned him 'reject of the race', but for some of the other shenanigans to follow.

Rubinho also got by Hakkinen and was let through by Michael before his first of two stops, while in the meantime Montoya danced away to a tremendous lead over Ralf, before the big retirements began. No surprise that the first cab off the rank was Hakkinen, who has had no luck with reliability this year. Mercedes would have been embarrassed, for at the time they were being soundly kicked by BMW. Of course, it would only get worse.

Further back in the field, a furious battle was developing between Olivier Panis (who was also on a two-stopper), Trulli and Villeneuve. Panis dived by Trulli at the first chicane, only for the Italian to come back with a half-hearted, yes I will, no I won't, oh maybe I will, whoops, what do I do now move at the Ostkurve. It ended with the Jordan driver spinning conspicuously and falling out of contention. Amazing how once Frentzen had gone, Trulli puts in his worse drive of the year, capped off by this horrible impression of an attempted passing manoeuvre that earns him 'Reject of the Race'.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Jarno Trulli
A mindless spin for the cameras helped add to Jordan's nightmare weekend.

Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen, who would have finished 3rd if his car had held together, had come in and stopped, and in an incredible twist of fate Irvine brought his Jaguar in to retire at the same time. Heidfeld and de la Rosa had gone out together, now Raikkonen and Irvine had done the same, both seeing a podium go begging. A shame for Eddie, for the Jag had been on the pace once again, and even given a normal race without too many retirements he would have been a good bet to score points.

Burti had ended his race in the spare Prost by head-butting the tyre wall at the outside of turn one at exactly the same spot as at the first start, after an eventful drive which saw him spin in the stadium and then understeer off into retirement. Luciano almost qualified for 'reject of the race', but for mitigating circumstances - he was in Alesi's spare car, and was slightly injured from the startline crash. It's unbelievable how, though, after several races where we have been hard pushed to find a worthy winner of the ROTR award, that suddenly in one race so many drivers would put their hand up!

One thing we can be certain of, was that the pits were jinxed. For the next man in was Michael, and as soon as he got away he lost drive once again, this time coming out of the Jim Clark chicane. It was staggering to think that his Ferrari could ever break down. Even more so to think that seemingly a similar problem had struck both his race car and his spare.

So it looked as though Coulthard would finally pull some points on Schumi, only for the Scot to pit, and then have his engine explode as well! Mercedes really had egg on their faces now. In terms of David's championship bid, it means that if Michael pulls four or more points on him in Hungary (as he would do if he merely wins the race), the championship is over. Instead, he now has to look over his shoulder, as Ralf is more than menacing him for second in the championship.

The irony was that the Renaults have been the weakest and most powerless engine all year, and here they were, running ahead of the Ferrari-engined Prost of Jean Alesi, and running reliably all the way to 5 precious points. The result leap-frogged Flavio Briatore's team from an embarrassing 9th in the constructors' title to an undeserved 7th. A totally unfair cccurrence for the 8th, 9th and 10th placed teams!

Alesi came home for 6th, scoring his 4th point for Alain's team this year, and continued his remarkable streak of classifications. Behind him came Panis whose strategy didn't work, and then the two Arrows, which ran together all race, with Bernoldi ahead of Verstappen for once. It was a good fight-back by the rookie, after some scathing comments Jos the Boss had to say about him earlier in the week, and after the incident at the first start. Alonso came home 10th as the last runner, Trulli having retired as well.

Even more so than Monza, Hockenheim is a track that allows slipstreaming and actual racing, while being tough on the cars. The proposed plans for redevelopment will make the track just like most of the other technical, and frankly boring circuits that clog the calendar. Hockenheim has a history and a certain character that deserves to be preserved, what a pity the suits will win out over racing yet again.

Speaking of boring, technical tracks, the next one is exactly that ­ the traditionally snore-inducing Hungarian GP at the dour Hungaroring, the race that is always on the chopping block as far as the calendar is concerned but which keeps on surviving. If the Russian want a GP, then keep Imola and can Hungary! So Schumi will attempt to finally win his 51st race, while sealing the championship at the same time, and in front of an effectively Hakkinen home crowd no less. It will also be an acid test for Williams, to see if their chassis is really as good as their engine.