Autoblog

People hold all sorts of unsubstantiated opinions. That's how we know there must be some people out there somewhere who still think that Ralf Schumacher is as talented as his brother. Those people were shown otherwise this past Sunday when the junior Schumi made his race debut in DTM, the German touring car series.

In the DTM season opener at Hockenheim, Ralf came in fourteenth place, well behind returning champion Mattias Ekstrom's new Audi A4 racer and that of team-mate Timo Scheider, completing a one-two finish for Ingolstadt. Ralf-boosters can blame the unfamiliarity of the C-Class race car which he was driving, but the track itself should have been familiar territory for the flunked-out former F1 driver. Compare that with his brother Michael who's been burning rubber and taking names on motorcycles altogether and it becomes all that much clearer who wears the racing overalls in the Schumacher family.

[Source: F1-Live]

Another Schumacher has left the building... almost. Ralf Schumaker, who's been racing for Toyota since 2005, will leave the F1 team at the end of this season. Saying that he's looking for a "new challenge" the younger half of the Germanic duo still plans on racing the wheels off his F1 whip for the last two races of the season.

There's no word on what the other Schu will be up to in the future, but he plans to make an announcement at the season-ender Brazilian Grand Prix later this month.

[Source: AFP]

Last weekend's rain soaked European Grand Prix at Germany's Nurburgring saw many of the drivers aquaplaning out of control early on in the event. Rain started in just the second lap of the race and it had to be restarted by the fourth lap due to dangerous conditions. By the time the race restarted the rain had stopped and the track dried up quickly.

Fernando Alonso managed to take the top spot on a day where it seemed that anyone could win, but even he suffered a hitch during the closing laps as he tried to overtake Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who was in first place. Massa's front wheel grazed the side of Alonso's McLaren and this led to a heated argument between the two post-race.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was one of the drivers who slid off the track in the beginning, but he was given a lifeline when his car was lifted by crane back onto the track. A poor decision to switch to dry tires too early after the rain had stopped saw him spin out again. This left him out of contention of a podium finish, and at the end the rookie came at in 9th place.

The major disappointment was pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen being forced to retire because of mechanical problems with his Ferrari. This allowed the competent Mark Webber to cruise into the third spot to gain his first podium finish at Red Bull racing. Another disappointment were the BMW boys, with sixth placed Nick Heidfeld hitting the side of team-mate Robert Kubica and then doing the same again with Ralf Schumacher.