Many people, myself included, came to this race predicting a foregone conclusion – Massa will probably win, and Hamilton will cruise to enough points to take the title.
After qualifying, I’m not so sure; while Massa sits supremely in pole position, Hamilton starts fourth, with Alonso – his nemesis – directly behind and eager to beat him, and two Ferraris – plus a Toyota – yes, really – ahead of him on the grid.
Felipe Massa simply had Interlagos to himself. Well, to himself and a hundred thousand screaming, baying Brazilians, cheering on his every move and jeering at every sign of Hamilton on the big screens.
He made it by a few tenths – a massive gap here – which begs the question as to how much fuel he’s carrying. I would be inclined to say he’s light, but we’ve seen him put in impressive qualifying performances on not so light fuel in the past. Having said that, he must be lighter than those behind him, not counting that Toyota.
Jarno Trulli it is, of course, fully recovered from his fever of earlier in the week, and looking superb all weekend. A front row position may well be indicative of a very light load, but the Italian is another who qualifies well, and it could be that he simply got it all right.
Third, what had looked like second, went to Massa’s wing man Kimi Raikkonen, lining up alongside the man he has to keep behind, Lewis Hamilton. These two fight hard, and we expect them to fight fair, but with a grid like this, Hamilton is the one in trouble.
Heikki Kovalainen was stunning in the second session, but simply could not get it together in the final session. He starts fifth, with McLarens avowed enemy Fernando Alonso doing another fine job to take sixth for Renault.
Much of the talk on the forums tonight will be about Alonso, and his desire to see Hamilton lose. That’s all very well, but to speculate about ‘dirty tricks’ is to overlook Alonso’s standing as a sportsman. He, too, will play hard, and while I don’t discount some argy-bargy and banging of wheels, there will be no intentional pushing off of others. That I believe we can be sure of.
Behind these two come Sebastian Vettel – another excellent performance from him – and Nick Heidfeld, the German again getting very much the better of his much vaunted team mate Robert Kubica who did not make it into the top ten.
The final top ten runners are Sebastien Bourdais – it what may, or may not, be his F1 swansong- and Timo Glock, who came home over second slower than team mate Trulli, or maybe that should be over a second heavier.
The prospects for tomorrow are intriguing: we all know Hamilton ‘only’ has to finish fifth, but he still ahs to do it. It is by no means a foregone conclusion, and with cars all around him that want to get ahead and spoil his, and McLarens, party, the start will be particularly interesting.
Let’s hope for a good fight, some great racing, and an apt finale to the 2008 season – and may the best man win.
Written: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:23:22
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- (November 01, 2008)View all headlines from this date
- (Grand Prix: Round 18: Day 1)View event information
