Italian GP 2008

[Belatti]

Felipe Massa (6th): "... In the second part, I knew Hamilton was closing on me fast, but I could not see him in my mirrors because they were too dirty. Luckily, Rob helped me, talking me through the situation in real time. Then he dropped back a bit. I tried to attack Heidfeld but then I thought it wasn't worth taking too many risks and I chose to just bring the car home."

P*ssy!

See, that´s why I´m starting to like Lewis more and more!

Lewis Hamilton (7th): "I felt I drove a really good race and was moving through the field very quickly when the circuit was at its wettest. If it had kept on raining, I feel pretty confident I probably could have even won from 15th grid position; but, as the circuit dried out, my tyres overcooked and I had to defend my position from Mark Webber ... "

[andartop]

Felipe Massa (6th): "... In the second part, I knew Hamilton was closing on me fast, but I could not see him in my mirrors because they were too dirty. Luckily, Rob helped me, talking me through the situation in real time. Then he dropped back a bit. I tried to attack Heidfeld but then I thought it wasn't worth taking too many risks and I chose to just bring the car home."

P*ssy!

See, that´s why I´m starting to like Lewis more and more!

Lewis Hamilton (7th): "I felt I drove a really good race and was moving through the field very quickly when the circuit was at its wettest. If it had kept on raining, I feel pretty confident I probably could have even won from 15th grid position; but, as the circuit dried out, my tyres overcooked and I had to defend my position from Mark Webber ... "

I think it is pretty obvious by now that the 2008 ferrari is not at its best under wet or intermediate conditions. given that, and the championship situation, i think both of them are basically saying the exact same thing: when points are at stake (even few of them) they both think of the points first. note that massa was in the points during the whole race, thus chose to take it easy from the beggining as the car would probably not allow him to do much more, while lewis, having nothing to lose and a car that handled quite good (probably better than his rivals') could give it all to try and gain places (which he did). when the conditions changed, rendering his car as good to handle as anybody else's, he suddenly got as wise as massa and chose not to try and overtake him. do you really think, having watched lewis' pace during the rest of the race, that he really could not overtake massa at that point? you don't win races with "ifs" and "could haves", and i certainly enjoy the spectacle, but in the end heikki for me would be the driver to have in my team out of the four (massa, lewis, kimi) since he finished the race 2nd, and that is the only thing that counts at the end of the day..

[axle]

Great race great result. New winner and damage limitation for LH, shame he burnt up his tyres too fast or he would have finished 4th!

I can't see the issue with the overtakes/defences. Glock, total accident, didn't know he was there IMO. Didn't apologise cause he didn't know there was an incident. Well done to Glock though for keeping it going straight.

[shotzski]

Raikkonen was perplexed afterwards: "Sometimes it works and sometimes not, and we don't really have an explanation about why it doesn't work, and why the tyres work sometimes."

It seems Kimi doesn't know how to develop/setup his car. Or does he?

[myurr]

I think it is pretty obvious by now that the 2008 ferrari is not at its best under wet or intermediate conditions. given that, and the championship situation, i think both of them are basically saying the exact same thing: when points are at stake (even few of them) they both think of the points first. note that massa was in the points during the whole race, thus chose to take it easy from the beggining as the car would probably not allow him to do much more, while lewis, having nothing to lose and a car that handled quite good (probably better than his rivals') could give it all to try and gain places (which he did). when the conditions changed, rendering his car as good to handle as anybody else's, he suddenly got as wise as massa and chose not to try and overtake him. do you really think, having watched lewis' pace during the rest of the race, that he really could not overtake massa at that point? you don't win races with "ifs" and "could haves", and i certainly enjoy the spectacle, but in the end heikki for me would be the driver to have in my team out of the four (massa, lewis, kimi) since he finished the race 2nd, and that is the only thing that counts at the end of the day..

Well Lewis said he burnt out his tyres - he was struggling to hang onto them until their tyres also went off and he was able to close up again. Do you think he was being cautious when he fell back into Webbers grasp?

[ernos5]

Raikkonen was perplexed afterwards: "Sometimes it works and sometimes not, and we don't really have an explanation about why it doesn't work, and why the tyres work sometimes."

It seems Kimi doesn't know how to develop/setup his car. Or does he?

yer it seems like that sometimes, when the car is working perfectly he will be unbeatable like spain this year.. but normally he isn't, and during the race the tyres will turn good at some point and he flies, completely in his own class and dominates everyone.

