Imola (Italy): Formula One is back in Europe for Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix and Fernando Alonso returns to the site of his defining win in last season's championship.
A year ago, Alonso held off Michael Schumacher by 0.2 seconds after dueling over the final 12 laps to win the San Marino GP.
''It became maybe the most talked-about win of my career,'' Alonso said. ''For me, it was a win like the others. But when you are fighting with Michael, then I think the media talk about it in a special way and make it something bigger’’.
Alonso has performed slightly better this season than at this stage a year ago. He leads the standings with 28 out of a possible 30 points, two more than he had after the first three races of 2005.
The defending F1 champion won the season-opening Bahrain GP, finished second behind Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella in Malaysia, and then triumphed in Australia three weeks ago.
Fisichella and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen are tied for second in the standings with 14 points each. Ferrari's Schumacher and Honda's Jenson Button are next with 11 points apiece.
Imola traditionally is the race where teams introduce new technical setups and this year is no different.
Renault will introduce a new engine called the ''B spec'' that provides higher revs in Fisichella's car. Alonso is scheduled to start racing with it two weeks later at Nurburgring.
''There are no particular problems with the car; you can feel everything works well together. The drivability will probably be the strongest point of the season, and fingers crossed we can finish all the races with no reliability problems.''
Ferrari has done extensive testing since Australia and will have aerodynamic and engine modifications on both of its cars.
''Every race now is important for us,''Schumacher said on Thursday.
Ferrari has struggled in the past two races after Schumacher finished second in Bahrain. But the Maranello outfit exerted extra effort to get things in order for its home race.
In Malaysia, both Schumacher and teammate Felipe Massa were dropped 10 places on the starting grid after Ferrari switched engines, settling for fifth- and sixth-placed finishes. Both drivers crashed in Australia.
Schumacher has a record six wins at Imola and in Saturday's qualifying the German will attempt to clinch the 66th pole position of his career, which would break his tie for the record with Ayrton Senna.
Besides Ferrari, McLaren drivers Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya should pose the biggest threat to Renault.
Raikkonen opened by placing third in Bahrain, but was then hit from behind by Red Bull's Christian Klein to end his race on the first lap in Malaysia. He bounced back with a runner-up finish in Australia. Montoya opened the season with fifth- and fourth-placed results, but failed to finish the last race.
Comments
0 comment