Fun F1

Another wet race, another exciting couple of hours!   The fact that Lewis Hamilton and/or his McLaren team messed up qualifying helped keep things spicy in the race. But what about Sebastian Vettel? What a magnificent win for him and the team with “Minardi DNA”… such a turn around from a similar time last year when Vettel was seen crying after crashing into Mark Webber…

Sebastian Vettel – I think the fact that most people are very happy that Sebastian won says a lot. Everybody loves seeing someone “genuine” win, and I think we have that in Sebastian. He’s pulled the odd move while battling this year, but in the main drives fair and is gracious in victory and defeat (hopefully he has more victory of course ). Top job!

Heikki Kovalainen – Well, he kept it on the track, but it seems something is still missing with his performances?

Robert Kubica – Solid job. Shame BMW dropped the ball a bit in the middle of the season because he really could have been a championship contender.

Fernando Alonso – Quite a surprising result given how underpowered the Renault engine seems to be. Guess we can thank the rain for that.

Nick Heidfeld – Now that’s better, both BMWs getting a good haul of points at the same time for once!

Felipe Massa – Did great compared with his teammate. Considering the Ferrari seems quite bad in the wet it was good damage control. But what if Lewis had qualified better?

Lewis Hamilton – Damn quick as usual. It would be a big surprise if he didn’t win the championship this year, especially with rain predicted for the next round in Singapore. Seems he won’t be making many friends along the way though pushing people to the limits of the track when passing them http://sverigeapotek.se/. Perhaps he was bitter about Spa where it seemed Kimi squeezed him? Still, impressive drive.

Mark Webber – Unlucky not to finish a lot higher. His contact with Lewis seemed to slow his charge a fair bit toward the end. Can only imagine how good he and Alonso could have done with a bit more HP.

Kimi Raikkonen – Oh dear… really, what is going on here? It’s almost reminicent of other falls from grace we’ve seen like Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve… maybe Kimi for NASCAR in 2011?

Should Lewis Hamilton have been penalised at Spa Francorchamps? That’s the question on everyone’s lips…

My first impression was his fight with Kimi Raikkonen was fair. After cutting the chicane, Lewis let Kimi back into the lead. That’s the normal procedure. Nothing wrong there. From the outside, it looks like a good clean fight. I mean, it did look like Kimi didn’t give him any room, so cutting the chicane was the only option right?

My opinion started to change a bit when I saw the on-board shots from Hamilton’s car (from 3:20 on in the video below):

From the on-board it looks to me like Lewis could have in fact taken the corner if he slowed a little but instead chose to keep his momentum to ensure he had an opportunity to pass Kimi into the first corner.

Regardless of whether or not Lewis backed off enough to “undo” the advantage he got from cutting the chicane, I think most people would agree that the penalty given was too harsh. Perhaps a 5 spot grid penalty in the next race would have been more appropriate or even just a warning? A 25 second race time penalty could have meant Lewis scored no points if it weren’t for the fact the field got spread out so much in the chaotic conditions – and that would have been a penalty even his harshest critics wouldn’t agree with.

Aside from the whole Lewis penalty, the race had some pretty exciting moments right from the start. So let’s get to the points:

Lewis Hamilton – Drove really well. Used the fact that the McLaren warms the tyres quicker to his advantage as the conditions deteriorated. Unlucky to get such a harsh penalty.

Kimi Raikkonen – You have to feel for Kimi. Spa is a track he owns and to crash out so close to victory must hurt so bad – especially as it almost completely rules him out of the Championship hunt.

Felipe Massa – A bit of poetic justice for the Brazilian. The gains Lewis made from Felipe’s car trouble in the past have somewhat been negated now. So it’s a straight fight to the championship. But in all honesty this wasn’t one of Felipe’s best races.

Fernando Alonso – Starting to impress again, despite his horsepower woes.

Nick Heidfeld – Brilliant decision to change to wet tyres at the end. A nice way to follow up a good qualifying performance. One of the rare few races this year when he’s done better than teammate Robert Kubica.

Sebastian Vettel – Every race this guy’s stock seems to go up

Toro Rosso – So nice to see the old Minardi team doing so well. I hope Vettel’s imminent move to Red Bull Racing isn’t a step backwards… I wouldn’t be surprised if Red Bull somehow do a deal to get the Ferrari engines in their lead team in the next few years…

Heikki Kovalainen – Showed just how strong McLaren is by storming back through the field. What he didn’t realise is he has to earn each and every position – it’s not his right to just go flying by everyone

Valencia Circuit – One word – gorgeous!

