By Parminio
May 5 2003

The start of the race saw Kimi hit the back end of Pizzonia's Jaguar that had stalled on the grid, totaling both cars. As if that weren't enough, Jarno Trulli punted DC in the rear at turn 1, putting himself out of the race and sending DC to the pits, and then the back of the grid. The start was terrible at best. With Kimi's car and a ton of debris, not to mention the crane truck and a bunch of workers in the mix, I for one can't believe the race wasn't red flagged. My honest thought was with all that carbon fiber all over the place, surely one of the first guys through (Mike Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso) are going to fill their tires up with shrapnel and blow a tire on restart. I was watching that first left hander with interest.

After that ordeal however, the restart went well. DC had worked his way back up the field to 11th, only to be hit again in the same corner by Jenson Button. That was the straw that broke the camels back, and DC was out.

One must say though that it was a good race. Alonso never let up the whole day, and made it one of the closest races I've seen in a while. At times, it was highly possible that the Bridgestone tires would let Mike down and hand the win to Alonso. Kudos to Renault and Alonso for a terrific race.

Other action saw Juan and Ralph going at it side by side for several corners. Juan eventually won that battle and finished 4th...good day for Williams all the way around considering their recent performance.

Da Matta was on Ralph like a bad rash for the last 10 laps of the race, but didn't manage to get by. I still think that Ralph should have been penalized for blocking, as at one point he moved 3 times down the front straight to keep Da Matta behind him. Totally uncool...but hey, if you don't get called, there was no foul.

The 2003GA looked strong, but to be honest I think we all can see that it wasn't as much faster than a lot of reports made it out to be. I think also that Bridgestone is being caught up by Michelin. Mike and Rubens both had some big time tire problems with wear, as both drivers admited that it seemed they couldn't keep the same pace up after about 5 to 10 laps. I for one, could see the wiped out status of Mikes tires on one of his stops. Being on a 3 stopper has it's advantages, but I think we can all see that Alonso at times could close in on Mike due to his tire woes.

That's something to give us some hope for the remainder of the year. If Ferrari keep having that kind of tire wear problems..it's bound to catch up to them.