The European GP at the Nürburgring was the first GP of 2005 to be run with one qualifying session on race fuel and it confirmed my dislike for the format. We were denied the purity of the drivers and teams establishing just who is the absolute quickest, free from the compromises and complications arising from running race fuel and the absurd demands of the parc fermé system.

I would like to see the return to qualifying trim with say, four single lap runs. I think I’d keep the “one set of tyres per weekend” rule, as it has introduced variety and uncertainty as the teams and tyre manufacturers struggle to produce a package which will deliver over one lap and last the whole race, and the drivers learn to adjust their race pace and to cope with worn-out tyres. Unfortunately, it has hurt Ferrari most of all. However, at the European GP, it also affected the outcome of the race in a dramatic and worrying manner, so maybe a slight re-think is in order.

So why has it hit Ferrari so hard? The best explanation I have seen is that the Bridgestones take longer to come up to temperature than the Michelins, then run hotter; this necessitates a harder compound when wear is an issue, all of which compromises single-lap pace. What’s even more depressing is the statement that Schuey’s pace at Bahrain (where he qualified on the front row and harried Alonso for the lead before retiring) was the result of the wrong tyre choice. They were too soft, as was shown by Rubens’s tyres being shot by the end of the race. The problem is compounded by the fact that the Bridgestone tyres are tailored to the Ferrari chassis and vice-versa. This is great when it’s all working well, but disastrous when its not; as the other teams can benchmark their performance against each other, which Ferrari can not.

In qualifying at the Nürburgring, both Ferraris looked sluggish and we could but hope that they were heavy with fuel (one was) and that their race pace would be good; but with Rubens qualifying 7th and Schuey 10th, it was going to be a struggle. Top man (and German) was Heidfeld who put his Williams on pole by a tenth from Raikkonen. Webber was third for Williams, but it was widely touted that Williams were running light in pursuit of early glory at the home race for BMW and Mercedes - no hang on, Ilmor’s home is Silverstone (got to make the best from this joke, as we won’t be able to use it for much longer). Championship leader Alonso was down in 6th.

At the start of the race Raikkonen jumped Heidfeld and opened up a two second gap. Behind them, Webber tangled with Montoya and mayhem ensued, which held Schuey up badly. Raikkonen set his usual blistering early-lap pace though Heidfeld traded fastest laps with him, but first-stopped 6 laps before him, confirming that the Williams had qualified light. Alonso was running behind Coulthard, who actually led the race before his first pit-stop, after which he was penalised for speeding in the pit-lane. This moved Alonso up into third. Raikkonen's driving had progressively become more ragged as he struggled to cope with worn tyres and he had a couple of offs (handing the lead briefly to Heidfeld at one point), damaging a barge board, and more critically, flat-spotting his right front tyre. Alonso moved up into second after he passed Heidfeld (in the pits); this left him secure in second place. On lap 51 he was 7½ seconds down on Raikkonen, whose front tyre was increasingly 50p shaped, the vibration was colossal and it was a miracle that he could see to drive!

Alonso inexorably closed on Raikkonen until he was just 1.6 seconds down going into the last lap. On the very last lap, Raikkonen’s sorely abused front suspension collapsed and he hurtled off the track, nearly collecting Button on the way. Button had had a fraught return to GP racing, his car was slow, he was passed by both Ferraris when they were recovering from the first lap incident and now this! He was a good commentator at Monaco though! This gave Alonso his fourth win of the season and extended his championship lead by ten points. Heidfeld took his second consecutive second place and I was amazed to see Rubens take the final podium spot, yet he was 9th at the end of the first lap - how did he get up there?

I'd been so gripped by the drama at the front of the race I’d hardly noticed him getting his head down and getting on with it, and so decided to work out how he’d done it. He lost a couple of places on the first lap (9th), passed Button on lap 6 (8th) and Liuzzi on lap 8 (7th); on the same lap Trulli had a drive-through penalty (6th). He was the first of the field to pit on lap 11, showing that he had qualified light and would probably be three-stopping. This early stop allowed him to leap-frog many of the cars in front and on lap 24 he was fourth, he was briefly third after Heidfeld second-stopped on lap 31, but the status quo was quickly restored when Rubens made his second stop on lap 33. He made his third and last stop on lap 48, and was secure in 4th, and was finally promoted to third when Raikkonen dropped out. He set the third-fastest race lap but more significantly, the fourth best average time, which is where he would have finished if Raikkonen had not retired.

Schuey emerged in 14th place from the first lap mêlée, fortunately with no damage. He quickly disposed of the two Jordans and Villeneuve (11th), then Button on lap 11 (10th), and temporarily passed Rubens when he pitted (9th). He passed Trulli as a result of the latter’s first routine stop (8th), jumped Montoya and Liuzzi for position when they pitted and temporarlily got in front of Massa when he did the same for 5th. He pitted a lap later and emerged 9th, temporarily jumped Fisi when he pitted, then had a 20 lap battle with the Colombian for 7th place. 6th place came after Massa had to stop for a new nose after the rubber flailing round a de-laminating tyre had neatly nipped the end off his front wing! When Schuey stopped for the second time he briefly dropped behind Fisi, but got 6th back when the Italian pitted. The final place came, of course, as a result of Raikkonen’s misfortune.

He set the sixth fastest lap of the race at 1:31.503, some 0.792 seconds down on Alonso’s outright fastest of 1:30.711 and the sixth fastest average lap on 1:34.188 nearly a second down on Raikkonen's best lap. He was half-a-second down on Rubens’s average, for which the team blamed the heavier fuel loads from a two-stop strategy hurting his tyres, which certainly contributed to his going off the circuit on lap 53.

So it looks like Ferrari finished more-or-less where they should have, judging by race pace. It's clear that short of miracles, this season is going to be a long haul, both for the Scuderia and us. It was all a lot easier when they used to finish 1-2!

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