Dangerous and Petty Games

An interesting race at Suzuka on Sunday. Every minute of the race, something happened to interest the average racing fan. No better showcase for the thrills of Formula 1 than Suzuka 2003! A keenly contested incident filled race from minute one. Stratergic planning, inspired passing moves, mechanical failures, mid race shunts - there was everything that a Formula 1 fan could look for. Fittingly Ruebens Barichello won the race from pole, though it seemed for sometime that he was content to let Juan Pablo Montoya win the race while he blocked Raikonen and co. from disturbing Michael Schumacher's applecart. Michael meanwhile was fighting tooth and nail to get into points position. He even got a toast of his own medicine (all the fault was his though, as he himself admitted) when Sato clipped his front wing. Micheal also showed off his trademark blocking when he veered wide to cut off Ralf who was trying to pass him on the main straights. Seems he does not care even for his brother. Not that I would expect him to! Raikonen and DC finished two and three with Montoya retiring from the lead quite early. Takuma Sato, Christian Di Matta and Jenson Button all had a good race while Ralf Schumacher finished 12th.

An eventful year in F1, thus comes to an end. A better season, though not the best so far, for the BMW-Williams and the West McLaren Mercedes teams. Another championship pair for the Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Michael Schumacher and Ruebens Barichello combination. Championships that was won equally by back room politics and some inspired driving too. No wonder that after all the events of this year, this happens....