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Novikov Handed Victory in Season Opener

The F1 Season looked to be getting off to a tame start. Pole Sitter Alexandre De Montferrand had looked untouchable in his Red Bull all weekend but with 6 laps to go he slid off at the first turn and Novikov Calmly passed to take a surprise lead. Up until that Point Montferrand looked exactly the same way he had all weekend untouchable. The start saw very little change in the order, in fact the first change of position in the top 8 didn't come till lap 11. The front 3 of De Montferrand, Novikov and Di Rado pulled clear of the pack as Rapido seemed to struggle in the first stint. But Then on Lap 24 Di Rado made an early stop which would prove a mistake. By lap 30 though De Montferrand was pulling clear bridging a 8 second lead to Novikov in second, Rapido who seemed to regain composer was a further 10 seconds back. But on lap 33 Markus Nummi's tyre blew and he crashed out of the race deploying the safety car, by this point everyone had stopped except for Bezrukov in the BMW who'd quietly been keeping pace with Rapido for 3rd! He had to stop under safety car and would drop to 19th. At the restart the same pattern continued with 8 laps to go Montferrand has a one and half second lead and the front three were 5 seconds clear. But then with 6 laps to go, De Montferrand cracked for the first time all weekend and having lead virtually the whole race Novikov and Rapido found themselves ahead. Try as he might the Frenchman couldn't recover what he'd lost and Jordan drew first blood as Novikov took all 25 points. Rapido will be pleased to finish second after a very shaky start. Bezrukov meanwhile never recovered as he finished 22 whilst last year's runner up Grosjean had a poor and rather quiet day to finish 10th. Next stop is a personal favourite of mine Bahrain and we'll see whether De Montferrand can bounce back.

Results
1-Novikov, 2-Rapido, 3-De Montferrand, 4-Di Rado, 5-Berger Jr, 6-Vanderpuije, 7-Kalinin, 8-Zatacka, 9-Pedro Lamy, 10-Grosjean Jr

Team Standings
1-Jordan 31points, 2-McLaren 30points, 3-Red Bull 19points, 4-Audi 11points, 5-Sempre Senna 8points, 6-BMW 2points [Everyone else has 0]