European Grand Prix Review

The Finn has always looked back to that day in the Eifel mountains as the day he lost the 2003 title, and with good reason. Exactly 23 months later, how will be look back on May 29, 2005? Will it be the day that goes down as the day on which the championship was all but handed to Fernando Alonso? Another comfortable lead, another misfortune, this time heartbreakingly on the last lap - and Raikkonen now finds himself 28 points behind with 12 races to go. Only an improbable 3 points over Alonso per race will do from here.

To underline his recent ascendancy, when Kimi made his first pit stop and handed the lead to David Coulthard, he had just led a consecutive 165 laps - the 5th longest leading streak in the history of F1. For the third race in a row he had an edge over Alonso's Renault, even though the Spaniard ran a more consistent pace here. Williams were more competitive, but Nick Heidfeld's strategy never put in with a chance of beating Raikkonen and Mark Webber was out as soon as the race began.

So a hat-trick was there for Raikkonen's taking, and with it a further dent in Alonso's championship lead, plus a healthy extra dose of momentum in The Iceman's chase. But as will go down in folklore, during the race Kimi had severely locked his brakes twice and gone off-track, flat-spotting his front right tyre. That Michelin started deforming, and with several laps to go was almost down to the canvas. But Raikkonen doggedly pressed on, until the unbearable vibrations broke the suspension at the start of the last lap.

The FIA have since said that they would have allowed McLaren to bring Kimi in, although that is with the benefit of hindsight. Having said that, the officials had shown on that very Sunday afternoon that they were capable of putting common sense over legalism. Once the mechanics have left the starting grid, they are not allowed back on. But when Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault stalled and refused to budge, race director Charlie Whiting had all but ordered the Renault mechanics to go out and refire Fisi's car.

Assuming that McLaren fully believed that they could have called Raikkonen in, should they have done so? On reflection after the event, of course. But given the need to keep cutting into Alonso's points lead, the choice at the time was not so clear. There was something to be said for Kimi and McLaren's thirst for victory in their decision to stay out, and there was also much admirable in the Finn's ability to still lap at a very decent pace and make no errors despite the violence he must have been suffering in the cockpit.

But at the end of the day, it has to be asked, how did Kimi get to this point in the first place? Monaco had clearly showed the MP4/20s gentleness on tyres. Put it simply, had Raikkonen himself not made two mistakes and gone off the track twice, he would not have placed himself into such a lose-lose predicament. Though he gambled courageously, he had turned a safe victory into a risk that didn't pay off. A rather unfortunate 'Reject of the Race' award then to Kimi Raikkonen.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Kimi Raikkonen
Tyre gamble didn't pay off

That kept the pressure on the Finn, and indeed, had Fernando not done so, then perhaps Raikkonen would not have made the mistakes he did, and maybe he could have backed off towards the end and held on. As long as the Spaniard had to do more Imola or Monaco-style desperate defending, then that was no way of ensuring the title. But if he can keep holding his own and consistently, mercilessly rack up the points and put pressure on his championship chasers, then from hereon in the crown ought to be his.

As for the other McLaren and Renault, both Juan-Pablo Montoya and Fisichella had similar races. Both fell to the back at the start, Fisi through his stall and JPM through his tangle with Webber, and 6th and 7th respectively by race's end was as much as they could catch up. This was the year in which we were meant to get a real indication as to how good Giancarlo is. But apart from the weather-assisted win in Melbourne and some bright moments in Spain, sadly we're seeing too few sparks from the Italian at present.

Likewise for JPM. He has driven five races for McLaren thus far, and finished all of them between 4th and 7th. So far we're getting too little of the aggressive racer that everyone has come to respect, and it seems like he's taking too long to settle in at Woking. Since his abortive start to the season, he has slowly been coming good after his return from his shoulder injury, but he has to start mixing it right at the front soon. Otherwise it will be interesting to see how much patience Ron Dennis will have with him.

But given that the Williams was likely to be beaten off the line by Raikkonen, a three-stop strategy was probably flawed from the start. Even had he won the start, Nick's fastest lap of the race was 0.4s and 0.2s off Alonso and Raikkonen's best respectively, so it was unlikely that the German would ever build enough of a gap to accommodate an extra stop. As it was, a three-stopper was a competitive podium-getting tactic at best, and to his credit Heidfeld maximised its potential, with another 2nd place his due.

Yet again Webber will be leaving a race weekend immensely frustrated. Again he lost out at the start, but not by much this time. Montoya was around him, but Mark was not without hope of winning the place back at the first corner. Had he done so cleanly, and had he manage to stave off Montoya and Alonso during the race, then dare we dream what could have happened? Of course, tyre wear would have been another variable, but it hurts to admit that, on a two-stop strategy, Mark was in the picture for the win.

It was refreshing to hear the Aussie admit that the incident with JPM was his own fault. To a neutral observer, it could have been 50-50. The Colombian did turn in sharply, and perhaps carelessly given that there was both Webber and Jarno Trulli somewhere to his right. But as at Spa last year, where Webber got a bit too enthusiastic at the first corner, locked his brakes and hit Rubens Barrichello at La Source, here was Mark's less-than-perfect racecraft bringing him undone yet again.

