Alonso is nearly there as Ferrari stumble

Alonso needed a miracle and he got one. Up until schumi's engine began to spew smoke and he pulled over with an admirable calmness, the race was shaping up to be a blinder. It wasnt exactly an exciting race with few overtaking manouvers but Alonso's drive injected a lot of thrill to it. Starting fifth on the grid he needed some catching up to do with schumi who was leading the race what with Massa moving away early on and letting Schumi through (i am not again gonna talk about team orders). Alonso, who set the fastest lap of the race, drove like he had rarely done in the recent past : an all out racing. Dismissing off truilly with disdain he had some trouble getting past a determined ralph. At points he pushed too much and lost a bit of time and racing line. But then when the overtaking came it was awesome - a typical karting move that saw him shoot past ralph into the third spot with massa ahead of him.

Ferrari's bad luck started early on, though it was much less advertised with Massa having a slow puncture. He had to go in earlier than ideal and that is when Alonso pushed. I sometimes get the feeling that Alonso observes schumi keenly and learns from him. In a typical schumi style, he did a couple of blistering laps bringing down the time constantly before he pitted. This and the fact that massa was caught behind a slow heidfeld ensured that when he came out he was 2nd on track. The race was already on.

For nearly the rest of the race, Alonso pushed really hard. But so did schumi. The fact that the gap remained constant for quite a few laps indicated that both of them were on their limits, not erring and pushing as hard as they could. If that had continued, we would probably seen a schumi-alonso 1-2 with maybe an exciting last 10 laps. But it was not to be. It had been a really long time since Schumi had an engine failure during a race that he might have forgotten that it could happen. It did happen and at the wrong time. Probably the biggest anti-climax of the season. Alonso's punch of the fist as he swept past the idle scarlet car indicated how much the victory meant. It has nearly sealed the championship for Schumi.

Brazil awaits. Who knows, a wet race and anything could happen. Schumi could still be the chamipion although i can already picture alonso jumping in joy on the podium with his 2nd championship. Go Nando!