Poll: 2008 Brazilian GP - Race 18/18

[Wicksta]

yes it was

definition of "it was handed to him" meaning that he only got it from benefitting from somebody else's mistake. Be that wrong tyre choice, crashing or engine failure its all the same.

The fact of the matter is, hamilton did not get 5th purely out of his own merit, 5th was given to him when somebody else dropped behind. Not hamilton pulling an amazing turn of pace and overtaking somebody.

No matter what strategy Glock had taken he would have fallen behind Hamilton, I don't see how you can call that gifted? The rain looked to have taken it away from Lewis but in the end it didn't. After driving a controlled race it would have been extremely cruel for Hamilton to have lost it thanks to chance in the last couple of laps.

 

[Fr0dders]

thats why ultimately he is a worthy winner of the drivers championship. Its not just about one race, and as such quirks of fate iron themselves out.

Doesnt change the fact that hamilton won it with a blazing turn of speed and finished 2nd or something, there wouldnt be any criticism.

 

[timbob]

yes it was

definition of "it was handed to him" meaning that he only got it from benefitting from somebody else's mistake. Be that wrong tyre choice, crashing or engine failure its all the same.

The fact of the matter is, hamilton did not get 5th purely out of his own merit, 5th was given to him when somebody else dropped behind. Not hamilton pulling an amazing turn of pace and overtaking somebody.

having said that, im still over the moon hamilton won, but others saying its a bit of a hollow victory have a point. Massa couldnt have done much more, but it was only some horrible twists of fate (pit lane disaster in singapoore any1?, glock on dry tyres any1 ?) that handed hamilton the title.

Glock, by all rights should have been behind Hamilton coming into the last lap anyway. He'd been behind him all race, and only got ahead by (stupidly) not coming in for intermediate tyres.

When Brundle mentioned Glock's 1:30ish lap with one to go, and that Hamilton was 15 seconds behind him (before Hamilton had begun his final lap) I had a quick mental calculation, and worked out that they would be about equal just as they crossed the line, so catching Glock was always on.

He then lost a grand total of about 45 seconds over the closing 2 laps by being on utterly worn out slicks in the wet conditions - a good 15 seconds more than LH needed him to lose in order to pass him. It looked to me that he was recovering from an off-camera "moment" going into the left hander at the bottom of the hill just as LH caught him, hence going slowly, and he was still struggling to get the power down a couple of hundred yards later.

Trulli, who also stayed out on the slicks ended up way further back, and posted almost identical lap times, so that's all the conspiracy theories out the window.

 

[timbob]

thats why ultimately he is a worthy winner of the drivers championship. Its not just about one race, and as such quirks of fate iron themselves out.

Doesnt change the fact that hamilton won it with a blazing turn of speed and finished 2nd or something, there wouldnt be any criticism.

ARGH! He doesn't need to win with a blazing turn of speed!

Honestly, he tries too hard - he gets criticised for being young, immature and hot headed. Or, other scenario, he drives a mature race, keeping out of trouble being near enough the pace to keep position, (yet not so fast as to be too on the limit in tricky conditions) - and he gets criticised for not being racey enough! He didn't need to be racing Alonso and Raikonnen for 2nd or 3rd, in fact, he probably would have been ever so accidentally spun out by either of them should he put himself in such a position.

He drove as perfect a race as he needed to drive. He didn't overdrive, the team's strategy was perfect by definition - it achieved what it needed to. He was level headed, didn't get involved in fights he didn't need to.

In my eyes, it was a perfectly judged drive, no more than was needed, no less than was needed - and that's what everybody (in the press, and on here) had been criticising his inability to do.

So now, we can let it rest, and bask in the dramatic glory of a new British World Champion, huzzah!

 

[Fr0dders]

ARGH! He doesn't need to win with a blazing turn of speed!

never said it did, but it would have stopped all the critics saying it was handed to him.

I dont think it could mean any more to hamilton. A drivers championship in your 2nd year in a car that was quite often off the pace of the ferraris make the championship more than most F1 drivers could ever have hoped for.

But it would have stopped the armchair experts like us from criticising him.

 

[Mad_Jay]

Poor Guy, I do feel for him. He did everything he could, I hope he gets another shot at the title as he deserves it as much as Lewis.

But congrats to Hamilton for winning it!

 

[utajoker]

im suprised theres no onboard from glock on youtube yet

 

[flat-6]

Dead on timbob, its obvious Glock was struggling to even get any power down into the last corner, McLaren amazingly knew this would be the case and didn't flinch on the strategy knowing LH would catch him. The strategy they took was by far the best, trying to win would have very likely cost him the WDC.

 

[NathanE]

IMO this is one example where having the strategists call the shots away from the track has turned out to be a good thing.

First time McLaren's "World War 2 strategists" at Woking HQ have saved the day I think.

Still amazing that for all their "conservative planning" they still ended up at the mercy of Vettel and Glock though. I guess they didn't account for a late rain shower

Why were they running low downforce though I don't know. The car was handling like crap when the track was damp!

