BEL: Raikkonen's Belgian brilliance

Never before have we seen the combination of Spa's schitzo weather and single-lap qualifying, a concept with all the predictability of a cat in a bath. What it gave was a little window of opportunity where normal wet tyres - as opposed to extreme weather tyres - could be used. If this coincided with your running order you were quids-in, like Renault. If it didn't, you were up against it, trying, like Ferrari, to beat an intermediate time in conditions that demanded wets.

If you'd qualified higher than eighth in the pre-qualifying session youcame out after the rain had re-commenced. If you'd qualified lower than 10th in that first session you came out before it had stopped. You had to grab whatever hand fate dealt you, maximise it and then see where you were, this after having been able to run only 13 minutes of wet practice in the morning as the sessions had been curtailed, the low cloud visibility being incompatible with the medical helicopter's safe operation.

What this all translated into was a surprisingly closely-matched struggle between Renault and Ferrari - which revealed just how much of an advantage the Ferrari/Bridgestone combination would have had in hand had the playing field been level. BAR might have joined in the struggle had it realised in time the window that had opened up before it. But it didn't and so the history books record its cars as qualifying 12th and 15th.

With hindsight, the clue to the opportunity should have come after ninth man out Antonio Pizzonia failed by a huge amount to match the sector- two time of previous runner, Mark Webber. The Jaguar driver had put together a beautifully-judged lap but the 2.7s by which Pizzonia trailed him on the same tyres didn't tally, regardless of the fact that the Williams had been hurriedly repaired after his morning practice off. The rain had stopped, and though the track still appeared very wet, it can now be seen that Pizzonia's rubber had, in fact, overheated.

Next came Takuma Sato. He too overheated his extreme weather tyres. He talked on the radio of the diabolical understeer he was suffering through the succession of downhill bends in sector two. Unfortunately for the team, the two BAR-Hondas had pre-qualified in consecutive places, and so there wasn't the window of opportunity to inspect Taku's tyres and data before committing to Jenson's tyre choice. Had Taku pointed out that the surface was now suitable for the less deeply treaded wets there would have been time. But why would he want to do that when your team-mate's your biggest rival?

So Button too went out on extreme wets - and badly overheated them after being mega-quick in sector one, suffering huge understeer through the succession of downhill bends in sector ... well, you get the idea.

Next cars due out were the two Renaults of Trulli and Fernando Alonso. It was surely worth a gamble to stick Trulli on the Michelin 'normal' wets, and even though it was a new and generally untried design, Jarno had done a couple of laps on them in the morning practice. He made a decisive call, shaved a tenth off Button's sector-one time and even as he turned into Les Combes, his grip was visible, the car hugging the apex without much in the way of coaxing. Feeling the grip in his hands, his confidence soared and he nailed a beautiful succession of turns as the Renault swept down the valley, a blue and yellow flash amid the sea of spray. At 1m56.232s, the lap was 2.5s quicker than Webber's earlier run.

Alonso's tyre choice was therefore a no-brainer and he went out on the attack, his team-mate's time the target. Fantastically committed through Eau Rouge, he had to work to keep the rear end from getting out of hand and he was 0.1s up on Jarno as he completed the sector. But, critically, he was running far less rear wing than Trulli and, as he braked and turned into Les Combes, he just didn't have the same grip. Pressing on regardless, he gave it some out of Turn 9 and the R24 immediately went spectacularly sideways over the exit kerb. "I was not at full confidence after that," he said. Short of downforce and confidence he was never going to match Trulli's sector-two time. He was 0.7s slower through there, 0.4s down over the lap.

As David Coulthard's McLaren began its flying lap the rain started to fall once again. It was enough to make him lap 1.7s slower than Trulli, but the shallower treaded tyres were still the correct choice. But even before DC's slow sector two time made it clear that the rain was back, Williams had to make a call on Juan Pablo Montoya's tyres. They went for normal wets, he pulled out of the pitlane... and the heavens opened. He slithered around as best he could for a time that would eventually stand for 11th. The remaining five runners - the two Saubers, Kimi Raikkonen and the two Ferraris - found themselves firmly in 'extreme weather' territory as the rain continued to fall.

Despite the quality of Bridgestone's extreme weather tyre and Giancarlo Fisichella's silky skills, the fact his lap was 1.8s adrift of Trulli's provisional pole suggested that even Ferrari was going to struggle to match that intermediate time. Felipe Massa in the other Sauber was one second slower than Fisi; next out was Raikkonen. Despite increased rain it was shaping up into the quickest extreme weather lap to date, but wasn't going to threaten Trulli. Then he overdid it into the Bus Stop and lost 1.2s.

