2008 Belgian GP - The podium

As many predicted, FIA rejected McLaren’s appeal against Lewis Hamilton’s 25 sec penalty for the chicane cutting back in Spa. The FIA’s reasoning - drive-through penalties could not be appealed:

“Article 152 of the International Sporting Code states that drive-through penalties are ‘not susceptible to appeal. The competitor Vodafone McLaren Mercedes appealed the Steward’s decision before the International Court of Appeal in a hearing in Paris on September 22nd. Having heard the explanations of the parties the Court has concluded that the appeal is inadmissible.”

That means the result of Belgian GP remains unchanged. Felipe Massa keeps the win and Nick Heidfeld the 2nd place they inherited following Hamilton’s penalty. That also means that the gap between Championship leader Hamilton and 2nd Massa remains 1 point.

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Full text of the FIA decision inside this post:

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Kimi Raikkonen, 2008 Italian GP

Kimi Raikkonen is still in the title fight. With 4 races to go and 40 points still to fight for he can still in theory make up the 21 points gap that at this moment separates him from the championship lead. His team mate Felipe Massa however is only 1 point behind the leader Lewis Hamilton and Stefano Domenicali is now making it clear what this means:

“I’ve always said that our main interest is the team. Of course, that’s the most important thing and the drivers know it. At this moment, at this stage, you can see that we haven’t, in our situation, taken away points from one or the other, and for sure, considering from now up to the end of the season, in the way that it’s possible to do, of course Kimi will do his best to be as aggressive as possible but also consider the fact that Felipe is much closer to the leader, Lewis.”

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Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Ferrari again had an annoucement to make during their home race weekend in Monza. The team confirmed yesterday the extension of Kimi Raikkonen’s contract to the end of 2010 season ending the speculations about Raikkonen’s retirement. With Felipe Massa already having his contract for 2009 and 2010 it is rather safe to assume that Ferrari driver line up Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will remain the same for the next 2 seasons. That is also what the team’s statement says:
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Felipe Massa, 2008 Belgian GP

So, we finally had a race that went to the wire. It actually went even further and the final result was amended about 2 hours after the race with 25 second penalties to Timo Glock (overtaking Webber under yellow flags) and the controversial one to Lewis Hamilton for cutting the chicane. The debate on that Hamilton’s penalty has already begun below another article. I wil focus this review more on the race action itself and later today post my take on the whole controversy.

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2008 Belgian F1 GP - Podium

Lewis Hamilton was handed 25 secs penalty for cutting the chicane in the wheel to wheel fight with Kimi Raikkonen in dying stages of Belgian GP. This move, following Massa’s no penalty in Valencia, will no doubt spark new hot debates about the stewards’ decision making.

The penalty means Felipe Massa was handed the race win, Nick Heidfeld moved up to 2nd, Lewis Hamilton dropped to 3rd. Only 2 points now separate Hamilton and Massa …

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FIA cinfirmed McLaren have lodged an appeal against Hamilton’s penalty that demoted him to third place in the Belgian Grand Prix.

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2008 Belgian F1 GP - Podium

Kimi Raikkonen lead most of the race but the rain in the closing stages changed the fortunes for several drivers. After some wheel to wheel racing Lewis Hamilton took the win, Raikkonen crashed out and Felipe Massa collected 8 points for 2nd place. The incident between Raikkonen and Hamilton is however still under investigation… The gamble on intermediate tyres paid off for Nick Heidfeld who took the final podium place. Great result for Fernando Alonso in 4th (although it for a while looked like he and the team threw it away with the last minute tyre change) and another strong result for Toro Rosso. Both Bourdais and Vettel were in 3rd place for a while on the last lap but at the end the wet tyre gamblers Heidfeld and Alonso prevailed… Timo Glock overtook Mark Webber for the final point on the last lap. He however did so under yellow flags. He was hit with 25s penalty and and Mark Webber took that last point from this race.

It is fair to say this race is a candidate for the race of the season. Full race report to follow tomorrow.

2008 Belgian F1 GP result: (provisional)

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Fernando Alonso Friday Practice Spa 2008

Felipe Massa continued showing his back to the rest of the field and finished the practice 1 on top, 3 tenths ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Both Ferraris ran this session without the shark fin engine cover. McLarens took 3rd and 4th further 3 tenths back. Toro Rosso cars continue to impress although this time both Alonso and Webber were a bit faster. It was difficult session for Robert Kubica who complained about the handling of his BMW Sauber throughout the session. Hondas were the slowest cars on the track in this session.

Friday Practice 1 times:

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2008 European GP Podium

Hamilton’s second place finish in Valencia combined with Raikkonen’s retirement means that Hamilton’s championship lead is now 2 points bigger than it was prior to the European GP. But whether he really extended his lead or not depends on whom he considers to be his main title competitor.

Realistically there are only 3 title contenders left - Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Although McLaren will deny it anytime anyone asks, Hamilton is clear number 1 and can expect full support from the team and also from his team mate.

In Ferrari the situation is different. Both their drivers are still in the fight as was the case last year at McLaren all the way to the wire. We all remember who has won it at the end… Raikkonen may be going through a slump period but only a fool would write him off. His gap to Hamilton is still smaller than it was last year with 2 races to go. His problem this year however is, that his team mate, Felipe Massa is clearly outperforming him at the moment.

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Felipe Massa, Valencia 2008

It was not the most exciting race of the season but still, it was a great weekend in Spain. I am really glad that it was this race that this year coincided with my annual summer trip to Europe. Spain is definitely a great place to enjoy Formula 1 weekend and the setting in Valencia is simply great. And perhaps next year the Formula 1 cars will also be able to show us the kind of racing GP2 offers .

Already on Friday it was becoming obvious that Ferrari will be the team to beat in Valencia. And at the end that also was the case. Felipe Massa claimed the pole and was well set for the victory. His first pit stop (a lap earlier than Hamilton) and the smiles on face of Martin Whitmarsh made the commentators on the track to hand the victory to Lewis Hamilton, but when Hamilton emerged from his own pit stop behind both Massa and Raikkonen, the speculations about possible superior McLaren tactics ended. From then it was pretty about Massa not making any errors and his car giving him no Hungary like shocks. The scare came during his second pit stop. His crew released him straight into the path of Adrian Sutil (who was a lap down). These two almost collided and the incident was under investigation. Massa himself blamed Sutil for it, not understanding why Sutil needed to rush ahead of Massa in the pitlane when he would still have to let him pass on the track. From the outside it looked more like an error of Massa’s crew. In GP2 race Karun Chandhok received drive through penalty for similar error, in F1 it was to be investigated after the race. It is hard to say what approach is better but … should not the officials apply the same penalties (or procedures) for the same violations (or incidents) ? I am not questioning the fact that Massa escaped without penalty (I do not think he deserved one) but the FIA’s inconsistency that naturally leads to debates about certain teams escaping lightly.

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McLarens confirmed their strong form from free practice sessions and booked the front row all for themselves. Lewis Hamilton will start the Hungarian GP from pole position for the second time in a row, Heikki Kovalainen will line up next to him.

Felipe Massa blamed traffic on his outlap for the slower pace. But after rather week showing on Friday afternoon and this morning the Ferrari, at least Massa’s, seems to be on the pace. Robert Kubica was only about a tenth slower then Massa. Toyota’s package looks strong in Hungary, both their cars made it to top 10, Glock P5 and Trulli P9. Nelson Piquet was again outqualified by his team mate Alonso, but he made it to Q3 and I suspect he is rather heavily fueled. Mark Webber, te usual member of Q3 club, claimed P8.

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