 

[philjohn]

IMO this is one example where having the strategists call the shots away from the track has turned out to be a good thing.

First time McLaren's "World War 2 strategists" at Woking HQ have saved the day I think.

Still amazing that for all their "conservative planning" they still ended up at the mercy of Vettel and Glock though. I guess they didn't account for a late rain shower

Why were they running low downforce though I don't know. The car was handling like crap when the track was damp!

Well, low downforce at Interlagos is good for one thing: going like **** of a shovel on the last corner and pit-straight, one of the only "real" overtaking areas on the track.

 

[NathanE]

BTW LH was in front of Glock before that final pit stop. He was actually in 4th! With Glock 5th and Vettel 6th.

Then everyone pitted apart from Glock for wet tyres. Which dropped LH to 5th... then Vettel with his higher downforce setup managed to get past LH. Although it wasn't helped by Robert Kubica who rather forcefully pushed his way past LH to unlap himself. LH ran wide which let Vettel past. This put LH in 6th and out of contention for the WDC. Then LH caught and passed Glock who was seriously struggling on slick tyres in the conditions. Technically Glock and LH were "out of position" and a correction took place on that penultimate corner. Not an overtake like the press are spinning it. A correction of places.

 

[Scratchy]

Do we know yet who will be doing the BBC commentary? I heard on Radio5 Live they announced Massa as the Champion and totally missed Hamilton passing Glock, you guys are going to love them

 

[Zogger]

BTW LH was in front of Glock before that final pit stop. He was actually in 4th! With Glock 5th and Vettel 6th.

Yes, seems like whatever happened hamilton would have made it. If the start hadn't have been delayed, the rain at the end would have been missed and he would have carried on in 4th to the end. If Glock had have pitted he would have come out behind Hamilton anyway, and not pitting / being on dry tyres ruined his final lap.
Would be interesting to see where LH would have ended up if he didn't pit

MrLOL do you play GTR evo or is that someone else with the same name?

 

[Psycho Ned]

Think it got leaked a few weeks back Jonathan Ledgard and Brundle would be the BBC comms team with Lee Mackenzie (who worked for five live for the first time yesterday) doing the pits bit.

Coulthard is gonna do the Blundell analysis bit with Jake Humpreys the anchor man.

That could all be bunk though but sounds pretty plausible to me.

 

[oweneades]

I really can't wait to see what Vettel can do next season. If the car he has is competitive it should be a brilliant season what with Hamilton, Massa, Alonso, Kimi and Vettel all proving themselves to be excellent drivers.

Its good that Hamilton won the drivers championship although I wish it would have happened better than it did.

But Seriously Go Vettel

 

[Fr0dders]

MrLOL do you play GTR evo or is that someone else with the same name?

somebody else :/

 

[Hxc]

I really can't wait to see what Vettel can do next season. If the car he has is competitive it should be a brilliant season what with Hamilton, Massa, Alonso, Kimi and Vettel all proving themselves to be excellent drivers.

Its good that Hamilton won the drivers championship although I wish it would have happened better than it did.

But Seriously Go Vettel

I'd put Kubica well up there with them if the BMW has been worth the development time spent on it. Providing he gets out of his grump

 

[Masterdog]

Do we know yet who will be doing the BBC commentary? I heard on Radio5 Live they announced Massa as the Champion and totally missed Hamilton passing Glock, you guys are going to love them

The 5 live commentator (david croft) isn't doing the BBC commentary (it's going to be another 5 live chap, jonathan legard).

 

[dannyjo22]

I really can't wait to see what Vettel can do next season. If the car he has is competitive it should be a brilliant season what with Hamilton, Massa, Alonso, Kimi and Vettel all proving themselves to be excellent drivers.

Sadly there aren't enough good cars to go around for the really good crop of drivers that are currently on the grid. I'd add Rosberg to your list as well.

I just hope to god the real Kimi turns up again next year.

The thing that seems to have been forgotten so far is how badly a few thought Mclaren would do this year firstly losing alonso and then the penalty for last year. I myself thought mclaren would struggle this year after that penalty.

Lewis really benefited from being in a one car team as well. I think thats something ferrari will think about earlier next year if in a similar situation.

Hopefully the rule changes will shake the field up a bit but I doubt it, it never does for long.

 

[FrankJH]

yes it was

definition of "it was handed to him" meaning that he only got it from benefitting from somebody else's mistake. Be that wrong tyre choice, crashing or engine failure its all the same.

The fact of the matter is, hamilton did not get 5th purely out of his own merit, 5th was given to him when somebody else dropped behind. Not hamilton pulling an amazing turn of pace and overtaking somebody.

having said that, im still over the moon hamilton won, but others saying its a bit of a hollow victory have a point. Massa couldnt have done much more, but it was only some horrible twists of fate (pit lane disaster in singapoore any1?, glock on dry tyres any1 ?) that handed hamilton the title.

and Massa would have been handed it due to the Spa win (which he didnt deserve anyway you look at it ) not to mention other penalties that went Ferrari's way