The realisation that Ferrari was a genuine pole threat despite the timing of its runs came as Rubens Barrichello went every bit as quickly as Trulli had in the first sector. The grip was visible as the F2004 entered the downhill section bold and planted. Through Pouhon the speed was astonishing considering the conditions. As he tripped the timing beam at the end of sector two he was 0.4s ahead of Jarno's schedule. But, just as with Raikkonen, it all went wrong under braking into Bus Stop, Barrichello clattering wide over the kerbs, two seconds were added there, giving him a time just slower than Fisichella's.

And finally Michael. His lap was virtually identical to Barrichello's by the end of sector two and therefore on-course for pole. But that last chicane was a worry. Having seen both Raikkonen and Barrichello have moments there, Ross Brawn radioed Michael to be cautious. He was and he got safely through, but time was ticking away and there was worse to come too as the traction control kicked in hard as he tried to get the power down coming out. He failed by seven hundredths. Splitting the Renaults would have to do.



The chaos theory served up a beautiful race in Belgium. Spa's always a place likely to juggle the variables, and it didn't disappoint. Its weird micro-climate mixed up the grid, and the circuit's key features - a tight first corner that invites first-lap incident and the classic momentum overtaking opportunity offered by the sequence of Eau Rouge/Raidillon/Les Combes - took care of the rest.

The race gave us fast cars out of position, carving their way through the field, and three safety car periods to bunch them up again. It gave us the drama of suddenly deflating tyres, games of chicken through Eau Rouge, cars touching wheels at one-hundred-and-terrifying miles per hour, and six leaders. It also gave us Michael Schumacher's seventh world title, breaking his own record.

Tying these random elements together was a thread, the interwoven silver thread of Kimi Raikkonen's brilliance and the excellence of the McLaren MP4-19B. The Finn stamped his authority on the race with a perfect blend of aggression and cool, passing the world champion's Ferrari, then repeatedly seeing it off every time circumstance offered Schumacher another bite of the cherry, despite several significant issues inside the McLaren's cockpit. Make no mistake, lady luck was pitching as hard as ever for the reigning world champion, but she met an immovable object in the shape of the McLaren ace.

From 10th on the grid, Raikkonen could barely see the front row as the lights went out. He made a good, hard start, decided to stay on the outside and see how things panned out.

The Renaults were dynamite, as ever, Jarno Trulli converting pole to an easy lead into La Source, while Fernando Alonso comfortably outsprinted Schumacher to make it a Renault one-two.

Schumacher's average getaway also allowed David Coulthard to get up his inside. But behind there was trouble brewing. Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber was slow away and was swamped. As everyone veered around him, they were brought to a point of conflict, too many cars into too tight a space.

Mark Webber was squeezing down the inside and left his braking just a fraction too late. As the Jaguar's front wheels momentarily locked, Rubens Barrichello was cutting across his bows, taking up his rightful line. Webber couldn't avoid the back of the Ferrari. The contact plucked off the Jag's wing, punctured a rear tyre on the Ferrari and damaged its rear wing.

Fisichella saw all of this and braked in avoidance. Unsighted, Olivier Panis hit the back of the Sauber, damaging its undertray, while knocking off the Toyota's wing and cutting a tyre. Staying outside, Felipe Massa, braking late, locked up and went straight on just as the track eases right, which took him into the rear of Raikkonen.

Raikkonen felt the bump, but all hell was breaking loose across the other side of the track, and amid the confusion he was able to go round the outside and hook up in fifth, on the back of Schumacher. Not too bad from 10th. But what about the car? Was it damaged? He radioed the team. It went on standby for him to come in.
As Raikkonen and Massa touched, Jenson Button braked hard to avoid them.

Antonio Pizzonia was caught out and hit the BAR into the back of Massa! Nick Heidfeld hit the back of Pizzonia! Button's front wing joined that of Webber's and Panis's in the middle of the road. Panis virtually stalled and was furiously resetting his electronics as everyone passed. So it was that a whole muddle of cars virtually stopped as they tried to get out of each other's way.

Barrichello came out of the corner just behind Raikkonen, but felt his Ferrari go very strange as he charged down the hill. Wisely, he backed off through Eau Rouge and let the pack pass him up the hill. Just as well that he did, because he had a punctured rear.

