Typical F1 cluster fudge.
I don't buy Michelins anyway.
There has been a longstanding hatred of the US by the F1 crowd, Bernie in particular. Tony George had to go through some serious hoops to land the contract in the first place. Turn out has never been spectacular and now they royally shaft the fans.
That one lap gave the teams the right to claim the ticket money.
Next years turn out will be dismal.
F1 is such a Schumacher fest that this year was at least turning out to be interesting. He is being beat for the first time in 7 years. Now they just up and hand one to them.
This is disgusting. The teams, fueled by Michelin, ripped off the fans. Some of the drivers, notably Coulthard, Sato, Reikkonen, wanted to race but were forced to follow team orders. The curious parts - Michelin refused to bring a second set of tires for their drivers, a second compound, to adjust for conditions. And this isn't their first or 2nd year at Indy. F-1 has been coming to Indy since 2000. That's right, the same track, the same banked (6%) corner 13. It's only because of Ralf's accident, with a Michelin tire failure on 13 last year that they've pooh-poohed. Michelin's tires fail on that corner for one driver last year and 2 this year, yet they refused to bring a second set of a different compound. Prior to that, no failures, same track. And they had a whole year to figure on a different tire. They went through the motions of practice and qualifying, stringing along the fans, and the drivers who really wanted to race. They, Michelin and the F-1 team managers, really screwed American fans.