My OperaF1 Race (Hungary)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 1:18:15 PM
It was a weekend that was dominated by Hamilton at both practice and qualifying resulting in a McLaren lockout of the front row. Come race day and Massa has one of the best starts I have ever seen taking both McLaren’s by the end of the first corner…
Massa simply drove past Heikki off the line and took the outside line for the first corner, a right hander that Hamilton had the line for. Hamilton known for his supreme late braking was simply beaten by Massa who was the more confident of the two into the corner. For Massa it must have been payback for Hamilton’s comments about the ease with which he overtook Massa at the German grand prix. In Hamilton’s defence he probably didn’t want his front wing tagged by Massa which has happened before.
The race continued fairly uneventfully after that with Massa consistently pulling away from Hamilton which was worrying considering the pace Hamilton had in qualifying but everyone assumed Massa was fuelled light. On lap 18 Massa came in but on the next lap Hamilton was in showing that Massa was genuinely beating Hamilton for pace on the day. But importantly Hamilton took on a bit more fuel rejoining the race just behind the battle of the world champions Alonso and Kimi with Kimi being stuck behind Alonso from the start.
On lap 25 Alonso and Kimi pit with Alonso leaving first, the same as they came in.
Lap 41 saw Hamilton with a punctured left front tyre. He is well known for pushing his tyres hard and this brought him in from second place cutting the track on a few occasions to keep the car in a straight line. This brought him out on the super soft tyres which were even worse for him having to nurse the car around the track.
Lap 48 and Massa takes the lead back from Heikki who had just pit for the last time. But 3 laps from the end and Massa’s Ferrari lets go in a big way down the start finish straight next to the pit wall. From what looked to be the drive of his life Massa retires from the lead, his body language as he walked back to the pits telling the whole story.
That allowed Heikki Kovalainen to inherit the lead and take his maiden victory. In recent years this has been a track for maiden race victories, Alonso a few years back and Button.
Taking second place was Timo Glock whom only two weeks ago had a horrific crash at Germany and his second place was won on his genuine pace as opposed to just being there at the right time or having a safety car promote him.
Third was the reigning world champ Kimi Raikkonen who towards the end of the race once again put in the fastest lap of the race and was clearly one of the quickest cars on the track, where that pace was earlier on in the race only Kimi knows.
Final Standings:
1. Heikka Kovalainen, he may not have been the best driver on the day but he had the pace to be in the leading pack, capitalized of the demise of Massa and Hamilton's misfortune but a deserving winner nonetheless.
2. Timo Glock, a brilliant drive by the German. A fairly quiet race but he always had the pace and soundly trounced his more experienced and usually quicker teammate Jarno Trulli. In the past few races Glock's pace has definately been picking up, he would have finished higher up at Germany if not for his car's failure.
3. Kimi Raikkonen, he finally admitted his problem is qualifying and if he can't get that right he is always going to struggle in the race. With that in mind, despite his lack of performance he still is in a runner for the world championship.
4. Fernando Alonso, he as ahead of Kimi for most of the race and should actually be the one on the podium. He did hold of the Ferrari of Kimi just like how he held of Shumacher's Ferrari at Imola in 2005. He needs a better car.
5. Lewis Hamilton, damage limitation and by his own admission it could have been a lot worse. The only problem he has is how much he punishes his tyres, but with the pace that he can achieve while doing that more than evens the scales.
6. Nelson Piquet, after his second place at Germany he does look to have a new lease on life. Keeping up with Alonso and getting decent points. Hopefully this will continue.
7. Jarno Trulli, should be disappointed with 7th as his teammate was 2nd and throughout the season he has been consistently faster than him. Still we all are allowed to have our off days.
8. Robert Kubica, if BMW are going to mount a serious challenge for the title this is certainly not the way to do it. We all know that both BMW drivers have the pace so we can only hope the team come back to party in the 3 week break for Formula One.
Full Results
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Violeta Rosalesvioletisha # Saturday, August 9, 2008 6:23:02 PM
Goooo Kimi Räikkönen
Thanx 4 the add!!
CarnageCarnage360 # Sunday, August 10, 2008 2:39:46 PM
Yeah im a kimi fan as well, hes taking a holiday for a while, he'll be back to his winning ways in no time
selurus # Wednesday, August 13, 2008 5:25:07 PM
my heart goes out for massa