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The Nurburgring F1 2005 preview
Nurburgring will see some exciting racing this weekend - Kimi is on a roll, Miachel wants a win, Renault tries to bounce back and BAR is abck after a ban, and the qualifying format changes - all at the Nurburgring F1 2005!
BY OUR AUTOMOBILES CORRESPONDENT
26 May, 2005: And so it is at Nurburgring this weekend. This is a back-to-back race - the historic and eventful Monaco Grand Prix was just a week back.
What is the big news for
Nurburgring? Its the changed qualifying format. We are back to square one, and there will be no more Sunday Qualifying. Nobody liked it - not the teams, the drivers, the press or the fans. No one wanted to wake up on Sunday morning, and not know the day's F1 race grid. Thankfully, that's over. So we will have a single qualifying, with race tyres and race fuel on Saturday. Last week's winner would go out last,and that would be Kimi.
So let's take a look at the preparations of the teams for Nurburgring 2005.
First of all, Nurburgring is in Germany - and its is so known as the European Grand Prix. This is Mercedes' home ground, and McLaren Mercedes will be going all out to repeat their success at Monaco here. Kimi has finally got the car he deserved - only question is, will Alonso and Renault recover from the last two races and put up a good fight and extend his lead over Kimi Raikkonen. renault has admitted that their tyre choices were wrong at Monaco, and at a normal circuit like Nurburgring, they would not face that problem. Raikkonen is now 22 points behind Fernando Alonso. His teammate Juan pablo Montoya had a fantastic race after starting from the back of the field as punishment for an 'avoidable accident'. After having described the car as being excellent in a 'narrow window' - something he could not earlier come to grips with - the Columbian is now back in form, and the next race may see him giving a tough fight to - Raikkonen?! Heh heh. Anything is possible.
Oh, and it is also the home race for BMW! BMW Williams has definitely improved, and it was there to see in Monaco. Their tyres seem to be holding out well - as is Mclaren's - and expect them to give it all. At Monte Carlo, both Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber had their best-ever results at Monte Carlo, and it is a very confident team which arrives in Nurburgring.
Also expected to throw a few surprises is the rain which may hit the tracks any moment - and the circuit provides understeer, making the drivers waste quite a bit of time. The rain, if it appears, will make everything completely uppredictable. For example, which tyres woud preform better in the rain - Michelin or Bridgestone? Michael Schumacher is not having his greatest time at the moment, but he is a great driver in the rain, and Bridgestones in the past, have been better in the rain than Michelins. For this year, of course, we have no data to predict anything at all.
BAR Honda will be back after their 2-race ban. Most of the other teams were not with them during the controversy about the extra fuel tank. Jenson Button and Takuma Sato have got their work cut out - go out there and try for a podium, and out their past troubles behind them.
This is a kind of hone race for Toyota too - their factory is located only an hour away. Expect a bunch of Toyota fans too. The team is currently placed third, and Jarno Trulli is just a point behind Kimi.
Our own Narain Karthikeyan, in his Jordan EJ-15 has had two bad races. And to top it, the embarassment of Minardis being faster than Jordan in qualifying. Let's hope things change for them here. Narain has no experience on the Nurburgring circuit, while Tiago does not like it. The induction of Renault's Franck Montagny as the team's test driver could be a godsend - Renault has loaned him to Jordan, and everyone is mighty pleased.
The Force clealry was not with the Star Wars red Bull team last weekend, with David Coulthard retiring after running into a Minardi. Liuzzi, his teammate will race the other Red Bull at at Eurupeean F1 this weekend, and will hand over the car to Christian Klien for the Canadian F1 2005 - the next race.
No news about Sauber, but hopefully they will not repeat their Monaco mistakes.
Albers managed to take one Minardi to the finish line at Monaco. They will try to beat Jordan again this time.
So here we go, to Nurburgring!
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