[WhiteBlue]

Without any doubt for me the man of the race was Seb Vettel and the best team was Toro Rosso. They did not make any mistakes where there was plenty of opportunity to make them both in qualifying and race. I hope they will keep a good form for the last races somewhere up with BMW in terms of performance. There are some nice points still up for grab.

[andartop]

absolutely agree with whiteblue. by default for me man of the race is always the guy who actually wins the race, as this is what it's all about. so congrats to vettel for an amazing drive, heikki for a solid performance throughout the weekend and kubica for an amazing race.
i just don't see why people praise lewis so much for coming 7th. yes, lots of overtaking, obviously while driving the fastest car on the track, once he finished his tyres he tucked in behind massa to secure the points. should have tried harder for me. as for the ferraris, another race to forget...

[myurr]

absolutely agree with whiteblue. by default for me man of the race is always the guy who actually wins the race, as this is what it's all about. so congrats to vettel for an amazing drive, heikki for a solid performance throughout the weekend and kubica for an amazing race.
i just don't see why people praise lewis so much for coming 7th. yes, lots of overtaking, obviously while driving the fastest car on the track, once he finished his tyres he tucked in behind massa to secure the points. should have tried harder for me. as for the ferraris, another race to forget...

We praise Lewis for coming 7th as if it had rained as predicted then he would have come at least 2nd and had a shot at first. As it was the forecasts were wrong and he had to settle for 7th. Still a remarkable drive compared to both Massa (who technically lost a place through the race as he effectively started 5th when Bordais stalled) and Kimi. Throughout most of the race Lewis was the fastest driver on track, with only Vettel in an amazing drive coming close to him on pace. And all of that was with a heavier car than most of those around him.

Edit: And compare Lewis's drive with that of his team mate - who you classify as having a solid drive. Throughout most of the middle of the race, Lewis was 1 - 2 seconds a lap quicker, lap after lap than a 'solid drive' in effectively the same car.

[andartop]

I am not the one who classifies heikki better than lewis, it is the official results of the race who do so. you do not win races with "ifs" and "could haves", and definitely not championships. i could as easilly claim that "if" it had rained then lewis might have crashed out of the race, or kimi might have been quicker, or nakajima might have overtaken everyone else. lewis' strategy and obviously better handling is what got him up to 2nd place at one stage of the race, his inability to control his tyres' wear what got him stuck behind massa and the risk he took on choosing a strategy that did not pay off which landed him a 7th place. heikki did not improve his position but drove solidly into second place, which earns him 8 points. i definitely agree lewis' drive was more spectacular but this does not earn you points. (if it did, that would be interesting). so, according to the outcome, heikki achieved a much better result over the race weekend, which is the whole point in racing.

[WhiteBlue]

I believe that this race was lost by the McLaren race engineers. They put Hamilton on the wrong tyres in Q2 and made a bad decision again in the race. When Hamilton made his only fuel stop he should have gone out with inters. Coulthard did it two laps later and could run competitive times. It would have been a brave move but it would have won the race.

[yzfr7]

But remember that Coulthard lost some 10s in the first lap with intermediates alone. If Hamilton opted for those 2 laps earlier, it would be a big gamble.

[nae]

does anyone know when last forumla 1 had 5 different race winners in a season?

i think it has a been a long time since that happened but i could be wrong

[Miguel]

does anyone know when last forumla 1 had 5 different race winners in a season?

i think it has a been a long time since that happened but i could be wrong

Nae, we've got actually 6 different drivers winning this year: the Ferraris, the McLarens, Kubica and Vettel. But the season I remember with most winners is 2003: both Ferraris (schumi and barrichello), both McLarens (DC and Kimi), both Williams (Ralf and Montoya) plus Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Fisi (Jordan).

EDIT: 1982 is the year with most different winners with a total of 11 drivers winning races (Prost, Lauda, Pironi, Watson, Patrese, Piquet, Arnoux, Tambay, de Angelis, Rosberg and Alboreto). A mix of mechanical reliability plus fatal accidents caused this. I'd dare to say that 2003 is probably the second season with most different winners.

[Conceptual]

does anyone know when last forumla 1 had 5 different race winners in a season?

i think it has a been a long time since that happened but i could be wrong

I want to know the last time we had so many RAIN races in a season? It is almost like the races are purposely scheduled during each country's rainy season this year...