Michael Schumacher wasn't surprised he won his second straight Formula One race after taking out the European Grand Prix for the sixth time on Sunday.
Schumacher, who also relegated F1 champion Fernando Alonso to runner-up at Nuerburgring like he did at San Marino GP two weeks ago, felt Ferrari's earlier performances in the season weren't accurate.
"I thought we looked good already at the first race, honestly, so it's not a surprise," Schumacher said. "We had the package available. We didn't make use of it all the time."
PHOTO: AFP
The seven-time world champion raised his finger as he crossed the line almost four seconds ahead to win the European GP in his home country for the fifth time. He also won it when it was in Spain in 1994.
It was Schumacher's 86th career victory.
It didn't look good for Schumacher earlier in the season. After a second in Bahrain, he was sixth in Malaysia and then crashed in Australia.
"If you finish first, what can you say?" Schumacher said. "That way it makes everybody happy who wants to see us winning."
He overtook Alonso on the second pit stop.
"I felt we had a good strategy," he said. "I knew we had a good race pace on new tires. I knew we could push and it all worked out."
Alonso, who won the title last year, started the race from the pole, the first time he has done so this season. Schumacher started second.
"It was impossible to stay ahead of them for 60 laps," Alonso said.
Felipe Massa, Schumacher's Ferrari teammate, was third on Nuerburgring's 5.148km course, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes.
The four were far ahead of the rest of the field. Rubens Barrichello of Honda finished in fifth, nearly a lap behind.
Last year, Schumacher had only a tainted triumph over a depleted field because of a tire dispute at the US Grand Prix. He struggled while Alonso became the youngest driver to win the F1 title.
This season, Alonso leads the driver standings with 44 points after his third second-place finish of the season. Schumacher is second with 31 points. The next race is the Spanish Grand Prix on May 14.
"Second place is a fantastic result for us," Alonso said. "We were a little bit down compared to Ferrari's performance this weekend. To get the eight points means everything is OK, and means we should win again."
Massa was happy with third place.
"It was a great result for us, especially my first podium," Massa said. "I think it was a great result helping out for the championship."
Alonso led for the first 17 laps but could not shake Schumacher.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS