It seems Renault was really worried about the reliability of the engine after Bahrains effort and win, the had some problems, so they didn't let Alonso practice at Imola much with the car so thats why we barely saw him practice during the weekemd compared to the other guys. And had to rely on the other Michelin drivers for tire choices since he barely any seat time and experience. Furthermore, he was told not to use the whole RPM range during the race for this same reason, and had to push the tires more to compensate for not being able to use the engine output fully.
And in the end he still won the race, making no mistakes during the qualifing, not pushing the car too hard during the race, controling his pace according to his rivals he had behind, and studying Shummi's 1 sec/lap faster F2005 car in the last ten laps (that did away with Button in just a couple of laps, and everybody else for that matter) in the corners were Schummi would attack, while keeping cool and concentrated under that kind of pressure and making that Renault wider than ever while keeping the two lapped cars in front at a distance so as not to give Shummi a chance, and all this at Ferrari's home turf were they had won in the last 6 years in a row... Schummi did a great drive (so would other drivers with that same car like Kimi) but I think the "fantastic" drive went to Alonso that day in my opinion. A 23 year old kid in Formula 1 that did a intelligent, cool, tactical, no-mistake, fast, paced type of race more worthy of what a experienced veteran multi-champion would do.
Great to see such battle though, Schummi can't complain about his car anymore, which is good for us because it means more fun with him up there. Too bad Kimi was "robbed" of his opportunity to participate. Lets wait for Spanish GP
The 115,000 tickecks are sold out.
EDIT: BTW, Ralf Schumacher recieved at Imola once again a penalty for his driving
And Jenson Button may loose his thrid position since it seems the Honda did not meet minimum 600kg weight at the end of the race and the FIA is now appealing for penalty.
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(the min weight of 600kg must be without fuel or liquids)
