News and Politics | November 02, 2008 | 8 comments

Lewis Hamilton stays cool to take F1 title

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/lewishamilton/3367873/Lewis-Hamilton-...

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DonkeyPong
The Briton held a seven-point lead over rival Felipe Massa going into the final race of the season, knowing he only had to finish fifth to win his first drivers' title.

And the 23-year-old McLaren driver drove a mature race to earn the necessary points, despite Massa crossing the line in first.

The start of the race was aborted for 10 minutes as a torrential downpour hit the Interlagos track.

Sunshine had primarily dominated the day in Sao Paulo, although heavy rain had been forecast.

The fact it arrived three minutes before the official start merely added to the drama for title hopefuls Hamilton and Massa.

With the majority of the grid having switched to wet-weather tyres, they eventually filed away for their formation lap, during which it was clear parts of the track were already starting to dry.

It was a clean start at the front but at the rear there was disaster for David Coulthard, whose final grand prix ended after just 300 metres when he was hit from behind by Williams' Nico Rosberg.

With the track drying, it was all a question of when the drivers would start to come in and switch to dry tyres.

Eventually, at the end of lap 10, Massa made his first stop, then it was the turn of Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton.

Hamilton then found himself held up by Giancarlo Fisichella, although that was not unsurprising as getting past him meant committing to an overtaking manoeuvre off the dry line.

Finally Hamilton went for it at the start of lap 18, taking the Italian on the inside at the entry to the Senna S.

After 40 laps Alonso and Hamilton then took on more fuel and fresh tyres.

After the shake-up of the second stops, Massa had returned to the lead, comfortably so by 8.1secs from Sebastien Vettel, followed by Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton, the latter 2.8secs behind the Ferrari.

It was a question now of Hamilton keeping his cool, especially after dropping to sixth, and he achieved his aim on the final bend after overtaking Timo Glock at the death.
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8 comments // Lewis Hamilton stays cool to take F1 title

  • ecradecra
  • SushiBandit
  • DonkeyPong
    • 0
      DonkeyPong  
    • SushiBandit:

      Hamilton was just that little bit more consistent, picking up points in more races than Massa. However, you raise an interesting point - under the previous scoring system (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1), Hamilton would have got 80 points this season, and Massa 83. But I guess tactics change completely when you know that finishing 7th or 8th gets you points.

    • 3 years ago
  • dirtyemowords
  • emmahill
    • 0
      emmahill  

    • Yey Lewis! He now overtakes former No. 1 Fernando Alonso as the sport's youngest ever champion!

      BBC Sports Personality of the year, surely in the bag??!

    • 3 years ago
  • swizzylions
    • 0
      swizzylions  

    • Lewis Hamilton's actually got me interested in F1 and I never thought I'd be all that keen on watching lots of people drive around in circles. What a fantastic result for such a nice guy.

      Ps. I agree with coup.

    • 3 years ago
  • Coup
    • 0
      Coup  

    • Get in there! Well done to lewis and Mclaren, that is justice for all the penalties and crap that the FIA have chucked in his direction (sack max mosley).
      Good stuff!

    • 3 years ago
  • richjm
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