Excellent result. Alonso’s Renault clearly had Schumacher’s Ferrari pegged. The laps he put in after his stops were astonishing frankly given he was heavy on fuel. Schumacher didn’t look too happy, but a second place finish isn’t too bad. Fisichella dropped from 2nd to 3rd.

Like most of the races so far this season, it was pretty dull and settled into a repetitive pattern. I was concerned that Schumacher would do what he did at San Marino and sneak past at the pit stops, but his car clearly wasn’t fast enough, regardless of the fuss made on Saturday about it being nearly 8 MPH faster back straight than anyone else.

Alonso’s consistent fast laps saw to that. Unfortunately Fisichella once again showed the opposite. He seemed to doze off in the middle part of the race when he should have been trying to keep Schumacher behind him.

There was an amazing atmosphere from the crowd. Alonso’s last lap with the crowd cheering was fantastic. I can’t remember hearing a crowd so loudly before! Great to have a Spaniard winning his home grand prix (and its the first time its happened).

You have to wonder though if Alonso’s move to McLaren next year is a good idea. Kimi finished nearly a minute behind him, which is a eternity in F1.

There was a bit of movement further up the grid with Kimi moving from 9th to 5th (down to an excellent start), just ahead of Button who started 8th and finished 6th. Barrichello lost out and went backwards from 5th to 7th, but his car was very slow and he didn’t help Button, by holding up for the first stint.

Montoya had a bizarre spin just over 10 laps in and ended up beaching his car on the kerbs of turn 2.

My least favourite track is up next, Monaco, in two weeks. Fantastic place to be, but a yawnfest to watch with single file racing and little chance of overtaking. That said, qualifying should be carnage because of that!

By Paul

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