Felipe Massa, the man trailing Lewis Hamilton, dominated every aspect of the race. He set fastest lap, and he crossed the finish line first. In essence, Massa did everything he needed to do. Now the burden was on Hamilton to produce. He had come up short last year.
As the race neared its end, rain began to fall. This sudden outburst of inclement weather sent the teams scrambling to bring their drivers in and change from dry- to wet-weather tyres. Everyone except poor old Timo Glock and one of the drivers from the hapless Force India team found themselves in the pit lane for the change.
As they emerged back on to the track, Lewis Hamilton found his McLaren Mercedes being paced by Sebastian Vettel in his Scuderia Toro Rosso, with its Ferrari chassis. Hamilton fought, but due in large part to interference run by BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, Vettel found a way around the seemingly struggling Hamilton.
On the last lap Massa danced across the finish line uncontested, and his pit area erupted into celebration. Why? Because he won? Yes, and no. The win locked up the title for Massa, because Hamilton was now floundering in sixth place. A sixth place finish would’ve produced a tie in the points, and Massa held the tie-breaker because he had more wins than Hamilton (six to five).
Massa took off on his cool-down lap, while thirty seconds behind him a fierce battle was taking place. Hamilton, fighting through a suddenly harder rain, found himself not only behind Vettel, but they were both now trapped behind poor old Timo Glock, who was running fourth as a result of keeping his Toyota on dry tyres. Watching Vettel jump past Hamilton, I could think of only two things, 1. I really liked Vettel… at one time. And 2. Oh my dear sweet God, NO!
As these events played themselves out, David Hobbs noted that “We expected the championship to come down to the final race, and maybe even the final lap. But, lads, I don’t think we expected it to come down to the final turn, of the final lap, of the final race.”
As the final turn loomed, and all hope of a Lewis Hamilton World Championship drained not only from the McLaren pits, but from the whole of Britain, and from at least a few people in the States, what can only be described as a miracle occurred. Hamilton, who had been pushing his McLaren Mercedes to the limit, nearly flying off the track at every turn, watched as Vettel pulled away. And then, Tim Glock lost traction.
Suddenly, poor old Timo Glock found himself sliding all over the track and he could only watch as Vettel, and then Hamilton sped by. The pass pushed Hamilton back into fifth place, and locked up the championship for the young Brit. The cameras on SPEED then turned to the respective pits, where Hamilton’s crew erupted into wild celebration. The party that was already in full swing in the Ferrari pits came to a screeching halt as Massa's father and the rest of his family and pit crew realized that Hamilton had regained fifth place.
Massa pulled up to the podium with tears in his eyes, and as Hamilton leapt from his car, reattached the steering wheel, and then raised his arms in victory, no one seemed to either notice or care that Jenson Button’s car was on fire.
It’s the first time in years that the driver who won the most races has failed to win the championship. And I know that I’ve only been following the sport since a fantastic race at the Hungaroring, but I think Robert was right Sunday night when he said, “It’ll never be as good as this. This was fantastic.”
Immediately the conspiracy theories began to fly, starting with my own father, who has watched very little F1 in his time. He asked me, after watching Glock move out of Hamilton’s way, “So, does McLaren own Toyota?”
I replied, “No, not to my knowledge.”
He said, “Oh, so they just offered that Glock guy a few thousand dollars to move, huh?”
Another interesting theory concerned ING Renault driver Fernando Alonso, and his quip that he would do anything he could to help Massa win the title. Either Alonso still holds a bit of a grudge against McLaren, or, as I think, he’s playing his cards for a ride with Ferrari in the not-so-distant future. I mean, sure Raikkonen won the World Championship last year, but this season he drove like he was asleep for most every race. Should that trend continue, Alonso would be an interesting fit at Ferrari.
Admittedly, this is a season that, while amazing in many aspects, has also been heavily marred by controversy. At Spa-Francorchamps, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were battling around the circuit when Hamilton was forced wide and had to cut the corner on the Bus Stop Chicane. This being a gentlemanly sport, Hamilton gave the spot back to Raikkonen before once more overtaking him to win the race. But not so fast, my friends. The stewards decided that Hamilton had gained an unfair advantage and penalized him 25 seconds, moving him from the win to third and giving Massa the top spot.
Then at Fuji, Hamilton had a bad start and was forced to make some ill-advised moves to stay at the front of the pack. He “forced” Raikkonen wide and, after a few laps of deliberation, was assessed a drive through penalty. Three laps into the race Massa pulls a pit maneuver on Hamilton and spins him, causing him to lose fourteen spots and fall to the back of the pack. For this infraction Massa was assessed a drive through penalty.
In common in both incidents is that McLaren and Ferrari were involved, and usually McLaren was punished more severely than Ferrari.
But that’s old news. Lewis Hamilton is the 2008 World Champion. Sure, Ferrari won the Constructor’s Championship, but when it comes to driving on the track, Lewis Hamilton is the man to beat in 2009.
So what happens nest season? Well, the cars are going to look very different according to Hobbs and the gang.
As for the drivers, well, we know that Sebastian Vettel is leaving Scuderia Toro Rosso for a ride with Team Red Bull, replacing the retiring David Coulthard.
Ferrari and McLaren both have their driver line-ups locked in. Honda may be looking for a new driver, as it is likely that Rubens Barichello will retire. If he does, Honda is playing with the idea of Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton Senna, as a possible replacement.
Let the Silly Season begin!
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