San Marino Grand Prix Review

Yes, Fernando had just won his third race in succession. He had just extended his lead in the drivers' championship to 18 points over Jarno Trulli, and his lead over Schumacher had risen by another two. But these are just the stats. For two thirds of the race, Schumacher and the Ferrari F2005, now just about on song, had eaten the field alive, the distance to Alonso included. That was what everyone was talking about. As if it needed confirming, an awesome title battle is in store for the rest of the year.

It was a performance by both car and driver that will be talked about in years to come. After that lap 24, by lap 26 he was on Jenson Button's tail. Schumi then stopped, but by lap 47 had re-caught and passed the BAR. In that first pit-stop sequence, he had leapt from 11th to 3rd, and in the space of ten laps he had gone from being behind his brother Ralf to almost 30s in front of the Toyota. By race's end, the defending champion had set 17 of the 19 fastest race laps.

Ominous stuff. Before Imola, everyone knew that at some stage Maranello would come good. But just how good? In Bahrain we saw glimpses of the F2005's inherent speed, but had Ferrari made the car reliable enough as yet? Was the gap that Alonso had opened up already too big to assail? At what point, if ever, might Schumacher be able to start to eat into the points deficit? By then, what would that deficit be? After Imola, we now know that Schumi has his weapon ready. The gap is 26 points. Game on.

But could this race turn out to be some kind of microcosm of the entire season? With Michael starting behind the eight ball, charging back up but falling just short? For regardless of how quick or even dominant the Ferrari was (and may turn out to be), there was no doubting Alonso's composure in the closing stages. True, Imola in its present form, with its short straight bursts punctuated by chicanes, is difficult to pass on, but the Spaniard's self-assurance was nonetheless mightily impressive.

Rarely did he have to go defensive and thus compromise his corner entry and exit speeds. He even had the presence of mind to slow down in the turns to maximise what advantage on acceleration he could extract. Sure, had Schumi been able to clear Button faster then perhaps Fernando would have been leapfrogged as well, but as it was Alonso emerged in front and he deservedly and convincingly held on. But can he remain as level-headed in the fifteen races to come? The next race is on his home turf in Spain...

And where does all this leave the second driver in their respective squads? Rubens Barrichello has now lost the points advantage he had had over Michael after yet another DNF, and once again it's time to suffer number 2 status. If Ferrari can only field one fully-sorted F2005, you know it won't be Rubens'. And with the championship battle the way it's going to be, Michael definitely needs every single point he can get his hands on. It could be a long few months ahead for the Brazilian.

What would irk Fisi most of all is that, looking back on the start of the season, after Australia he was best placed to take advantage of Ferrari's stumble, and to get that head start that only his team-mate has managed. It is one thing for him to establish himself as a genuine front-line driver in a top team; in the year-end analysis he may well have done that. But the opportunity to set himself up for a real tilt at the title has come, and through a combination of car trouble and his own errors, Giancarlo hasn't seized it.

He's not alone either; 3rd to 18th in the drivers' standings are covered by 8 points. All drivers from the top eight teams have all scored (in McLaren's case, all four of them!), but on points Schumacher has already caught up to all of them except Alonso and Trulli. There has been a real opening for several teams and drivers to really capitalise on as much as possible, an opening that Michael's Imola performance may have closed. But only Fernando and to a lesser extent Jarno have been able to take advantage of it.

No wonder Kimi Raikkonen was so upset when he retired with halfshaft failure from the lead, throwing his steering wheel in the pits. More than for anyone else, the first four races have been missed opportunities for the Finn. Had he not had a problem on the Melbourne grid, he might have finished as high as 2nd. Had he not had a puncture in Malaysia, 3rd was on the cards. Poor qualifying laps in Bahrain meant that 3rd was the best he could achieve there, and no doubt the win was on at Imola.

Kimi's frustration is understandable. This looks like the year when the next generation will assert itself and duke it out with King Michael for the title. Of the Finn's rivals as the heir apparent, Juan-Pablo Montoya has forehanded away his chances, Mark Webber has suffered from an ungrippy car, and Jenson Button and BAR have been in all sorts, but Alonso has fully maximised his opportunities and gone straight to the front of the queue of successors. But for car and driver errors, that could have been Kimi instead.

Last year, Raikkonen already had to endure a year wasted within the first few races once the execrableness of the McLaren MP4/19 became apparent. This year, despite the car being just about good enough, looks like it might be similarly wasted already. That is, unless the new parts that are due in Spain transform the silver cars and give them a further boost in performance. Might it end up being both Schumacher and Raikkonen and giving chase to Alonso as the year goes on?

Alexander Wurz's drive to 4th may not have been as action-packed as Pedro de la Rosa's effort in Bahrain, but it was every bit as impressive. After his awful last season for Benetton in 2000 (for which he won our inaugural 'Reject of the Year' award), Alex has not raced at all in any category. He only drove the MP4/20 for the first time in Bahrain as well. Despite all these odds stacked against him, he was quick enough, and did not put a foot wrong all weekend.

With Button coming home 3rd, BAR became the sixth team in four races to score a podium finish. Their renaissance at Imola made a competitive field even more closely-fought. Clearly, Renault and probably Ferrari aside, who will shine this year at any given race will depend on who's got what developments when, whose car/driver/engine package will suit that particular track or those particular conditions, and more than ever before who's where with reliability in terms of engine and tyre life especially.

