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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It had to be expected that there willl be lots of talk about the 2007 Hungaroring events ahead of this weekend race. So it is no surprise that this topic has been touched also during the press conference yesterday. And this is what Alonso had to say when asking about his feelings one year on:

Much happier this year for sure. Last year again it is true that I had a possibility to fight for the championship and it was okay. I knew that this year it was not possible any more. But if I was racing for McLaren now at this moment maybe I would be in the same position as I am now without the possibility to win. So at least I am happy to be with Renault with the full support of the team and knowing that everybody is working night and day to give me the best car possible. One day we will be seventh, one day we will be fifth and hopefully one day we will be on the podium and everybody on the podium will be there with some excitement.

This seems to me to be the strongest hint yet from Alonso on the “equal” treatment the McLaren drivers get. He has done a good job so far not talking about the details of his 1 year stint with McLaren but it looks like he may be ready to start leaking some bits and pieces .

I do not believe the claims that the drivers at McLaren are equal. I have no problems with any team having number one and number two, I have problems with being told all the time that it is not the case … We only need to look back to Hockenheim to see one example. And if that is not enough, then check the interview Felipe Massa gave to Autosport (Jonathan Noble) yesterday…

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My 2009 driver line up prediction is doing well. I expect not much to change and McLaren are the first to agree with me . Martin Whitmarsh to Autosport:

“We welcomed Heikki on board at the start of the year. He is under contract to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and will continue to race for us in the 2009 season.”

After having as many as 8 different drivers racing for them since 2004 season it looks like Ron Dennis and co. are finally happy with the line up they have.

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Here comes the second Grand Prix video preview - this time 2008 Hungarian GP:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

This video includes:

- Look back at winners of all previous Hungarian Grands Prix - from Nelson Piquet to Lewis Hamilton
- Flashback to 2007 Hungarian GP
- Race preview with Nico Rosberg and Sam Michael

This video can also be viewed at F1 Wolf Club, on Facebook and on one day perhaps also on Dailymotion

Music: music.podshow.com

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I do not want to say this was the best race of the season but it sure was entertaining. We could see some serious racing with overtaking up and down the grid, we had a safety car following a crash (luckily without any serious injury), we could see a serious strategy blunder and impressive recovery from it and 2 Brazilians on podium, one of them being Piquet jr. !

McLaren dominated the weekend from Friday but the close fight between Massa and Hamilton in qualifying promised some possibility of a fight for the race win. At the end we had a fight but more thanks to McLaren getting it wrong than Ferrari getting it right. Lewis Hamilton pulled away right from the start and Massa never looked like a serious opposition. Early on even Kovalainen was a threat but after few laps Massa pulled away from him. Not sure why because Heikki was not that much more heavy than Massa. In the meantime Hamilton managed to build a decent lead in front.

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It looked way too easy when Hamilton passed his team mate after his second pit stop. The presenters at the Star TV studio were rather ironic after the race saying that there are “no team orders in F1″ , the whole bar where I was watching the race was full of boos. So were there team orders or is Hamilton that much better than Kovalainen that he simply made that look that easy ? At the end, it did not take him that long to overtake Felipe Massa …

So were there team orders or not ?

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Photo: Daimler Media

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Lewis Hamilton managed to overcome apparent strategy blunder and won the 2008 German GP at Hockenheim. Nelson Piquet climbed up to the podium for the first time in his F1 career scoring also the first podium of the season for Renault. Felipe Massa finished 3rd. First time since 1991 Belgian GP (when Senna won and Piquet sr. finished 3rd) there were 2 Brazilian drivers on podium .

The race was affected by safety car following Timo Glock’s violent crash. Glock looked a bit shaken after the crash but seems to be OK.

2008 German GP result:

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 1:31:20.847
2. Nelson Piquet - Renault + 5.586
3. Felipe Massa - Ferrari + 9.339
4. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 9.825
5. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren + 12.411
6. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari + 14.483
7. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber + 22.603
8. Sebastian Vettel - Toro Rosso + 33.282

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Lewis Hamilton will start the German GP from pole position after beating Felipe Massa by 0.02s in dry qualifying session. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will occupy row 2. Fernando Alonso recovered from a Q1 elimination scare and will start from P5, just ahead of disappointing Kimi Raikkonen. Robert Kubica who suffered technical problems in free practice and was also on a brink of elimination in Q1 will on P7. Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard complete the top 10.

Q1 was very even, only about half second separated 4th from 16th. Nelson Piquet missed out on Q2 fourth time this season and I wonder for much longer will the team remain patient with him … Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello were the other 2 higher profile casualties of Q1.

Qualifying Results:

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