Heck, it was probably the best in many years!! There have been moments in other races which shined (Alonso and Schumacher dogfighting earlier this year comes to mind), but none where the whole race was as action-packed. Sato provided the circus act, Montoya the obligatory scary crash of the season, and Alonso and Raikkonnen made some absolutely stunning overtaking moves.
Alonso’s flat-out move on Schumacher from the outside at 130R was spectacular, probably the overtaking manouver of the season. That’s a very difficult corner to make at any time, but to overtake a driver of Schumacher’s caliber from the outside is just phenomenal. His second overtaking of Schumacher was another breathtaking display of his racecraft. He followed that up with an audacious move on Webber at the end of the start-finish straight, putting wheels on the grass to get ahead of him. Brilliant stuff!
Alonso reckons he made about 14 overtaking moves over the course of the race, which should be a record in itself! Between his gear-selector problems and the weird decision to make him let Klien pass him from 7 seconds behind, not to mention the overtaking manouvers, his finishing in third place thoroughly justifies his World Champion status.
Raikkonnen had a great race too. His taking of the lead from Fisichella on the final lap probably overshadows everything else, except perhaps the fact that he finished 1st after starting 17th on the grid! Simply mindblowing… His forcing Fisi to take a defensive line at the final chicane was just beautiful to watch. I’m not a McLaren fan, but you’ve got to admit that their lack of reliability makes for some very interesting races!
The Ferrari pit crew did some excellent on-their-feet thinking to bring Schumacher out just ahead of Raikkonnen when they pitted at the same time. While it didn’t help Schumacher’s cause, it did allow for some more exciting racing, instead of boring pitlane passes…