Not a weekend to be a Ralph! Ralph F ruled out before the weekend started, Prof. Sid wisely deciding that, even though he only felt dizzy when lying down, the fact that an F1 car is driven from that position did not bode well… And Ralph S, deciding that he really didn’t have a chance at the championship, and not wanting to be outshadowed by JPM (again) pulling out at the last minute.
On to the race… lets hope it’s decided on track, and not by some scrutineer measuring the width of a tyre.
Michael is on pole, naturally, courtesy of the special Monza timing system, and just manages to hold off JPM round the first few corners. A close thing though, but luckily everyone stayed on the black stuff, just.
DC at last has a good start, and with the demise of Trulli part way round lap 1, ends up in 5th, behind the title contenders, oh, and Rubens.
The race is tense(ish) but fairly processional, broken up by de Matta’s left rear exploding just before the Parabolica, and the ITV curse working on BAR, with Jensen losing gear after gear.
A flurry of excitement after the second stops, when everyone thinks JPM has leapfrogged Michael, but no, he’s the meat in a Williams sandwich, with Gene, who still has to stop, in front.
JPM appears to be the faster, and it looks like a battle might be about to happen. Then, the Ferrari engined Sauber of Harry-Heinz lets Michael straight past, but holds JPM up for half a lap.
Juan settles for second in the end, choosing damage limitation in the title race over possible foolhardy overtaking attempts, there not being enough of a difference in performance to make any attempt certain.
DC drops out eventually, promoting Gene to a creditable 5th, with Kimi’s title hopes fading in 4th, and Rubens doing his job in 3rd. JV finally gets to finish a race, Webber again drags Jaguar into the points, and Alonso, starting from the back, and doing absolutely everything wrong, somehow manages to get the last point.
We need another good race, Bernie! Sort something out for Indianapolis, please? The Mole
The Mole
