Press Release Summary: Robert Kubica, who went on to record the first race victory for BMW Sauber, was very lucky that Hamilton missed the rear end of his car by just a few inches. Even the French Grand Prix was uncharacteristically incident packed with Massa benefiting from the misfortune of his teammate to take another win.
Press Release Body: The 08’ Formula 1 just season keeps getting better and better. Oscar winning script writers couldn’t dream up any more drama than we’ve seen in the past few races – four different drivers have led the championship in as many races. In the midst of this excitement, there’s also been heartbreak. Force India was robbed of a well earned fourth-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. It was the defending champion, no less, who crashed into the back of Adrian Sutil in the dying laps of the race. At the next race in Canada, it was Raikkonen who was at the receiving end of a mistake by McLaren ace, Lewis Hamilton – the likes of which you had to see to believe. Lewis crashed into the back of Kimi’s Ferrari at the exit of the pit lane. Robert Kubica, who went on to record the first race victory for BMW Sauber, was very lucky that Hamilton missed the rear end of his car by just a few inches. Even the French Grand Prix was uncharacteristically incident packed with Massa benefiting from the misfortune of his teammate to take another win.
The championship lead has shifted from Raikkonen, Hamilton, even Kubica, and now rests with Feliepe Massa. After his disastrous start to the season, he’s put in some incredible performances to get to the top of the points table. In Canada, which saw a failed pit stop drop him down the order, he fought hard and made up a number of places on track through aggressive overtaking – of note was his stunning move on Kovalainen and Barrichello where he muscled past both on the inside at the hairpin. In France, it was Raikkonen who seemed to have the legs on Massa, and had the race well in control until his exhaust literally fell apart. Considering the condition of his car, he was lucky to have even made it to the finish line. And more than that, he was fortunate to have been allowed by the stewards to stay out on track considering his Ferrari was literally shedding bits at different parts of the racetrack.
One man who wasn’t so lucky, and felt the wrath of the stewards, was Lewis Hamilton. He was forced to start the race in 13th place, after receiving a 10-place penalty following his pit lane crash in Canada. He was then handed a drive-through penalty for overtaking the Torro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel by, as judged by the stewards, cutting the Nurburgring chicane and gaining an advantage. Having seen the footage, it must be said that the ruling of the stewards was fair. Hamilton overtook Vettel and carried too much speed into the corner, which took him over the chicane and allowed him to rejoin the track ahead of the Torro Rosso. He should have conceded the position and had another go – but then that’s an easy perspective to have from an armchair rather than the cockpit of a Formula 1 car. His aggression proved, yet again, that he’s a real racer at heart, as demonstrated by the pumping of his fist following a move on Nelson Piquet’s Renault. Hamilton overtook his fair share of Renault’s during the race, as he passed Alonso on two separate occasions, which must have been the only gratifying part of the weekend for the title contender.
In LMP2, the first two positions went to the Porsche RS Spyder on its Le Mans debut. Further back, the GT1 class was also extremely hard fought between the Gulf sponsored Aston Martin DBR9 and the venerable Chevrolet Corvette C6R. Eventually, it was Aston Martin who prevailed for the second year in a row with the class win finally going to the #9 Aston Martin of David Brabham, Darren Turner and Antonio Garcia. Brabham, who’s competed at Le Mans 15 times, said this was his toughest victory yet.As ever, Le Mans continues to provide epic battles as the best sports car teams from around the world battle each other, and the elements, for supremacy in one of the world’s greatest races.
2022
