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| 2008 Hungarian Gp | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 3 2008, 10:30 PM (269 Views) | |
| Woody | Aug 3 2008, 10:30 PM Post #1 |
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Grade A Leprechaun
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Heikki Kovalainen claimed a fortuitous maiden Formula 1 victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix after Felipe Massa suffered an engine failure while leading with three laps remaining and Lewis Hamilton’s hopes were dashed by a puncture. Massa had been poised to retake the world championship lead from Hamilton after one of the most impressive performances of his F1 career. Instead the Briton – who recovered to finish fifth – increased his advantage to five points over reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen, who vaulted ahead of team-mate Massa by virtue of finishing third. After passing pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in a breathtaking move around the outside of the first corner, Massa steadily pulled away at the front and appeared to have the race in the bag following Hamilton’s setback. But as he powered down the main straight to start his 68th of 70 laps, the Ferrari V8 spectacularly let go and he ground to an agonising halt in full view of the team on the pit wall. That gifted the win to a grateful Kovalainen, who had fallen off the front-running pace early on and had a relatively lonely time in third place for much of the afternoon. Few will begrudge the popular Finn a slice of luck after a season plagued with mishaps and misfortune, although one suspects he will want to win on merit to really underline his status as a bona fide winner. The other chief beneficiary of Massa’s demise was Timo Glock, who inherited second place – but the Toyota was set for his first F1 podium in any case after an outstanding drive that capped off by far his most convincing weekend to date. From the moment the green lights went out at the start, the race did not follow McLaren’s script. Hamilton got off the line well enough, but Kovalainen bogged down on the dirty side of the grid, leaving the way clear for Massa – who had catapulted off the line like a rocket – to attack his title rival on the run to turn one. Hamilton defended the inside line, but Massa used the tow from the McLaren to pull level with him and then stayed off his brakes longer to nose ahead on the turn-in to the first corner – surviving a big lock-up to scrabble his way past on the outside line. Massa immediately pressed home his advantage to pull out a small cushion over Hamilton; rather than commanding the race from the front as he had intended, the Briton now faced a frustrating first stint staring at the Ferrari’s exhaust. The gap between the top two waxed and waned over the opening laps, but as the stint wore on Massa steadily increased his margin, getting as far as 3.2s ahead by lap 15 before Hamilton pegged it back to three seconds even. Lewis pitted later of the pair, but only by one lap. Knowing that wouldn’t be enough to make the difference, McLaren opted to fuel its charge longer than Massa to give him the chance of leapfrogging the Brazilian at the end of the next stint. The theory was fine; the problem was the speed of the leading Ferrari, to which Hamilton again had no answer. Slowly but inexorably Massa increased his lead. It hovered around the 4s mark for a few laps while they negotiated traffic, before Massa dug deeper and stretched it out to five seconds by the 40th circuit. The race was still far from over, but Hamilton’s chances of turning the tables looked increasingly forlorn. At the start of the following lap they were shredded along with his left-front tyre. With the sidewall wobbling alarmingly, Hamilton made it as far as turn five before he was pitched off the circuit, before losing eons of time as he limped back to the pits. In an effort to limit the damage McLaren sensibly took the opportunity to bring forward Hamilton’s final refuelling stop, but the Briton rejoined down in 10th place, with the prospect of salvaging a few points at best. With Hamilton out of the reckoning, Massa could afford to slacken his pace in the final stint and seemed set fair for a perfect result that would have put him back in the lead of the world championship. But three laps from the end the complexion of the race was suddenly transformed when Massa’s Ferrari engine went up in smoke halfway down the start/finish straight. It was a cruel blow for the Brazilian and a huge lucky break for Kovalainen, who had been lying a distant second after his team-mate’s puncture and now had the lead handed to him on a plate. It also promoted Glock, who had driven superbly all weekend, to the second rung of the podium, equalling Toyota’s best ever F1 result. Just two weeks after being hospitalised following his violent accident at Hockenheim, the German put his veteran team-mate Jarno Trulli – along with the rest of the midfield pack – in the shade. Over the final five laps he withstood pressure from a closing Raikkonen, who at that stage was the fastest driver on the track. Overall Kimi had another frustrating afternoon though, boxed in by his lowly grid position (sixth) and a poor first lap that saw him drop another place to Fernando Alonso. The world champion spent most of the race shadowing his Spanish rival before finally getting ahead at the final pit stop exchange. Alonso came home fourth, matching his best result of the season, while Nelson Piquet Jr made it a good day for Renault by following Hamilton home in sixth. The final points went to Trulli in the second Toyota and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who lost a place to Glock at the start and then fell back due to an earlier first pit stop than many of his midfield rivals. Hungarian GP result (70 laps) 1. KOVALAINEN McLaren 2. GLOCK Toyota +11.0s 3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +16.8s 4. ALONSO Renault +21.6s 5. HAMILTON McLaren +23.0s 6. PIQUET Renault +32.2s 7. TRULLI Toyota +36.4s 8. KUBICA BMW +48.3s 9. WEBBER Red Bull +58.8s 10. HEIDFELD BMW +67.7s 11. COULTHARD Red Bull +70.4s 12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap 13. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap 14. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap 15. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap 16. BARRICHELLO Honda +2 laps 17. MASSA Ferrari +3 laps 18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +3 laps R. SUTIL Force India +8 laps R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +48 laps |
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| flak | Aug 3 2008, 10:38 PM Post #2 |
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It's nearly Christmas
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Kovalainen and Glock.
The other McLaren I see. They continue their record at that track. How unlucky for Massa with 2 laps to go! |
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| Woody | Aug 3 2008, 10:43 PM Post #3 |
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Grade A Leprechaun
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massa was running away with it.about 20 seconds ahead of kovy before his engine failure. timo glock/felipe massa or heikki kovalainen are my drivers of the day |
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| flak | Aug 3 2008, 10:56 PM Post #4 |
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It's nearly Christmas
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Shouldn't it be Massa if he was running away with it? Not really his fault if the car conked out on him. Must have been a good drive fromGlock though, i've never seen his name that far up the list before. :P |
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| Woody | Aug 4 2008, 09:34 AM Post #5 |
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Grade A Leprechaun
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brilliant race by glock and he was there by merit not because of a safety car or anything like that |
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