Source: www.F1-live.com
Sunday's Grand Prix held in Melbourne Australia has given Giancarlo fisichella his second GP win. His first being at the Brazilian GP a few years ago was dubious but deserved. He drove well then and outstanding yesterday. Fisi started from the front after he was gifted pole position buy extreme weather conditions on the Saturday. He made an excellent and now legendary Renault start and continued to lead for the remainder of the GP. He looked after his car and wasn't troubled by anybody. It was a very measured drive, surely after all these years Fisi will have a true opportunity to fight for the title. His car is up to the job and so is he. The two fastest cars on the day were not Ferrari's or McLarens, they were Renaults. Alonso also produced a fight to end up third after starting way back in the pack. He came charging through the field to earn a well deserved place on the podium.
For the rest of the season all eyes will be on the two Renault drivers to see if they can deliver again, I expect they will, Alonso has raw pace, can be erratic but has the ability to match any of the top drivers and exceed them on his day. Fisichella too is very well regarded by both his team and other teams, he is also a smoother driver than Alonso and better in damp conditions. I expect that with this years tyre rules and engine rules, Fisi suites the new regs. more so than Alonso. Alonso can learn a lot from Fisichella he is a veteran racer who has raced for 4 teams, Benetton on two separate occasions!
Coulthard did himself a huge favour by bringing home the Redbull car home in 4th, something that was not expected at all. He showed his old class and drove fantastically well, he held off Webber in his Williams for pretty much the whole race, his start was fantastic, a gutsy move that put him into 3rd for the first corner. Surely he must have taken some satisfaction that he beat the Williams, the team who turned him down, and McLaren the team who threw him out. But RedBull will probably have a mixed showing this year, expect them to show glimers of speed but ultimately we'll see them mid field. Coulthard has both the quality and experience to take them further, its about development, if the Cosworth engine can match the Ferrari's, Mercedes and BMW's of this world later on in the season, consistent development is required.
Both Ferrari and McLaren didn't show their true potential, McLaren especially. The two McLaren drivers obviously frustrated with their postion never really made a clear break, Kimi stalled, looked racy behind Schumi but never did make a move, Montoya decided to cruise through the race surprisingly off the pace, not good practice when your driving for a new team. Ferrari showed that even though they are using a development of last years car they still have the pace, well at least one of them did, Rubins showed how it was done, whilst Michael really looked under pressure, and slow, yes slow, he has a different style to Rubins and the later's style suites these new tyre regs better than the former's. Time will tell.
The next race is at Malaysia and I expect things to return to normal, a 6 way battle for the race win between, the Ferrari drivers, McLaren Drivers and Renault drivers. Looks like this season is gonna be good after all!AS
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