[sameerrao]

RACE RESULTS

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari Winner
2 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari +1.3 secs
3 9 Jenson Button BAR-Honda +10.1 secs
4 10 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda +15.3 secs
5 3 Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW +32.3 secs
6 5 David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes +33.4 secs
7 4 Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW +33.7 secs
8 11 Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas +35.4 secs
9 14 Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth +56.7 secs
10 7 Jarno Trulli Renault +66.3 secs
11 16 Ricardo Zonta Toyota +82.5 secs
12 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas +1 Lap
13 15 Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth +1 Lap
14 18 Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford +1 Lap
15 21 Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth +3 Lap
Ret 8 Fernando Alonso Renault +13 Lap
Ret 19 Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford +20 Laps
Ret 20 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth +24 Laps
Ret 6 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes +40 Laps
Ret 17 Olivier Panis Toyota + secs


Fucking Incredible Race ....

If you only watched the first few laps you would have thought "Ferrari sucks big time" ... Michael had slipped all the way back to 14th while Rubens who had a massive lead in the first three laps started being passed by Alonso.

What happened was that there was huge amount of rain prior to the race and the track was drying as the race started. Rubens was on intermediates while everyone else on the frist three rows were on dries. Rubens moved mid pack after his pit stop. Michael spun on the first lap. Two factors were responsible for this:
- Bridgestones take a long time to warm up
- The dry tires are very poor on damp comditions

But then slowly the magic appeared ... Michael passed his way back from 14th to eventually finish second behind Barrichello.

Rubens was shortfilled in the second stop and everyone thought that Ferrari screwed ... but Barrichello drove supremely to eke enough lead to squeeze an extra stop without losing the lead.

What about the other contenders:
- Montoya was awesome for the first two thirds but then started to struggle and fall backwards.
- Kimi retired after a superb first stint considering that the Mclaren was on minimal downforce compared to Williams and Ferrari.
- Alonso spun out and was beached in the gravel. Although his engine was still running the marshals refused to restart him. Note that Michael was helped by the marshals in Germany last year when he was in a similar situation.
- Button drove supremely but had no answer for the Ferraris