NewsOnF1 - Both McLarens on the podium!

Even when Mika qualified on the front row of the grid (subsequently relegated to fourth on the second row due to a difficult to understand penalty during the Sunday morning warm up session), I believed that it was because McLaren managed to get their qualifying set up right. I still believed that they will not be fast during the race.

I was wrong. Not only did both McLarens stay in touch with the leaders, they threatened them all the time until Hakkinen overtook Barrichello in the pits and it was all over.

Hakkinen won the race without ever looking as if he was trying very hard. I had forgotten how good Hakkinen could be. He sure reminded me in style. A well deserved win!

Coulthard looked as if he could catch Schumacher if the race was only a few laps longer. Like always catching is one thing but overtaking is another. He moves well clear of Barrichello for second place in the driver’s championship even though he benefited from Barrichello’s engine failure (graciously admitted by David in the post race press conference).

Barrichello was just unlucky. To start he loses critical seconds in the pits which hands the lead to Hakkinen and then the left bank of his engine gives up ending his race with only two laps to go.

I wonder when Barrichello’s engine trouble started. After the pit stop he was gaining at times more than half a second on Hakkinen and relentlessly reeling the Finn back in. With just over 10 laps to go they were evenly matched. At the time I thought that Hakkinen responded by increasing speed, which he did but not by ½ second a lap. It is possible that Barrichello’s engine was already losing power – possibly because he was pushing too hard.

As Michael pointed out after the race, it would have been better for the team if he had the engine failure. Barrichello worked hard. It would have been good to see him on the podium.

Apart from the first laps of the race, Michael never looked fast. He almost appeared to be saving his car or tyres. He certainly did not look as if he could challenge either Montoya or Hakkinen when he was in second.

I did expect the Williams to be fast. They have the power advantage necessary to win at Indianapolis. They only lack reliability. It is BMW’s first year, reliability is always an issue.

When Montoya overtook Michael Schumacher I was surprised at the speed advantage he had over the Ferrari. The Williams was considerably faster in a straight line and although Montoya was sawing at the wheel to keep the car on the circuit in the slower section he did not seem to lose too much ground with the exception of the times that he was out of shape. Ferrari and McLaren may have improved their straight-line speed over the season but they are still not anywhere near as fast as Williams in a straight line.

I wonder what the outcome would have been had Ralf Schumacher not beached his car. Ralf seems to be able to look after his car better than Montoya who regularly blows motors (although this time it was a hydraulic failure that put him out). It is quite conceivable that his car would have lasted.

On the other hand it appears that Montoya had problems with blistering tyres. Maybe Michelin do not have as much advantage on very hot, dry circuits as I thought.

I am amazed to see Sauber still competitive this late in the year. Seeing that they are using last year’s Ferrari motor I would have expected to see them fairly competitive at the beginning of the season (when this year’s engines are having teething trouble) and then fall off towards the end of the year.

It is a pity that Raikkonen retired as I suspect that he would have done very well. Heidfeld stayed in touch with the lead to the end.

The launch control on the Arrows, particularly Verstappen’s, must be close to magic. He stormed past half the field ahead of him at the start!

I was disappointed in the Benetton. They showed so much promise at Monza but did not seem that fast at Indianapolis.

BAR and Jordan were well off the pace too. I am sure that Honda have abandoned development of this motor and are focusing all their efforts on next year’s motor.

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