Well Well Well Schumacher - Thy synonym might well be Controversy!!! i am of course referring to the last weeks' qualifying for Monaco Grand Prix....Monaco is one of the most looked forward to races in the F1 calendar every year for it is not only a street race but has one of the most picturesque surrondings for a race....Twisting and twirling through tunnels, chicanes, below mansions!!! near the mediteranean sea ....one of the most toughest circuits in the race calendar....Another reason why drivers feel that a pole position at Monaco is as good as winning the race (Which proved right this year too!)....
Schumi towards the dying seconds of the qualifying session (when he was leading on the times set and was going for another flying lap; And Alonso was supposedly two hundredths of a second below his time at the Second Intermediate and behind schumi) stalled the car as he lost control on a fast maneouvre of a sharp curve....This brought all the cars behind him to stall and lose their flying laps and teh session to get over...
There were Boos all around calling for Ferrari and Schumi's Head.....That it was a disgrace for a sport to have such a dirty legend......Flavio Briatore, the manager who first saw Schumi win his first F1 Championship and the currrent boss of the Renault team, opined that "He (Schumi) is taking everybody for a ride" or something like that....Then you had every driver calling for him to be abandoned from the sport ....Alonso, the current leader in the championship race, refused to comment....while Montoya, Coulthard, Villeneuve, Kimi also came up with their versions.....
This hype and furore is nothing new to Schumi for his various moves in the past - Some of the renowned ones include....(a)Schumi crashing into Damon Hill to winning his 94 Chamiopnship (1st world Chamiponship).....I wonder what Flavio Briatore commented when his champ won that race....(b) Schumacher trying to crash into Villeneuve in the last race in 97 championship and hitting the sidewall. Simultaneously he was stripped off his second position in the championship....(c)When he overtook Barrichello in the last corner of the Belgium Grand Prix in the 2003 season following Ferrari's unwritten policy of the second driver to always make way for Schumi in a race
Hey but i have some questions for these guys!!! (Not only Coz i am a Schumi Fan)
1) Would they have questioned if it was any other driver? Mistakes do happen when you are racing at such high speeds....Some say a seven time world champion could not have done such an elementary mistake....Hey is he not human!!! he did not even know he was leading the timing charts as he did not have radio contact at that point...
2) What credibility do ppl like Montoya, Coulthard, Briatore and Villeneuve have to question Schumi ???
Montoya that half mad colombian who crashes into others for he has very little patience and a very small brain that rarely works in a race...Villeneuve, the most spectacular non performer (leaving alone the 97 season) that has ever graced the sport and driven a car for more than a decade....How many times has he spoiled every driver's flying lap in qualifying in the 90s.....The world champ (of 97) is credited with the most spins in a race that could have ever been....Coulthard the b@$tard who rammed into Schumi in 1998 when Schumi was just six points behind coulthards teammate Hakkinen in the championships and had six races to go ..... That chap calling schumi a person without integrity....
But despite all this the Champ that he is Schumi started from the p22 (last position in the race grid) and finished a creditable 5th in the race....That too in a track where overtaking is almost next to impossible.....That speaks about the quality of the driver on the racing circuit....That too from the oldest driver on the circuit....Hats off to the Hero!!!Schumi is now 21 points behind Alonso but watch out the sleeping giant has been aroused.....With 12 races to go it aint over till its over....
