Well, that woke me up! Schumacher’s engine blows up, and I’m leaping around my living room trying not to wake the wife and neighbours.
Alonso wins, making up for his engine-blow last week, and Fisichella comes in third giving Renault a good chance of the Constructors’ Championship.
Will Michael bother to race in Brazil? Looking at him in his garage after his engine failure, he was going round hugging people like it was his last day at work.
Michael can still win the Championship if he wins at Brazil and Alonso doesn’t score a point (they’ll be level on points, but Michael will win by virtue of having more race-wins this year). A race like China and he’ll be Champion again. So why the long face? Perhaps he was just gutted at the fact that it looked like he was going to win the Championship today.
Quite a boring race really, but a good result for the podium finishers. I’m surprised that Ferrari didn’t run away with it, given their quali pace, although Michael was leading easily before his engine blew and Massa’s race strategy was compromised by a puncture.
Nice to see Fisichella up there (one of my favourite drivers), especially as his best friend died this week.
So, one race left in 2006. It will take something spectacular for Alonso not to win the Drivers’ Championship, but the Contructors’ Championship is still up for grabs.
CBits Tech Support 
Hi Colin,I thought it was a shame the Ferrari engine blew when it did; the race was building up to a real wheel-to-wheel action, and a one-two finish (in favour of either) would have meant a great final race in Brazil. It’s not quite as exciting to watch a winning driver/car merely pottering around for a point or two.I was surprised to see that the Bridgestones were evenly matched with Michelins on race day, after their dominance in qualifying. Tyre technology is ‘black magic’ to me…Shame also that we won’t see F1 at Suzuka for a while now. But I’m sure Honda will fight to have it back on the calendar, in the same way Toyota fought to have Fuji as the Japanese GP venue from next year.Kaz
I think Suzuka will be back. Bernie wants it back for the tobacco sponsorship, he’s just giving them pain so they improve facilities.Yeah, shame it won’t go down to the wire, unless…Alonso crashes out in the rain – Schmacher is leading, but Fisichella is catching him because Schumi’s tyres are failing – Massa is in the points, so the winning driver will secure the Constructors’ Champoinship too – three laps to go and Fisi is right behind Schumi – the lead changes several times a lap until they come out of the last corner neck-and-neck, racing for the line – and the winner is….Now wouldn’t that be a great way to finish the season, Michael’s career, and the two-tyre-manufacturers era.