European Grand Prix – One word – boring!

Despite being a rather boring race it was great to see a different track. Not only that, it was a rather beautiful track. Love the fact the cars had a bridge to go over too – nice touch Will be very interesting to see the Singapore Grand Prix later this year too. Anyway, back to the race, drivers and teams…

Felipe Massa – If ever a win was truly deserved it was this one. What a great way to come back from such a disappointment in the last round. Massa is driving like a man who well and truly deserves to be world champion. It’s amazing to think he had some really embarrassing moments earlier in the year. He’s put it all together now though and is showing he’s worthy. Well done!

Also, I don’t know what this cowabunga/shaka hand thing he was doing at the end of the race was, but it was funny   It was either cowabunga or a Twinings ad…
Lewis Hamilton – Not his best race, but still a strong result especially given he was a bit ill.

Kimi Raikkonen – The fact that his engine blew up doesn’t really hide the fact that his race performances are just terrible lately. I wonder if he can put it all back together like Massa did show…

Fernando Alonso and the Spanish Fans – Oh, the pain!! 8)  But hey, I think his qualifying performance was more painful…

Renault Engine – Seems to be the top of everyone’s most hated/unwanted list lately…

Robert Kubica – A rather “anonymous” drive. Nothing exciting, but another good result. Shame he hasn’t been able to keep the points ticking that well since his win earlier in the year…

Heikki Kovalainen – Another number 2 drive… and that could be number 2 as in driver or as in “I need to do a number 2″…

Sebastian Vettel – Proving once again he’s a star.

Red Bull vs Toro Rosso – Wow.. the Toro Rosso guys are really making their car work well now. Surely Red Bull can’t just blame the Renault engine alone can they? Maybe..

Toyota – Keep an eye on them, especially Timo Glock (even though Jarno Trulli finished higher)…

Honda – ke!?

Nick Heidfeld – It was nice knowing you…

I can’t imagine what Felipe Massa is feeling right now. After some dodgy drives this year he put together a stunning and perfect performance on Sunday – and all for nothing. Well, almost for nothing…

Felipe Massa – He may not have finished first, but he definitely won on Sunday. Felipe has won our respect and no doubt the respect of many others. More importantly – he broke Lewis Hamilton – a psychological victory that is possibly worth more than 10 points. Lewis was miles quicker than anyone all weekend, yet Felipe managed to break his confidence by sticking it to him in the first corner. Lewis, surprisingly, had no comeback after that. As the track warmed up, so did Massa. 3 laps from his most outstanding victory ever his hopes went up in smoke… Let’s hope he doesn’t get too depressed over the result. At the end of the day he’s still in the championship fight and he’s proved he would be a worthy champion to everyone.

Timo Glock – Wow. Where did Toyota come from? Again, another driver bouncing back from an accident with such a strong drive! Definitely up there with Massa for driver of the day!

Lewis Hamilton – Everything was pointing to Lewis completely dominating again, until Massa broke that sense of invincibility. Very unlucky with yet another tyre failure. Keeps it interesting I guess

Kimi Raikkonen – Fernando Alonso is really starting to cause problems for Kimi in races isn’t he? The fact is though, Kimi should be further up the front in qualifying so he doesn’t have to deal with passing Alonso for the majority of the race. He had great race pace once in clear air. Makes you wonder what could have been… Still, valuable points in the bag so not a total disaster like previous races.

Heikki Kovalainen – Some may question why we put Heikki so far down on the review… Well, he wasn’t really a factor in the race despite winning it. It’s like Heikki is just there for the ride. The performance difference between him and Lewis is ridiculous. Let’s hope this victory gets the monkey off his back and increases his confidence so he can close that gap. Needless to say, Heikki was very lucky to inherit the win from Massa. At least he seems like a nice bloke so congrats Heikki! Just make sure it’s not a one-off!!

Renault – A good strong race from both drivers. It’s always interesting to see how Nelson Piquet Jr keeps coming from a terrible grid position to a good result lately. And this time he didn’t even need the help of the pace car!

BMW – Hmm… Has development stopped?

Refuelling Rigs – How many fires can you have in one day? Thankfully no-one was hurt. I wonder if the manufacturer of these rigs is the same manufacturer that’s made them all these years. It’s one thing that they don’t seem to work half the time, it’s another thing when safety is an issue…

Is this the reason for Kimi’s poor form in Germany?

Poor Kimi.. he’s had a rough few weeks with pushing over photographers and now this… Admittedly it looks like it’s the woman who made contact with the girl as she got excited for an autograph from Kimi, but still, not a nice look…