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Juan Pablo Montoya wins the race after a great start which moved him from 3rd on the grid to 1st. He led most of the race and won his first race of the season.
Fernando Alonso stayed in touch with Montoya for the entire race and at both pit stops had some traffic. He finished second and crucially in front of his main rival in the championship Kimi Raikkonen.
Kimi Raikkonen fought from 12th to finish 3rd driving superbly and managing to minimise the damage caused by the engine failure. He made a point putting in the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Giancarlo Fisichella had a good race and was set to finish 3rd until he stalled at the second pit stop giving 3rd away.
Jenson Button was 5th and the best of the rest. He started second but knew that the BAR is no match for the McLarens or Renaults
Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in 6th and 7th again over a minute off the pace. The Ferrari did not have the pace on a track they've traditionally done well on. The 3 stop strategy for Barrichello didn't work!
Ralf Schumacher made up the top 8 and managed to get ahead of his team-mate Jarno Trulli despite starting behind him. Trulli's race pace isn't as impressive as his qualifying.
Sauber, Williams and Red Bull were racing each other. One would expect Sauber and Red Bull to be but Williams seem to be going backwards fast!

Very few overtaking this year at Silverstone and that was dissapointing.

Impressive reliability though with just a single failure.

Thoughts ?

First race of the season that I did not see, so can only comment on the result.

Obviously good for Montoya to win for McLaren, holding Alonso behind as he is "supposed" to do, in order to help Kimi. Alonso sort of ruined that by taking a great pole, and second on the podium, once more outscoring Kimi making a fine fight back from 12th on the grid.

Kimi's downfall seem to be that he may be a "car breaker", and with the iron reliability of the Renault in the hands of Alonso, he absolutely have to stop busting the Mercedes engines.

Everyone else were / are also-rans. Fisischelle once more fluffed a pitstop, but for PR reasons this is bein "investigated" by Renault. Fisichella continue to show us all, why he was not grapped by a top-team for these many seasons, and he will likely have to look for work elsewhere next season.

Good on Button to finish again, however way to little way to late in the season.

Ferrari is looking more and more "the fool", their lag of pace can not continue to be ascribed solely to tires, the car/engine/tire package lags basic speed when compared with McLaren and Renault, and they can no longer seriously consider winning any of the championships.

As per the title of the thread my thoughts are :
F1 racing is so dominated by aerodynamics that it had best be known as F1 following. The " spoiled" air from the car in front is now so great that it is affecting cars 100 metres behind. Which is ruining the sport as a spectacle.
The Mclarens were clearly the fastest on the track, yet Kimi COULD NOT PASS anyone above 7th place. The only racing occured when a vehicle was coming down Hanger Straight, and another was exiting the pits. A grand total of perhaps 3 kilometres of racing . Whoopee.
Silverstone is one of the few tracks left where cars can pass at speed, which is what F1 used to be about.
Pundits will claim that technological advancement is a cornerstone of F1. In the mechanical area, I will agree. Aerodynamically, my utility is as stable, if not more, at 230kmh than at 120 kmh,and I can overtake without leaving the road. It does not have squiggly bits stuck all over the front, sides and rear.
F1 is becoming farcical.

I didn't see the race, so I voted for JPM. He managed not to do something stupid which is definately an acomplishment.

Just out of interest, did anything hapen to Williams or are they just on a slide.

rah wrote:I didn't see the race, so I voted for JPM. He managed not to do something stupid which is definately an acomplishment.

Just out of interest, did anything hapen to Williams or are they just on a slide.

A slippery one.

Montoya won the race

He's finally done it! He will now be much closer to Kimi

His move at the start was a great one and he knew Alonso would'nt take risks. It was close but I was worried the whole race about reliability!

Alonso had a good race too and he was a bit unlucky with traffic at the crucial moments. He still finished ahead of Kimi who also drove superbly.

Don't know what happened to Fisichella stalling two races in a row. Perhaps they should get him to practice a few stops!!

The rest ? Button did OK, Ferrari, who are they ? But isn't it funny Barrichello somehow ends right behind Michael ? Maybe it is in his genes

Now Montoya needs another win and he'll be up there with Kimi

Yes it was dissapointing to see no overtaking but at least we are seeing 3 or 4 (if you want to count Fisichella) racing for real

Didn't pick Montoya to win though

You can thank Trulli for stopping a McClaren 1,2. He seems to have usurped the "mobile chicane" role from Ralf

julian mayo wrote:You can thank Trulli for stopping a McClaren 1,2. He seems to have usurped the "mobile chicane" role from Ralf

Sure, maybe Ralf is contagious but last night Michael was more of a mobile chicane for Kimi than Trulli

And Fisichella reversed some of that

Come to think of it, we should be thankful that Kimi's two engine failures only happened in practice. Had they happened during the race Alonso would be leading by 40 or more !! (Thanks Mercedes )

Congrats on Juan Pablo's victory....knew the Colombian still had a victory or two(or three or...)under his helmet. Now if he just will start to challenge Kimi and Alonso for more GP wins, there might actually be a titanic struggle at the end of the season.

I think this win will give him the boost he needs. He isn't in F1 to play second fiddle and he isn't giving up his chances either.

Keep in mind Montoya missed 2 races and was black flagged another!

That's exactly how Montoya was when he was over here in ChampCars back in 1999 and 2000--he didn't play second fiddle to nobody, not Marlboro-Team Penske, Players' Forsythe, Team Rahal...no one. He fought every lap over here, and it may appear that the same fire and drive he had over here in the States' has returned w/a new ferocity. Like I said before, congrats on Montoya winning, graham.

When JPM first joined F1 I hoped he would make an impact. But he has left me wanting more so many times. I hope you guys are right and he does get some more wins. I wonder why his engine does not blow up like Kimi's.

rah wrote:When JPM first joined F1 I hoped he would make an impact. But he has left me wanting more so many times. I hope you guys are right and he does get some more wins. I wonder why his engine does not blow up like Kimi's.

Maybe Monty stays behind in the garage, when everyone else has gone home!

I think he prefers catering to the garage.

Was it me or has Montoya lost weight ?

Both Kimi and Monty are car breakers. Coulthard and Ralf used to be more consistent as team-mates to those two but also much slower