But if there have been lots of 'what might have been' stories for Webber, then spare a thought too for Coulthard. Clearly the Red Bull can nibble at the frontrunners, and David is getting the best out of the package. Experience is helping him to sacrifice the right amount of qualifying speed by using fuel levels that enable him to shine on race day, which he has been doing more often that not. Yes, he benefited greatly from the first lap melee, but he also showed that he definitely had the pace to run in the points.

Consider that he stayed in front of Alonso throughout the first stint, then lost out to the Renault at the first stops, but would have remained somewhere around Alonso, Heidfeld and Barrichello for the rest of the race, were it not for his lapse of concentration resulting in a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pits. In other words, there could have been a podium for Red Bull's taking this day. Still, another 5 points for 4th means 15 in total and 11th in the championship, but only three points shy of Webber in 5th.

In the other RB01, Vitantonio Liuzzi came home 9th, missing out on a point by under 0.5s to Trulli. But when DC was 40 seconds up the road, challenging for a podium having also incurred a penalty, then in truth Tonio's performance was yet again fairly mediocre. As it is, not only will Christian Klien return for Canada and the USA, but young American GP2 star Scott Speed will also take over the third car. And so the point of Liuzzi's four-race stint has been ...? Will Christian Horner and co please explain?

The reversion to a single qualifying session - good riddance aggregate times! - ensured that the grid would be decided by Saturday, but it also meant that we would see no low-fuel comparison throughout the weekend. It also seemingly has done nothing for Ferrari's inherent problem: generating heat into the Bridgestones for a one-lap screamer. But having finished 3rd and 5th here, both cars will be in the last five to run in Canada, and that should prove a welcome boost as others lay the rubber down.

Still, apart from Michael's awesome drive at Imola and sporadic hot laps in the middle of the Spain and Monaco races, neither Schumi or Barrichello are seemingly able to show the spark that indicates an imminent return to the winner's circle. Ferrari just seems like 'one of the pack' at the moment. Rumours are beginning to suggest that it may not all be Bridgestone's fault, that in fact the F2005 itself is not quite up to the mark either. Perhaps there's a kernel of truth in that.

One qualifying session is still not a perfect solution though. Williams and McLaren were right to complain that it will penalise drivers who do poorly one race - Webber, for instance, is unlikely to maintain his streak of qualifying in the top five when he goes out first in Montreal. The suggestion that the running order be based on times in the 4th free practice seems like an excellent idea. If nothing else, the last 5 minutes of that session will recreate the free-for-all excitement that existed in qualifying pre-2003.

After all, neither Toyota was able to make dramatic progress after their initial delays. Trulli only inherited 8th on the last lap but had been pressurised by Liuzzi, whilst Ralf crashed out in really quite pathetic fashion having failed to even make it back into the top 10. It does seem like, in the face of the resurgence from McLaren and Williams, Toyota are dropping back. Mike Gascoyne, though, predicts that the TF105 will be the strongest car at Indianapolis. Fighting words or noteworthy prophecy? We shall see.

Oh yes, BAR returned to action at the Nurburgring, but one could hardly have noticed. Perhaps they were hampered by having to run detuned engines that had been bolted onto the cars for several weeks, but really neither Jenson Button or Takuma Sato shone at all or threatened the points. It will be intriguing to see if, in coming races, they can actually rebound from their disastrous start to the season and in essence start all over again, or if midfield anonymity will remain their lot for the rest of 2005.

For Sauber, Felipe Massa ran 5th and 6th for much of the race as a beneficiary of the first corner havoc, but unlike Coulthard he did not look as though he could maintain the pace near the front. Indeed, he was dropping out of the points when his front left Michelin tore into shreds. Considering the Brazilian's tyre troubles in Spain and Monaco as well (although at Barcelona it was caused by a broken wheel), one wonders if this is starting to be proof that his aggressive driving style is unsuited to the current tyre rules.

One of our readers, Henrique Ventura from Portugal, wrote to us letting us know that Tiago Monteiro has now broken the record, formerly held by Sir Jackie Stewart, for the longest finishing streak by a rookie in his first Grands Prix, Tiago now having completed seven out of seven. Although Monteiro started off the season as something of a reliable plodder, at the Nurburgring he clearly outclassed team-mate Narain Karthikeyan. Even with a drive-through penalty he beat the Indian home.

Monteiro is finally starting to live up to his pledge to improve his lap speed after a disappointing start to the season. On the other hand, Karthikeyan has lost the edge pace-wise in the last few rounds, is having a few too many off-track moments. With the well-regarded Renault tester Franck Montagny now in the Jordan fold, having replaced Robert Doornbos as their third driver, if that spurs Tiago and Narain onto greater speed and consistency, that can only be a healthy thing for their careers.

With a massive 18 finishers out of 20, there wasn't going to be much opportunity for the Minardis of Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher to shine. Friesacher though continued his Monaco heroics by out-qualifying Karthikeyan, showing that the black and white cars are now truly a match for the Jordans, even if both those teams are way off the pace of everyone else. With rookie bragging rights on offer as well, it seems as though the battle at the back is going to be as interesting as the fight at the front.