What a come back....

Imola was really one of the best races I have ever seen. Raikkonen finally had something to cheer about with a pole just ahead of to-be-crowned champion Fernando Alonso. Even with the launch of new F-2005, Ferrari seemed to have lost the glory of those old golden days. The car looked good last time but didn't show anything that can compete with in form Renault, Toyota and Mclaren. Ferraris finished in the 6th and 7th rows (mostly) in the second qualifying. All satrted well with Kimi having a good start ahead of Alonso and maintaining the lead for a first few laps. I couldn't believe that everything was so normal and so not unlucky in Kimi's life again. But it was not to be, as the race leader started slowing down and let all the others pass by him. Mclaren said It was a Mechanical failure yet again. After that it was something that we are getting very much used to this season; Alonso leading the race comfortably. When it looked as if Alonso will again be the star of the race, Schumi had some other plans.

Everything seemed so perfect for Schumi suddenly. The car showed that Ferrari challenge is still not over. It had speed, good handling and Bridgestones also worked extremely well with it. Schumi was racing in the third position after half of the distance covered, thanks to some great pit-stops carefully planned by the team. His car looked better than the car in front, Jenson Button's BAR-Honda. Under continuous pressure from Schumi, Jenson made a slight mistake near one of the shikanes and Schumi immediately took the opportunity to move to the second spot. Everything looked dramatic and hard to believe but what followed was a few laps of even more dramatic, skillful, aggressive and determined racing. The last ten laps showed how a perfect race should be. Alonso and Schumi, two great drivers in good cars finally reached the Chequered flag within fraction of seconds of one another.

Schumacher again looked to have a better car of the two with a better speed at the straights and carrying more speed through the corners. He put Alonso under a lot of pressure and managed to get a glimpse of Alonso's nose one or two times when he almost overtook the young veteran. Alonso however, kept his cool and brilliantly controlled the pace of the race by making use of better handling of the Renault. He drove very slowly out of every corner so that Schumi could never come out of any corner with full throtle. The brilliant strategy not only kept him ahead of Schumi but also kept him behind two backmarkers, a few hundread metres away.

All in all, a great race. Really fun to watch. Only thing not good in the race was the absence of Montoya. Who knows he would have made the race even more interesting to watch. I hear that he is probably not racing in the next race also. I wish he makes a good come back as soon as possible.