Sunday 5 August 2007

Hamilton wins overshadowed race.

We had a strange race today that somehow allowed itself to be overshadowed by the off track politics. Not surprising you might say given the scale of the Ferrari-Mclaren row and the shenanigans – from both Mclaren drivers – in yesterday’s qualifying. But in the past the grid lights have always had a way of silencing and making irrelevant such events as the drivers storm down to the first corner all guns blazing.

Not today however. We were constantly reminded of Alonso’s penalty as the Spaniard battled his way through the grid and an untimely press release about the bizarre implications for the podium procedure put crucial track action in the shade.

Don’t get me wrong, I think what Alonso did in qualifying yesterday was poor sportsmanship but I think there is merit in the argument that the punishment misfit the crime. A five place grid penalty around a place like Hungary? Hamilton lost pole position but would have hung on to second; Alonso had his entire race compromised. I guess I’m in no position to play devils advocate. But I was looking forward to see Hamilton go wheel to wheel with Alonso.

As it turned out we had quite a good scrap develop between Hamilton and Raikkonen. Kimi was seriously impressive today and out drove the car. I don’t think the Ferrari in race trim was a massive improvement on qualifying, yet Kimi managed to find something extra.

Heidfeld scored another solid podium and I’m surprised he managed it; the three-stop didn’t look the fastest way around the track today and I think Rosberg could have finished higher up than he did. Indeed, the two-stopping Kubica managed to come from ninth up to fifth.

Has Ralf Schumacher saved his bacon? He seemed to be going pretty strongly today and did well to keep Alonso at bay for as long as he did. I still don’t rate him highly –does anyone? – but he might just have done enough to impress the fat cats in Japan.

I don’t really know what else to say. I felt the race lacked something today and ironically I think it was the Hamilton-Alonso factor. For all that’s happened this weekend you can’t say that the infighting and rivalry doesn’t add a bit of spice to the sport. How fantastic would it have been to see them go hammer and tongs at each into the first corner? I guess we’ll just have to wait until Turkey.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regardless, Hamilton remains the greatest rookie sensation ever....

Anonymous said...

Yes! But Shh. People will think I'm posting comments to myself!