End of the Road
Oct. 22nd, 2006 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeThe Brazilian Grand Prix capped off this year's Formula 1 racing season, and was at a time when I could see it live at what would ordinarily be a decent hour -- 9:30 AM Pacific Time. This is still fairly early for me on my time-shifted schedule, but I need to start transitioning back to normal hours anyway, so I got up "early" and went over to my father-in-law's house. (There's no broadcast/cable/satellite TV at Lisa's place, only monitors and a lot of videotape.) Today's race was also the final race of the legendary Michael Schumacher's career.
Some of the drama of the race went away when Michael's car unaccountably failed during the previous race, meaning that he would have to win today and his rival Fernando Alonso would have to finish out of the points (worse than eighth place) in order for Michael to end his career as F1 champion. Then, Michael had a mechanical failure in qualifying that meant he would have to start from tenth position. Still, Michael drove hard, and clearly was going to try and win that race, but he cut a tire and had to limp back to the pits. It was a wonder he was still on the lead lap when he got the tire replaced, but his teammate, Massa, was leading the race and was right "behind" him. Game over for Michael, it seemed.
But this is Michael Schumacher we're talking about here, and there was still the constructor's championship to race for. And this being the last race of the season, there was no need to preserve engines for the next race, so Michael drove all-out. To my astonishment, he managed to work his way all the way back to fourth place. It wasn't enough for Ferrari, who finish second behind Renault, and Alonso's second-place finish clinched the driver's championship for him, but it was still an amazing performance for Michael Schumacher.
Slightly overlooked in this was the race win for Brazilian Felipe Massa, who was wearing a special green-and-gold jumpsuit instead of the usual Ferrari red. Massa and the home crowd were clearly overjoyed with the win, and we should expect great things from Felipe in the future.
So another F1 season comes to an end, and I won't have to pay attention to race schedules and VCR recordings at odd hours of the night for another year.
Meanwhile, it's back to work for me here, on this extended day of my Oregon trip. Besides being on call support for the Australians, it's a fine day here in Mehama, so we will need to get some work done here, such as burning a pile of wood debris that's been sitting here needing disposal. We hope to do a better job of it than the neighbors, who seem to be excellent at creating smoulders, but not so good at burning.
Some of the drama of the race went away when Michael's car unaccountably failed during the previous race, meaning that he would have to win today and his rival Fernando Alonso would have to finish out of the points (worse than eighth place) in order for Michael to end his career as F1 champion. Then, Michael had a mechanical failure in qualifying that meant he would have to start from tenth position. Still, Michael drove hard, and clearly was going to try and win that race, but he cut a tire and had to limp back to the pits. It was a wonder he was still on the lead lap when he got the tire replaced, but his teammate, Massa, was leading the race and was right "behind" him. Game over for Michael, it seemed.
But this is Michael Schumacher we're talking about here, and there was still the constructor's championship to race for. And this being the last race of the season, there was no need to preserve engines for the next race, so Michael drove all-out. To my astonishment, he managed to work his way all the way back to fourth place. It wasn't enough for Ferrari, who finish second behind Renault, and Alonso's second-place finish clinched the driver's championship for him, but it was still an amazing performance for Michael Schumacher.
Slightly overlooked in this was the race win for Brazilian Felipe Massa, who was wearing a special green-and-gold jumpsuit instead of the usual Ferrari red. Massa and the home crowd were clearly overjoyed with the win, and we should expect great things from Felipe in the future.
So another F1 season comes to an end, and I won't have to pay attention to race schedules and VCR recordings at odd hours of the night for another year.
Meanwhile, it's back to work for me here, on this extended day of my Oregon trip. Besides being on call support for the Australians, it's a fine day here in Mehama, so we will need to get some work done here, such as burning a pile of wood debris that's been sitting here needing disposal. We hope to do a better job of it than the neighbors, who seem to be excellent at creating smoulders, but not so good at burning.
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Date: 2006-10-22 09:06 pm (UTC)Nice race.
The race was great!
Date: 2006-10-23 12:31 am (UTC)And I can't have been the only one secretly wishing he'd catch up with Alonso and accidentally take them both off with at least two laps to go (to give time for Massa to slow down and let Schumi catch up!) ... actually what I was very secretly wishing was for it to happen in the last lap so Michael would end up second, not win the championship but win the constructors for Ferrari and still let Massa win in front of his home crowd!
Next year is going to be pretty interesting with Kimi at Ferrari with Massa (the question is going to be who will be ahead in points by midseason?), Button in a pretty quick car, Coulthard maybe getting a better car (the Red Bull new car that's meant no work on this season's car), Anthony Davidson back in a car, and the new British hope at MacLaren ... and maybe Nico Rosberg will figure out what he was doing right at the beginning of this season and start doing it again ... Alonso in a new team will be interesting too!
Re: The race was great!
Date: 2006-10-23 08:49 am (UTC)Absolutely!
Date: 2006-10-23 09:18 am (UTC)Oh, and I just posted a comment ...
Date: 2006-10-23 09:19 am (UTC)