But at what price has BAR's resurgence come? There has been a real element of farce in their efforts this year, starting with their claim that they are interested only in race wins this year and not championship positions. Strange. Then there were their deliberate retirements in Australia, their early blow-ups in Malaysia, the brake problems in Bahrain, and now a 3rd and 5th for Button and Takuma Sato but with doubt still lingering as to the legality of the Englishman's car at the time of writing.

To be honest, BAR's pace was not earth-shatteringly threatening all weekend, and during the race they seemed more concerned with trying to beat Alonso instead of responding to Schumacher who was catching Button hand-over-fist. They currently seem to be operating somewhere between desperation and naivety. The quick, consistent efforts of both drivers - Jenson was quite superb and Taku's move on Webber mid-race was clinical - are the bright sparks in a team that's presently not entirely clear-minded.

For a man who won at Imola in 2001, it is surprising that there is not more made of Ralf's current lack of performance. He is on a superlatively higher pay-packet than Trulli, and yet he has also been comprehensively outdone by the Italian in qualifying and race trim. On the other hand, Trulli has developed into one of the most dependable drivers in the field. One wonders what he might be doing if he were still in a Renault right now, but at least, thankfully, Toyota has given him a competitive car of their own.

Jarno is one of only two men to have qualified in the top five in every race so far; the other is Mark Webber. And yet Williams continue to flatter only to deceive. Their one lap pace is OK - or that may just be Webber's one-lap quality shining through - but their race speed is frustrating. Mark has dropped below his starting position in every race so far, nowhere more ignominiously than here, where he gridded up 4th but ended up finishing 10th on the road, especially after BMW detuned his engine late in the race.

His move around Sato on lap one, from the outside of Tosa to bully his way past around the outside of Piratella, will be one of the overtaking manoeuvres of the year, but it went downhill from there. Stuck behind Trulli, the Aussie then allowed Sato to slipstream past a lap before he was due to pit. Not only did he not seem to have the presence of mind to take a defensive line, but when he needed strategy to propel you past Trulli, a lap before his stop is when you should get a bit more desperate about protecting your position.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Mark Webber
Won't die wondering, but it's not coming off at the moment

The truth is, the BMW engine isn't quite there, the Williams chassis certainly doesn't generate quite enough downforce, but Webber at the moment can't put together a mistake-free race. He may be faster than Nick Heidfeld, who once again was largely anonymous, perhaps because Mark is pushing harder to compensate for the car's deficiencies. But in pushing hard he needs to cut out the errors. For this exasperating 'sinking ship' performance, we give Webber our 'Reject of the Race' award. (But we still love you, Mark!)

Sauber found themselves nicely on the pace here, after having done nothing notable in the first three races. Again, if this signals that all teams can have their day at different races throughout the season, that can only be a good thing for the sport. Had Felipe Massa started 8th, where had qualified before he changed his engine, he may have finished 5th or 6th. Eventually Jacques Villeneuve picked up the pieces with a welcome 6th place, even if in truth he was still behind Massa's pace.

But at least it was good to see the ex-champion relieve some of the pressure off his shoulders. On the other hand, it was Felipe's turn to lose points in the credibility stakes, after his two barging matches with David Coulthard's Red Bull at the Rivazza, both of which were the Sauber driver's fault. Understandably, Massa was getting frustrated at being held up, but that is no excuse for his obvious anger and his desperado moves. DC was racing for position, and entitled to hold his place.

If the Brazilian and the Scot had a friendly chat afterwards, we hope that DC reminded him how he didn't chance a crazy move on Enrique Bernoldi at Monaco in 2001, where the Arrows held him up for 40-odd laps. For Red Bull, it was their turn to slide right down the pecking order this weekend, but the jury still has to be out; what is more indicative of their regular pace, their awesome Melbourne and Sepang double-points efforts, or this race, where they never came in sight of the top eight?

Red Bull were also in the thick of the politics at Imola, having got the consent of all other teams to run Klien on Friday, before breaking ranks with the Group of 9 to attend the FIA's F1 working group meeting, and then inking an engine deal with Ferrari. Does this indicate real shift in alliance for Christian Horner's team, or does it simply indicate a very independent attitude, which Bernie Ecclestone will no doubt take advantage of somewhere down the line?

It was another highly un-noteworthy weekend for Jordan, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro going largely unnoticed. While it means they can learn the ways of F1 away from the spotlight, it also means they have less chance of catching the eye, which is a shame for the Indian especially, who has been somewhat impressive. Already it seems clear that this is a minimal-expenditure, 'holding' year for Midland. Frankly, the Toyota engine, and both drivers, deserve better than that.

At this rate, Jordan could well be under threat from Minardi at some stage later in the year. The PS05 made its debut at Imola after negligible testing, and although it was still off the pace, the ingredients are there for improvement. The all-new chassis, Minardi's first since 2002, does look more aerodynamically advanced, especially around the rear cowling. With the same Cosworth engine as Red Bull, and improved reliability, there is definitely potential for improvement for both Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher.

But, to state the obvious, all eyes will be at the front in Barcelona. Two years ago, Ferrari debuted their F2003-GA in Spain and Schumacher won. But not before being pushed all the way by Alonso in his Renault, in a drive that announced the Spaniard as a front-running force. This year, their roles are clearer still - Fernando the pretender to the throne, Michael who simply has to beat the man from Oviedo and start eating into the points gap if he's to retain his crown. Three words: bring it on.