Ferrari detail. Ferrari Owners' Club
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Ferrari Happenings

GRAND PRIX: Great Britain: Kimi Rights the Nonsense
by John Day

18.7.07

I really wish Hamilton wasn’t British.

According to the British Press, ‘Lewis Carl’ blew the race when he jumped the lollipop man at his first stop and ‘lost precious seconds’ – well maybe, but all 39 that he finished behind Kimi? I don’t think so!

Let’s keep it sensible. From the moment Lewis Carl carved him up in his now familiar style down the start straight and into the first corner until his first stop on Lap 16, Kimi’s Ferrari was all over him like a rash and it was only a matter of time before Kimi would be rightfully leading the British Grand Prix – irrespective of any mistaken lollipop lurching.

Hamilton is making a habit of the weaving start and maybe it’s time to go back to the good old side-by-side grid so that the pole sitter doesn’t start with two car lengths advantage. In the old days there would be four cars on the front row and three on the second, the cars have got wider but surely as they are normally three abreast halfway down the start straight then they could line up that way on the grid.

Meanwhile, whilst Kimi was rammed up Lewis Carl’s diffuser, Massa was storming up from the very back where he’d started after stalling the motor on the dummy grid. There was probably a total of 25 overtaking moves in the whole race – 17 of them by the storming Massa as he scythed his way up to an eventual fifth place.

In modern day Formula One where it’s almost impossible to overtake this was an incredible performance and showed that without doubt, if he hadn’t stalled it, there would have been a Ferrari one-two although in which order we can only surmise.

Once again the Beemers were the third best and it was Kubica who finally halted Massa’s charge, though only finishing less than a second ahead of him in fourth place. It is surely only a matter of time before we see the Beemers also challenging the Ferraris for the lead and I’ve already patented the headline ‘Pole on Pole’ in readiness - ironical that it'll be for a German-owned team.

Despite Lewis Carl being ‘robbed’ Il Fenomeno (as the Italians have dubbed him) still leads the championship on 70 Points from Alonso's 58, Räikkönen's 52 and Massa's 51. There’s been quite a bit of criticism of the points scoring system recently and it does seem a bit crazy that the guy who’s won the most races is only third in the title race although on the old fashioned scoring system the positions would be just the same but a little closer – Hamilton 54, Alonso 42, Räikkönen 40 and Massa 37. The Championship points system favours reliability and surely soon Lewis Carl is going to break down. Lollipops apart he doesn’t seem to make any mistakes - so falling off seems unlikely.

Just as the Italians say, Hamilton really is a phenomenon and you cannot deny the astonishing fact that this guy has now started in nine Grand Prix but has yet to experience finishing off the podium. But I do wish the British Press would give the broader picture, the German Sebastian Vettel finished in the points in his first and only Grand Prix in the United States and he’s three years younger than Hamilton, but this raised not a flicker of interest in the UK Press.

As with Kubica last season these two young chargers have given a real wake up call to the not inconsiderable membership of the Formula One ‘Comfortable Cruisers Club’ and we reasonably could expect to say goodbye to a few old faces before the end of the season. There’s a queue of revved up young turks who don’t want big wages waiting in the wings with an eye on the old boys. It really is the eighth wonder of the World that some people get paid millions to drive a Formula One car whilst millions of others would do it for free. The ninth wonder is that Coolthud, Fisichella and Barrichello look to have been re-signed for next year!

The Espionage Saga rolls on and on, who sent McLaren the secret stuff on the Ferraris? Did somebody deliberately drop a spanner in the works of the Ferrari Wind Tunnel to stop it working for two weeks, or did someone just leave a panini on the cockpit top? And what was the ‘white stuff’? Whatever it was, it looked like it had turned from Ovaltine in Monaco into Speed by Silverstone!

Jean Todt:
"Kimi was simply majestic, from the first to the last lap, to produce our fifth win of the season, his second in a row and his third with Ferrari. Felipe drove an extraordinary race but was penalized with a technical problem at the start, which meant he had to start the race from the pit lane. Considering this handicap, finishing fifth is really impressive. On the one hand we are happy with the win, obtained on what is the home track for our main rivals, but on the other hand we have had yet another confirmation that in this season, our Achilles heel is reliability.We have to work on pushing hard with our performance development so as to regain the maximum level of reliability.

Felipe Massa:
"All things considered, I am happy with what I achieved today. At the start, the engine died, but I have not realized yet what had happened. It's a shame because I had a great car today and this will be a race I will remember. Of course I am disappointed at having lost points in the classification but that's life and we have to accept what happened. In the final stint of the race I quickly caught up with Kubica and I was sure I could pass him. But when I was in his slipstream I was losing so much downforce and I could not get close enough."

Kimi Räikkönen :
"It was a great race for me. After my mistake in qualifying yesterday I was very disappointed, but today I was able to make up for it. If I had managed to start from pole though, things would have been much easier. The car worked very well both on the soft and harder tyres. We were strong all weekend and I hope this trend continues over the coming races, but I know how difficult that will be. In the first stint, I tried to look after my tyres and save fuel. At one point I got very close to Lewis but I didn't want to take any risks hoping he would pit before me. In the second part, I knew Alonso was on a different strategy and would stop before me. I had to stay in touch and then push at the decisive moment. I am very happy. We have made up ground in the Drivers' championship and there is plenty of the season still to go."

 

THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX, SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND:
60 LAPS; WEATHER: SUNNY.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team  
Time
1.
Räikkönen Ferrari  
1.21:43.074
2.
Alonso McLaren  
+ 2.459
3.
Hamilton McLaren  
+ 39.373
4.
Kubica BMW Sauber  
+ 53.319
5.
Massa Ferrari  
+ 54.063
6.
Heidfeld BMW Sauber  
+ 56.336
7. Kovalainen Renault  
+ 1 lap
8. Fisichella Renault  
+ 1 lap
 

Fastest lap:Räikkönen, 1:20.638

 

World Championship Standings, Round 9
     
Drivers:   Constructors:
1.
Hamilton
70
 
1.
McLaren
128
2. Alonso
58
 
2.
Ferrari
89
3.
Räikkönen
52
 
3.
BMW Sauber
56
4. Massa
51
 
4.
Renault
31
5.
Heidfeld
33
 
5.
Williams
13
6.
Kubica
22
  5. Toyota
9
7. Fisichella
17
  7. Red Bull
6
8. Kovalainen
14
  8. Super Aguri
4
9. Wurz
8
  9. Honda
1
10. Trulli
7
       
11. Rosberg
5
       
12.= Sato
4
       
12.= Coulthard
4
       
14. R. Schumacher
2
       
15. Webber
2
       
16.= Vettel
1
       
16.= Button
1
       



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