F1 Spa-Francorchamps
September 7th, 2008 |UPDATE - Previous video removed by You Tube, new video loaded. Hopefully this one will last
Amazing finish to the race today.
Raikkonen in the Ferrari leading with 3 laps to go, McLaren’s Hamilton is just behind.
Hamilton pushes into the chicane trying to take the lead from Raikkonen. Raikkonen edges Hamilton to the edge of the road and the cars nearly touch. Hamilton bails out and cuts the course trying to prevent a crash but also taking the lead while doing so. Attempting to avoid relegation Hamilton immediately surrenders the lead back to Raikkonen through the start/finish.
But Hamilton is not done. He pushes again for the lead towards turn 1 and takes over into the turn. Raikkonen does not surrender easily and the two cars make contact coming out of the turn.
Now though the turn and at full speed the rain starts to fall. Both Hamilton and Raikkonen are on the dry tires and they start to quickly lose traction. Around every turn the cars get loose, the drivers pushing so hard they nearly lose control.
With two laps to go Raikkonen does lose control taking a turn wide on the run out track. But he keeps the hammer down and loses no time and is back on Hamilton’s gear box as soon as he gets back on the track.
At the next turn Raikkonen challenges the McLaren driver at the very same moment that a spun out Williams driver moves back onto the course. Raikkonen makes the adjustment and keep his car on the road, Hamilton is in the grass avoiding the crash.
Around the next turn, as Hamilton comes off the grass and back onto the course, the Ferrari driver looses control of his car on the wet road and spins his car 360 degrees. He keeps his car on the road however and stays in the hunt.
The rain is coming down now and Hamilton is giving everything to keep ahead of Raikkonen while still keeping his car on the road. Raikkonen is making every effort to catch and pass Hamilton. He pushes so hard that the Ferrari driver spins again around the next turn and this time hits the wall. Raikkonen out of the race with less than a lap and a half to go.
Hamilton comes through the start/finish with the lead and tiptoes his car around the course trying to avoid the same fate as Raikkonen. Through the Rouge turn he has to correct to avoid a spin and spends a few moments driving up the run out track.
Raikkonen’s team mate on Ferrari, Massa is starting to creep up on Hamilton. The McLaren driver can’t ease off too much or he may lose the race yet. Hamilton walks the tightrope, keeps the car on the road and finishes first across the line with Massa in second place.
But the results don’t stand. F1 officials, deciding that Hamilton took advantage of his cutting the course through the chicane, assess him a 25 second penalty and bump him down to third place. After all that, Massa wins the race.
It was the most exciting three laps of F1 racing that I have seen all year.
3 Responses to “F1 Spa-Francorchamps”
I was also impressed with Nick Heidfeld passing 4 cars on the final lap to take the last spot on the podium (now second). He took the rain tires and was 20sec faster than the rest on the last lap. If the rain came a lap sooner he may have won…which would be a coup for the BMW car.
F1 is the shiznit.
Looked more like Nascar than F1 to me. I’m surprised the top 3 weren’t relegated for overly exciting racing.
Eau Rouge is the Alpe de’Huez of auto racing. Taking those two corners at 280+kph on dry tires in the wet is pretty damn impressive.
While he was forced out of the bus stop, he did give the position back to him. I don’t know, I watched it several times, and all I can think is this will discourage drivers from making gambles late in the race. For a sport that needs more drivers like Hamilton, the FIA seems intent on making it hard for him. It is almost like Mosley hates Mclaren and is some racist Nazi or something.