JPM was the man I would have placed my money on, and did set the fastest lap of the race. As many races have proved, bumping someone in the back at the end of straight #2 is very easy to do. Even in GP3 it is very easy to bump one in the back on the first lap. I have done it many times this week. But there is a difference...
These guys get huge amounts of $$$ not to do stuff like that, and I think JPM should have kept his cool. No one wins the race on the first lap, and he can only kick himself for the loss of that front wing.
The man who really kicked butt was Barichello. He was fast as lightning, but as usual he drew the shortest straw. That F1-2001 had almost no retirements last year. What are the chances of having mechanical failure in the lead twice in a row, and be shunted to bits also in the lead? Rubens has retired in the lead 3 times in a row with the most reliable car of the entire 2001 season! Lady luck really hates this man. Even more than she hates DC...
As to M$ deserving his win... Well, keeping cool for 20 laps with someone in your mirrors is not easy at all. And to compound matters, that new car really sucks. Did you see how unstable it was? When they showed the t-cam feed, you could clearly see that M$ had to correct it all the time, often several times in the same corner. If it hadn't been for the Tyre Farce (which no one can deny IS a crystalclear breach of the rules) and Rubens getting slammed once again by Lady Luck, then I would have to admit, much as I do not want to, that M$ took a clean and well deserved victory today.
Damn it! I had expected better of JPM, than that stupid wing shedding...
It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.