Jan 09, 2001 05:06 PM
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March this year, the qualifying for the Australian GP on a fine Saturday morning:
Watching Schumacher caress the kerbs and kiss the grass, I thought to myself - this is going to be another year again, where one team is going to dominate the qualifying sessions for at least half season.
And this time it is Ferrari taking over from Mc Laren that steam-rolled almost every qualifying session for more than 2 full seasons. Two thumping performances by Ferrari at Oz and Sepang reinforced my opinion.
And then, there was the Brazilian GP. Schumy on Pole with the rest of the best on his tail. But heyyyy wait a minute, there were two white-&-blue cars on the second and third rows - Ralf and Montoya. But wasn't it evident last year itself that they were gonna be there??? Yeah yeah! Before all the comedy broke loose on the second lap (Barichello shunting Ralf), Michael had a good lead over the rest by the end of first lap itself.
And suddenly there was Montoya. Going down the inside of....who???.....Schumacher!!! Gutsy move it was - the way he rubbed shoulders with the prancing horse and the tenacity with which he muscled past Michael, almost pushing him off the racing line - though rubbed many a Tifosi the wrong way, was an eye-opener.
Wrong set-up or not, the Ferrari definitely seemed not up to the pace of the William BMW. Sadly, Montoya's commanding race lead wilted down to naught when he was rear-ended, while lapping a backmarker(Jos Verstappen).
DC went on to put up a brave show and win the race, but what Montoya pulled off was a precursor to the potential of raw young talent, and the 18000 rpm BWM powerplant.
Well, as Bob Dylan rightly crooned: ''Things, they are a changin'.''
