As was expected Ferrari has announced that Michael Schumacher will retire at the end of the 2006 season, and Kimi Raikkonen has signed a three year contract to partner Felipe Massa with Ferrari. Nothing that wasn’t expected really, but as much as I dislike Schumacher for his previous conduct as well documented on here and in the press, I would like to see him take an 8th world championship title to go out on a high. Today’s race makes this a very real possibility, with Schumacher leading incoming Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen home, with Robert Kubica rounding out the podium positions. It looks like Kubica could be the new rising star in Formula One, considering this is only his third race ever, he’s done astonishingly well, putting his more experienced team mate Nick Heidfeld in the shade, and BMW has done wonders with the old Sauber outfit that it bought at the end of last season. Jenson finished in a solid 5th place, and had a reasonably uneventful race, not being able to challenge for a podium as the Honda 2006 engine simply couldn’t compete in straight line speed terms with the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and BMW. But the big story apart from Schumacher’s retirement is that the usually bulletproof Renault engine went bang spectacularly nine laps from the end of the race, putting championship leader Fernando Alonso out of the race, and allowing Schumi to close the championship gap to two points with three races of run. I would say that Schumacher and Ferrari have the edge at the moment, even with the new tweaks on the Renault, it still doesn’t seem to have the pace to compete with Ferrari especially the Ferrari with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel!