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"SR F1 Championship - Belgian Grand Prix"

10 retire as Da Matta takes 1st career win

Cristiano Da Matta has won the Belgian Grand Prix, his first career victory. Whether it will save his seat for next season remains to be seen but this can only help his cause. In 3 seasons, the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix has started from 2nd on the grid.

While Da Matta was pretty much untouchable at the front, everyone behind him decided to make the track a rather expensive wrecking yard. It started on lap 2 when Montoya tried to take Heidfeld but Heidfeld ended up on turned over on the air box and retirement.

As the Championship leader, Baumgartner, began to feel the pressure of his Championship position by spinning to the back of the field, Pizzonia and Verstappen had a very serious coming together. Pizzonia exited the pits and came out alongside Verstappen. They both didn't want to yield going into the sensational Eau Rouge and they came together to crash heavily into the barriers on lap 7.

To add a bit more spice, the race started cloudy and it began to rain on lap 8. It got heavier on lap 12. Montoya got caught out by the conditions and smashed into a wall on lap 14. The rain stopped on lap 18 but it left the track slippery.

Eau Rouge was to claim another but it was the ultimate embarrassment for Jaguar. Sato came alongside Bruni but he tapped him round and Bruni ended up in the wall on lap 19. Then, the chasing pack got a major boost when Baumgartner's car ground to a halt with transmission problems on lap 23.

After 2 Pantano spins, Coulthard was the next driver to retire after he smashed into a wall on lap 25. De La Rosa developed a rear wheel problem and had to retire on lap 26. Ralf Schumacher ended Williams interest in the race when he smashed into the wall on lap 29.

Only 13 cars remained as we entered the final lap. Da Matta had just enough of a lead to hold off 2nd place but the battle raged for 3rd. Barrichello was being hunted down by Raikkonen and Firman. Raikkonen slipped past up the long straight and looked set for 3rd, while Firman and Barrichello battled it out. Raikkonen's 3rd place didn't last long when with half a lap to go, he smashed into a wall to retire.

So, Da Matta came through to win with Michael Schumacher closing in but not fast enough and finished 2nd. Barrichello benefited from Raikkonen's error and held off Firman for 3rd. Firman finished 4th and that's now 2 points finishes in a row. Villeneuve edges closer to Salo and Baumgartner with 5th place. Fisichella didn't look quick but held on to 6th ahead of Frentzen in 7th and Panis picking up 1 point for 8th.

Full Race Results:

1st Da Matta (Grandprix) 1h20m34.415s (Up 1)
2nd M Schumacher (Notorious Biggles) +1.833s (Up 2)
3rd Barrichello (Lipe) +19.139s (Down 2)
4th Firman (DW) +20.331s (Up 8)
5th Villeneuve (Mike Swade) +33.799s (Up 17)
6th Fisichella (Badgerman) +47.546s (Down 3)
7th Frentzen (Figo) +47.913s (Up 2)
8th Panis (Foreman) +48.432s (Up 11)
9th Sato (Wakka) +58.036s (Up 7)
10th Button (Der Nazi) +1m07.213s (Down 2)
11th Salo (Biggie Little) +1m09.040s (Up 10)
12th Pantano (Chris) +1m16.394s (Down 5)
13th Raikkonen (Ineedsleep) -1lap (No Change)

DNF

R Schumacher (Absolut Neo) Crashed
De La Rosa (Virtuoso) Rear Wheel
Coulthard (Azul) Crashed
Baumgartner (N/A) Transmission
Bruni (N/A) Accident
Montoya (Afrojoe) Crashed
Pizzonia (Icarus) Accident
Verstappen (Jae) Accident
Heidfeld (Shadow) Accident

Drivers Championship

1st Baumgartner 58pts
2nd Salo 48pts
3rd Villeneuve 38pts
4th Barrichello 34pts
5th Button 31pts
6th R Schumacher 30pts
7th Montoya 29pts
8= Pizzonia 27pts
8= Fisichella 27pts
10= Sato 26pts
10= Heidfeld 26pts
12th Panis 21pts
13= De La Rosa 19pts
13= Pantano 19pts
13= M Schumacher 19pts
16th Raikkonen 18pts
17th Coulthard 17pts
18th Frentzen 15pts
19th Verstappen 13pts
20th Firman 11pts
21= Da Matta 10pts
21= Bruni 10pts

