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GRAND PRIX: Germany :
Hamilton REALLY Hammers 'Em |
1.8.08
Our regular GP reporter Winston D'Arcy is "too depressed"
to write a report. You can't really blame him, after Hamilton inflicted
so much pain on the Ferraris.
What else can you say? It was a mesmeric performance of virtuoso driving
by Lewis Hamilton in whose wake the others, particularly the Ferraris,
were left floundering.
The German GP returned to Hockenheim for the first time since 2006,
a track which has been "Tilkered" although he managed one corner
where it was possible to overtake. It may seem that nothing changes much
in F1, but half the grid had not been at the previous race at the venue.
There were two halves to this race, the first one of unimaginable tedium
when Hamilton just disappeared into the distance and opened up a twelve
second gap to Massa.
It then looked like Timo Glock's Toyota suspension shattered whilst
going over the kerbs. He suffered a heavy rear-end impact and the Safety
Car was deployed. Unaccountably, McLaren failed to pit Hamilton as they
did not anticipate the SC period would last as long as it did. Massa did
pit, got in effect a "free" pit stop, and this left Hamilton
with the seemingly-impossible task of opening up a 23 second gap in nine
laps to retain the lead after his own stop. Surely this was Ferrari's
chance to snatch victory?
Hamilton managed to claw back 15 seconds, pitted and re-joined in fifth
place, and the Tifosi's hearts soared - we would win! Obviously Kovalainen
let Hamilton through and leader Heidfeld then pitted. Hamilton was now
third, with the one-stopping Piquet in the lead. Hamilton closed in on
second-place Massa unbelievably quickly and made one over-ambitious lunge
which showed how worked up he was and must have set hearts fluttering
in the Macca garage [didn't think they had any - Ed.].
He was not to be denied and drafted up to Massa's rear heading towards
the hairpin, where followed a frankly comic display of defensive driving
by the Brazilian. He gave a beginner's wobble, then unbelievably moved
to the outside, leaving the door wide open for the McLaren. There
was a half-hearted defensive twitch, but Hamilton moved him firmly but
fairly off the track on the outside and was gone. Three laps later he
did the same thing in the same place to young Piquet, who is a beginner
and who wisely did not resist, wishing to hang onto his second place,
which must have seemed truly like manna from heaven. Not only could Massa
not do anything to resist Hamilton, he could not even find enough to attack
Piquet, coming home third and blaming overheating brakes.
Raikkonen had another of those off weekends where he was never in the
hunt, or showed any spark, coming home fifth. Surely his mind is already
on his pension..... By contrast, Fernando Alonso showed plenty of fight
but it did him more harm than good as every time he tried to pass someone,
he generally ended up losing a place and he came home 11th, so you begin
to question whether there is any point in a driver fighting if his car
isn't quick enough. If so, it's not much good for us fans. The news did
emerge that Santander will become Ferrari sponsors in 2010 and that Alonso
is only looking for a one year deal next year, which suggests even more
strongly that he will end up at Ferrari.
The big news off-track was Max Mosely winning his invasion of privacy
action against the News of the World. There's all sorts of other
stuff going on to do with the future of F1, like the teams acting together
- which is all about money of course. Winston may have a view on this,
if he ever comes back. Let's hope Ferrari deliver a performance in Hungary
which encourages him to do so.....
Oh, and have a read of Domenicali's press guff below - we can now talk
about the 'management' of a car rather than the driving of it. Gives a
new dimension when you are next up in front of the beak.
"This was
not a good day and there's no point denying it. Our rivals were stronger
than us and we have to work out why. For the first time this season in a
race, we did not have the pace we had expected to run at, with both Kimi
and Felipe. We suffered constantly from a lack of grip and, in the final
stages, Felipe's brakes were also overheating which complicated still further
the management of his car. The Safety Car offered us the opportunity to
give it another go and all things considered, I think we made the right
choice in terms of strategy, but when your pace is inadequate, it is therefore
difficult to get a good result."
"This was
definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for. We have struggled
all weekend and we have to try and understand why. Usually, our race pace
is always good, but today that was not the case, because I almost always
suffered with a lack of grip: only in the final stages did the situation
improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive. This is
definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of
the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development."
"It was
a difficult race. Right from the beginning, Hamilton's pace seemed unbeatable
and I understood that it would be very hard to beat him. I never had good
grip and, in the final stages, I also had brake problems and was not even
able to attack Piquet, whom I congratulate on the first podium of his career.
We must try and understand why, this weekend, we have not been a match for
our rivals. They have definitely improved, but I think this was more a case
of us having taken a step backwards."
THE GERMAN GRAND
PRIX. HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY.
67 LAPS: WEATHER: SUNNY. |
Classified: |
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
|
Time |
1. |
Hamilton |
Mercedes |
|
1.31:20.874 |
2. |
Piquet |
Renault |
|
+ 5.586 |
3. |
Massa |
Ferrari |
|
+
9.339 |
4. |
Heidfeld |
BMW Sauber |
|
+
9.825 |
5. |
Kovalainen |
McLaren |
|
+ 12.411 |
6. |
Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
|
+ 14.403 |
7. |
Kubica |
BMW Sauber |
|
+ 22.682 |
8. |
Vettel |
Toro Rosso-Ferrari |
|
+ 33.299 |
|
Fastest lap: Heidfeld, 1:15.987 |
World Championship Standings, Round 10 |
|
|
|
Drivers: |
|
Constructors: |
1. |
Hamilton |
58 |
|
1. |
Ferrari |
105 |
2. |
Massa |
54 |
|
2. |
BMW Sauber |
89 |
3. |
Raikkonen |
51 |
|
3. |
McLaren |
86 |
4. |
Kubica |
48 |
|
4. |
Toyota |
|
5. |
Heidfeld |
41 |
|
5. |
Red Bull |
|
6. |
Kovalainen |
28 |
|
6. |
Renault |
23 |
7. |
Trulli |
|
|
7. |
Williams |
16 |
8. |
Webber |
18 |
|
8. |
Honda |
14 |
9. |
Alonso |
13 |
|
9. |
Toro Rosso |
8 |
10. |
Barrichello |
11 |
|
|
|
|
11. |
Piquet |
10 |
|
|
|
|
12. |
Rosberg |
8 |
|
|
|
|
13. |
Nakajima |
8 |
|
|
|
|
14. |
Coulthard |
6 |
|
|
|
|
15. |
Vettel |
5 |
|
|
|
|
16. |
Glock |
5 |
|
|
|
|
16. |
Button |
3 |
|
|
|
|
18. |
Bourdais |
2 |
|
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Click here
to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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Ferrari
powered Vettel to the final point |
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Raikkonen
was lack-lustre all weekend |
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Massa
salvaged third |
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Hamilton
totally hung him out to dry... |
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...then
did the same to Piquet, who scored a lucky second place |
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Click
for FIA lap chart |
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pics by
Ferrari Media, FIA, Reuters, XPB, LAT, Sutton, reporters & unknown |
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