That wasn't quite the end of it. Hot on the tail of Trulli, Alonso, Coulthard, Schumacher and Raikkonen, Takuma Sato charged out of Eau Rouge and into Raidillon. The wingless Webber was just behind him, but obviously struggling. Juan Pablo Montoya instinctively moved to the right of the Jaguar and kept his foot in, passing Webber and Sato fractions of a second before the Australian ran wide and into the path of the Japanese driver's rear wheel. Instantly, the BAR was pitched hard right, bouncing off the barriers into the path of the midfield.

Gianmaria Bruni had made up lots of places, but confronted by this commotion, braked hard and was hit by team-mate Zsolt Baumgartner. As Bruni spun across the track, he was collected by Giorgio Pantano, a brief engine fire erupting from the Minardi. With the wrecked BAR, Jaguar, Minardi and Jordan littering the track, the safety car was deployed.

Trulli led from Alonso, Coulthard, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Montoya, Fisichella and Pizzonia. In at the end of the lap for repairs came Button, Massa, Barrichello, Baumgartner, Heidfeld and Panis. These cars were also refuelled, putting them out of sequence with those still on track.

For Barrichello and Massa the repairs were going to take longer than one safety car lap, and so both were sent out just before it came by, buying enough time to come back in again on the following tour to have the jobs completed. Barrichello finally rejoined at the back over half a minute down on the leader - even by the time he caught up with the train.

Raikkonen had decided not to come in, after all. There was some diffuser damage, but with advice from the team, he was able to alter the electronic differential settings to compensate for the oversteer.

As the safety car came in at the end of lap four, the two Renaults simply took off again. The slow caution period was bad news for Bridgestone users, because the tyres took a couple of laps to reach operating temperature, while the Michelins were immediately up to speed. This was not the same family of Bridgestones first seen in Hungary, where this shortfall had been largely addressed. The new specification is not yet suitable for high-speed tracks.

For Schumacher, on the hard compound, the problem was even worse than for Barrichello and the Saubers, who were on the softs. Raikkonen could sense his advantage as they exited La Source.

With better traction out of the hairpin, Raikkonen sucked in the Ferrari ahead of him, pulled out of its slipstream and, unblinking, went for the inside as they approached Eau Rouge, sitting it out into the corner with Schumacher! The Ferrari driver meekly backed off, and the Finn was through. Next, team-mate Coulthard, but not before another hiccup.

"I began getting a problem with the downshift," said Raikkonen. "The car was pushing forward and the gears weren't going in. For a couple of laps it was very tricky, and I almost spun off. Then it was working again."

Montoya had watched as the McLaren driver put that move on Schumacher, and he, too, could see the cold tyre grip problem the German was having. He had to nail him this lap. Montoya being Montoya, he did it at an unexpected place. All weekend, drivers had been saying the new Bus Stop layout had killed a passing spot. Montoya hadn't heard them. He went round the outside of the Ferrari there.
Into the sixth lap, Raikkonen stayed flat through Eau Rouge, took a massive chunk out of Coulthard and got himself nicely into the tow as they went up the hill and down the 200mph stretch towards Les Combes.

DC didn't make it easy, their wheels getting mighty close. Raikkonen's right front kicked up the dust as they went through the flat-in-seventh kink of Kemmel, but he was through. Only the Renaults were ahead of him now, but not by much. And the Renaults didn't look quite as quick as the McLaren in the dry. There were other concerns for Raikkonen, though. The downshifting problem had reared its ugly head again.

"I almost spun a few times because it locked the rear end completely," he said. "I was changing switches on the steering wheel, trying to get some sort of idea of how I could push again. We have different positions on engine braking, and one of them was working but it was an extreme one, almost locking the rear wheels. So I was using it at the hairpin and the chicane, because otherwise I couldn't stop the car. Then I would change the position for the other corners."

Trulli pitted as early as lap 10. As he came out, back in ninth, he couldn't believe how bad the car suddenly felt. "I had no rear grip at all," he said. "I was having big moments everywhere and I lost all confidence in the car."

The pole-sitter and early race leader ceased to be a factor for the rest of the day. Alonso led. But not for long. Even as his crew were preparing for his pit-stop, he spun at Les Combes.

Raikkonen took the lead. From 10th to first in 12 laps, and with a big and ever-increasing advantage over Montoya and Schumacher.

Alonso got going again, but spun again into Rivage, this time beaching the car in the gravel trap.

"It was only when I got out that I saw that engine oil had sprayed all over my rear tyres," he explained.

At this point, Coulthard should have inherited second, but he was limping in with his right rear tyre in shreds. It had blown as he climbed the hill out of Eau Rouge.
The right rear is not the most highly loaded on the lap, but at this point it is under considerable high-speed strain. There would be two more very similar Michelin failures later in the race. They were still to be investigated at the time of writing, but Coulthard's tyre was found to have a cut in the inner shoulder, perhaps where it had been dragged off a kerb.

There was a theory that, coming through Blanchimont, the big load on the right rear increased the pressure, making it susceptible to damage if abused over the second kerb of the Bus Stop. The next time that rear would be put under significant load would be at Eau Rouge and Raidillon, where the three failures occurred. It might also be significant that Michelin uses a light, pliable sidewall and a heavily-reinforced tread.

Coulthard made his way to the pits, where the tyre was replaced just in time before Raikkonen arrived for his scheduled stop.

Montoya stopped two laps later, Schumacher the one after. Montoya emerged just as Massa, yet to come in, was accelerating out of La Source. Side by side they went down the hill, approaching Eau Rouge with neither prepared to back out of it, Montoya on the inside, but on cold tyres. They entered the corner side by side, too. Massa showed steel and took up the line, Montoya forced to back off as the Sauber cut across his bows. It would be another three laps before Massa pitted, and this cost the Colombian his hard-won place over Schumacher.

This also put Montoya behind the struggling Trulli, whom Schumacher had passed with ease on his out-lap at Blanchimont. As the Ferrari drew away, Montoya was plainly frustrated at being held up by the Renault. He tried a repeat of his Bus Stop move, but from too far back, as Trulli turned into the second part of the chicane. Their wheels interlocked, the Renault spun, losing four places, while Montoya came almost to a stop as Pizzonia sprinted by him.

Raikkonen led from Schumacher, Pizzonia, Montoya, Button, Massa, Fisichella (having a tough time with a damaged undertray and a missing front wing endplate after clattering across the grass) and Ricardo Zonta.

As Montoya caught up to team-mate Pizzonia, the latter responded impressively, pulling himself just out of reach again. On the 28th lap, with the deficit to Raikkonen over 12.5sec, Schumacher set the fastest lap of the race to date. There was still fuel in the Finn's tank and his cushion was surely comfortable enough, but McLaren was taking no chances. To ensure positional advantage it brought him in for his second and final stop on lap 29. Montoya pitted at the same time.

Moments later, Button's right rear blew at around 200mph, just before the braking area for Les Combes. The car turned sharp right, into the side of Baumgartner's Minardi, probably saving the Briton from a more serious impact. This was scary stuff. Both cars were out, but their drivers were unharmed. With wreckage strewn all over, the safety car came out again. Schumacher dived for the pits and McLaren cursed as he got his second stop for free, the safety car's pace allowing him to sit on Raikkonen's tail, wiping out his 12sec advantage.

As the safety car was still circulating, Pizzonia lost his third place with sudden loss of gears - a crushing blow after a highly-impressive performance. The safety car's lights went out after five laps - racing would be back on at the end of the tour.

Raikkonen had Schumacher on his gearbox. The Finn began playing cat and mouse the way Schuey does, slowing him to a crawl, using the advantage from the reaction to sprint away. He did it to perfection, but the relative characteristics of Michelins and Bridgestones from cold meant his place was never in real danger.
Two more laps, and Montoya's right rear blew! At the same place as the others. This damaged his rear suspension, and he retired.

The second safety car had been a godsend for Barrichello, who'd already made his final stop and had only just avoided being lapped. Suddenly, from being over a minute behind and back in ninth, here he was in third, a matter of seconds off the lead.

It had helped the recovering Coulthard, too, and now DC lay eighth, looking for a way by Christian Klien's Jag. He got a good run on it through Eau Rouge on lap 39, and on the exit of Raidillon made to move to the left. Klien, whose left-hand mirror had fallen off, moved the same way. They touched and the McLaren veered left at horrific speed, Coulthard doing a remarkable job of using the barrier to keep it straight, while the front wing flew inches over his head and attached itself to the rear wing.

McLaren got on the radio and asked him to park it, not wishing to risk Raikkonen running over his debris. Big balls DC was having none of it, drove it back and used the final safety car period, created by his incident, to get out on the tail of the tightly-bunched 10-car pack. This became nine when Zonta's engine blew, losing him fourth. With four laps to go and at the resumption of racing, Coulthard immediately picked off Trulli and Panis, and closed up on Klien again, with the Jag in turn all over Fisichella. And that's how they finished.

On the first flying lap after the pace car, with just the four remaining, Raikkonen set a stunning fastest lap, 0.5sec better than any Schumacher had done. Game, set, but not match. That's the plan for next year.