So no one's going to mention the fact that without the spurious steward's penalties (there's only been one, IMHO, that he actually deserved, and there have been one or two issued against other drivers that they didn't deserve that benefitted Massa), Lewis would still have a lead over a Massa with no mechanical trouble?
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An absolutely fantastic race. I spent it all at the house without internet, and I couldn't post updates about it... but apparently everyone else was... freaking fantastic, nail-biting, stroke-inducing, edge-of-your-seat stuff.
There are a few factors that played against Lewis... in fact... a whole manure-load of factors conspiring to make this race a repeat of last year. The rain caught out all the front-runners... forcing a change back to slicks at an inopportune time. Lewis's pitlane incident with Jarno Trulli (let's see... penalty for an unsafe release, would that be? Ah... if only Lewis were in a Ferrari...
) was one of those points at which it could have all gone south.
In fact, the Toyotas were a thorn in Lewis' side, all day... with Jarno holding him up a while and then Timo Glock pushing him hard when he should have been concentrating on lap times.
But he had a hard time making those laps come. The reported lack of downforce makes things all suddenly seem so clear... Lewis was clearly locking his brakes into the first corner lap after lap, when the other front-runner weren't... and the car looked extremely squirrely at times. I suppose McLaren was taking no chances at all with their engine... tuning it to make it safely to the end of the race... and making up for limiting the power by running less wing than the other guys... it was a very fine balancing act... but it could have all gone so horribly wrong... and almost did. Hekki, for one, just seemed to drop completely off the radar after trading punches early with Alonso...
And Lewis, after shucking off Glock and making an insane pass on Fisichella, had to contend with a resurgent Robert Kubica... who was visibly pissed at being a lap down, and looking to show that, despite his earlier car troubles, he still had the speed to stay in contention...
These factors worked in favor of Sebastian Vettel, who shoved Hekki off track early on and up into the top three, then fell back due to a fuel gamble that didn't pay off... He managed to get back up Lewis's backside and was finally able to get around Lewis' visibly unsteady McLaren when Kubica cut between them. It was an awesome sight, two wet weather specialists going at it like rabid dogs, with a streak of white and blue cutting between them... Kubica's interference could have gone either way... but it went against Lewis, in the end.
At the front, Massa was doing absolutely everything right... Ferrari had the race in the bag, though Fernando Alonso spoiled the chances of a Ferrari one-two. Alonso's early pit-stop gamble paid off handsomely, and Kimi Raikonnen did his best impression of Rubens Barrichelo... a steady metronome behind his team-mate.
It was an amazing end to the race... and, fittingly, it was the Toyotas, who had made Lewis's race so difficult, that opened the door to him, in the end.
I wouldn't get too cozy, if I were you. If I'm right, McLaren's number is up: every year there's a team that forgets to develop a new car. Sure, they bring out a new chassis, but it's terrible, and McLaren have managed to go a few years without doing it.
Like in the year after Mikka's last championship? You must be praying pretty hard for that to happen...
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It'll be a fantastic season next year... with Toyota, STR and BMW showing excellent pace, Renault a potential championship contender, McLaren not suffering the same money problems as they did this year, and Ferrari now possessing two world-class drivers... I just can't wait!
), but he fought back to regain that lap and finished third.
