One word: zzzzzz.
More words: The 2006 European Grand Prix revisited the good old boring procession-style racing that Formula One was trying to get away from. Other than the typical first-corner shenanigans that saw the Red Bull teams take the brunt of the action, nothing exciting happened during the race. I suppose all the drama had been used up in qualifying, when Giancarlo Fisichella stormed into Jacques “I’m 1997 World Champion Dontchaknow” Villeneuve’s garage to yell at him. Something about traffic, which seems to be the catch-all excuse these days for poor qualifying, whether or not it’s actually justified.
The race? Ho hum. Michael Schumacher and Ferrari pulled off another brilliant pit strategy to get him the victory. Fernando Alonso tootled home in second, and Felipe Massa captured his first career podium. Fisi got stuck behind Villeneuve during the race, but this time he couldn’t complain about traffic as they were fighting for position. Fisi ended up having to pass JV in the pits instead of on the track.
Raikkonen looked lackluster his his pewter Mclaren, finishing a disappointing fourth. Great British Hope Jenson Button had his engine go kablammo, but at least his teammate Rubens Barrichello made it into the points, finishing fifth. Nico Rosberg started last because of an engine change but managed to work his way up to seventh, one spot behind Fisi. And bringing up the last points-paying position was Villeneuve, who lucked into it when both Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher stopped on the same lap.
The word of the race was “ear”, as in “I’d rather go look for an ear in the forest than watch a boring race like this again.”
#1 by Joan & Ray Norris on 10 May 2006 - 2:13 pm
How is it that F1 Bernie can be sooooo very rich (billions) and so verrrrrry stupid as to put F1 races on that god awful CBS??? If I never watched a F1 race before and saw it on CBS I would know why I never watched F1 before!!!! Thanks, Joan & Ray PS We have been fans of F1 since before it was called F1.