By Nikos
September 12 2005

Round 16, the Belgium GP. The track that separates the men from the boys. McLaren secured the entire front row in qualifying, and when the lights went out, vanished into the horizon, showing off the awesome pace of the MP4-20. Juan-Pablo took the lead initially and put in some very fast laps at the start running Michelins fantastic intermediate tyres, which seam to be very comparable to Bridgestone’s.
Kimi Raikkonen was not far behind and would soon over take Montoya.
An incident involving Giarncarlo Fisichella brought out the safety car, which McLaren and every other team used to refuel their cars, Ralf Schumacher made his stop before the safety car and Jacques Villeneuve opted to stay out.



Juan-Pablo exited the pit lane with P1 again, but Kimi was buried behind Ralf Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and the Minardis.
The TF105 of Ralf Schumacher was incredibly racing at this time and he was closing in on Montoya at a rate of .9 seconds a lap.
Ralf was forced to pit before Montoya and opted for dry tyres which ultimately forced him into 7th place.

After the second stops Kimi emerged ahead of Juan-Pablo, putting in 2 very fast laps, with only 12 laps remaining in the GP.
The elusive 1-2 finish looked like a done deal until on lap 40 Anonio Pizzonia, a lapped backmarker on Michelin dry-tyres, pulled a second-rate overtaking attempt on Montoya at Fagnes Chicane taking out himself and Juan-Pablo.
An experienced driver would have waited for Bus-stop where Button managed to pull two moves on Barrichello & Webber. The dry’s were substancially faster and Bus-stop would have allowed Pizzonia to pass safely and easily.

If Pizzonia hadn’t taken Montoya out, McLaren would now be leading the WCC by 12 points as opposed to being down to Renault by 6 points.
Montoya will now be forced to run 7th out at Brazil, so he will carry Pizzonia’s mistake on with him.



Antonio Pizzonia has been given an $8000 fine for his move, and rightly so.
Pizzonia was considered second rate at a mid-field team like Jaguar.
So at a team like Williams, one with rich F1 history and much success, he must be something less than second rate as he has proved at Spa.
Rumours suggest that Heidfeld will not be racing at Brazil either due to a cycling accident, so it would be fitting that Pizzonia get a 10-place penalty along with his fine – as Takuma Sato did for the Michael Schumacher incident.

The silver lining is that Raikkonen took victory getting 2 points over Alonso, keeping both Championships alive.

The Brazilian GP will take place on the 25th of September. I and all McLaren fans will now be forced to wait (at the time of writing) 13-days 12-hours 51-minutes and 45-seconds before the starting lights go out at Brazil. Hopefully Justice will be done at Brazil.