SpaCeMonKeY UK

Well, that was an amazing Grand Prix! I actually managed to stay awake for the whole thing! Heh.

The first corner was, well, carnage. Ralf Schumacher launched his car off of the back of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari. For a moment it looked like he was going to flip over, but he stayed the right way up and skidded over the gravel. I think it was pretty clear it was Ralf's fault, but obviously he'll never say that. None of them ever admit being wrong, after all. "Racing incident" is the closest we ever get to an admission of guilt!

They decided to deal with the crash by sending out the safety car instead of red flagging it. That was unexpected. With carbon fibre all over the track I'd have expected them to stop the race. Maybe they would have if Michael Schumacher had been taken out! I am so cynical. I think that's the right word. :-)

With nine cars out because of the crash (everyone swerved and ended up taking each other off), anyone still running was in with a chance of points. David Coulthard was in the lead, followed by Montoya, Trulli and Michael Schumacher. Try as he might, Schumacher couldn't overtake and David was pulling away. Hooray! I am not at all biased. :-)

Unfortunately, Trulli crashed (car failure - you have to wonder whether the electronic management systems cause too many accidents!) and the safety car came out again. David's lead was worthless. I'm getting a little confused as to the order of everything here, so don't get all mean if I've made a mistake. I think this was when David span off - just before the safety car was letting them race again. Oh no!

And so, the race continued. David fell further and further back - turned out he had a gearbox problem that left him with a limited selection of gears. He fell off the track a lot, and lapped slower and slower until he ground to a halt. Every year I think maybe this will be the one, but then his car breaks down. Every single year..! Still, this is only the first race, and lots of the main men's races ended with the first corner incident. Just not the important main man. Boo.

The hugely exciting thing about the latter part of the race was the Minardi driven by Mark Webber! Mark is an Australian, and this of course was the Australian Grand Prix (held in Melbourne). So the crowd were loving him. He made it up to fifth place! But the lovely Mika Salo, in his Toyota, was gaining rapidly. There was no way Webber would make it to the end of the race. Right? Well, wrong. Salo actually span! The experienced Finn messed up. The crowd cheered! And so Minardi scored two whole world championship points.

Maybe Michael Schumacher's dominance and eventual victory is what the history books will remember, but Mark Webber... who can forget those scenes? Paul Stoddart, the Minardi boss, was just soooo happy. He's from Melbourne, so the points couldn't have come at a more appropriate race. They were leaping around - they even went up onto the podium together! I used to watch Stoddart racing old Jordan cars in the BOSS formula at Brands Hatch. He deserves to have some success, and let's face it, apart from Monaco there's not usually a chance for the minnows to score points.

I think that's about all I have to say about the Grand Prix. Not many people reading this will care, but hey.

1) Michael Schumacher - Ferrari
2) Juan Pablo Montoya - Williams
3) Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren
4) Eddie Irvine - Jaguar
5) Mark Webber - Minardi
6) Mika Salo - Toyota

Apart from the top three, who'd have thought an awful Jaguar could have finished 4th, a Minardi could finish 5th, or a Toyota (it's the team's first race) could not only finish but finish in the points! Excellent stuff. Roll on Malaysia!

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