Constructors Championship

1st Minardi 71pts
2nd MG F1 67pts
3rd Renault 61pts
4th Williams 59pts
5th Ferrari 57pts
6th B.A.R 50pts
7th Sauber 41pts
8th Jordan 38pts
9th Jaguar 36pts
10th McLaren 35pts
11th Toyota 31pts

Fastest Lap: Barrichello 1m47.273s

PREDICTION WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Der Nazi had a 20 point lead. Let's find out what the state of play is now. There were 8 people predicting so no bonus points this time around.

1st Der Nazi 10pts (14pts - +0.800s)
2nd Chris 8pts (12pts - +0.809s)
3rd Icarus 6pts (8pts - +0.450s)
4th Jae 5pts (6pts - +0.214s)
5th Ineedsleep 4pts (5pts - +1.277s)
6th Badgerman 3pts (4pts - +0.072s)
7th Biggie Little 2pts (4pts - +2.322s)
8th Mike Swade 1pt (3pts)

Der Nazi takes his 4th win of the season, thanks to Heidfeld who was the retirement, bagging Der Nazi 8 of his 14 points. The table now looks like this:

1st Der Nazi - 94pts (4 wins)
2nd Ineedsleep – 68pts (1 win)
3rd Mike Swade – 65pts (2 wins)
4th Jae – 59pts (2 wins)
5th Chris – 56pts (2 wins)
6th Foreman – 53pts (2 wins)
7th Biggie Little – 49pts (1 win)
8th Badgerman – 35pts
9th Absolut Neo – 14pts
10th Azul – 11pts
11th RoJ – 8pts
12th Virtuoso – 7pts
13th Icarus – 6pts
14th Wakka – 4pts
15th Notorious Biggles – 1pt

The next round is in Monza, Italy and it's Round 15 out of 18. The drivers that cannot win the Drivers Championship now are:

Bruni
Da Matta
Firman
Verstappen
Frentzen
Coulthard

Raikkonen is right on the verge of mathematical oblivion and a lot of other drivers will be out of the picture at the end of Round 15 and the 40 possible points up for grabs. The Constructors is still wide open with all the teams within 40 points and a maximum of 72 available. The Prediction Championship could be the first one settled as Ineedsleep needs to outscore Der Nazi by at least 6 points in the next round to keep the race going. A 4th place finish for Der Nazi should be enough to take the title.

It's going to be a cracking end to the season! The Prediction Thread for the Italian Grand Prix will be up on Saturday, the qualifying the following Saturday and the race on the Wednesday after.

I'm so getting annoyed by Panatno. He can do well in qualifying but not in the actual races. :|

Ah alright, thanks :)

Barrichello didn't get a great start but slotted into 2nd. Barrichello didn't look quick and Barrichello was holding up Michael Schumacher. Michael Schumacher eventually got past and chased Da Matta down while Barrichello was fending off Firman and Raikkonen for the last 15 laps.

Bah, started first but finished third :( GP I was wondering if you could talk about the start of the race, so where everyone was after the first lap. I take it Barrichello had a bad start?

Der Nazi, count yourself lucky I didn't predict.

=D

Ineedsleep wrote:
> I started off the season well in the predictions but have gone
> downhill fast these last couple of races. How does Der Nazi do it?

Badgers. Always lot of badgers. =D

And despite managing to post in the qualifying thread by mistake, I really did surpass myself with second.

Grandprix wrote:
> Icarus mk2 wrote:
> But how did he come together with Verstappen when he was 12 cars
> behind?
>
> It was a pit stop window and Pizzonia was one of the first to make a
> stop. He came out alongside Verstappen.

So it was all Pizzonias fault then... :P

I got an image this morning of the programmed race car suddenly going to itself

"Oh my goodness I can finish third here" and then panicing and crashing out.

I really need to stop imagining too much :D

Woooo! Firman!

Badgerman can kiss my ass. >:c(

;c)