No prizes for guessing what prompted the biggest cheer of day from the tens of thousands of Italian fans gathered trackside at Monza.
Yep, Lewis Hamilton’s spin on the final lap sent the huge crowd around Della Roggia into raptures, the world champion punting his McLaren off the tarmac through Lesmo to allow Ferrari’s Raikkonen to take the final podium spot.
The Italian faithful didn’t have much to cheer over the previous 52 laps, with new boy Fisichella failing to make headway into the point-scoring positions and Raikkonen, though quick enough to keep up the pressure on the front runners, never quite looking like challenging for the lead.
But Hamilton’s big off – particularly inexplicable as he was surely too far behind second-placed Jenson Button to possibly pass the Brawn driver before the end of the race – finally sparked a full-scale party amongst the tifosi, who had already been cheered by the sight of the two Toyotas getting each other in a proper tangle. What’s the Italian for schadenfreude?
“He [Lewis] had a purple sector in the first score of that last lap and he was trying to catch Jenson,” McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh told the BBC after the race. “That’s what makes him the great racing driver that he is.”
Whitmarsh may be putting on a brave public face, but how much of a (how to put this politely?) dressing down is Lewis going to get once the cameras are switched off?
It was a frankly daft error from the Brit that, though unlikely to make much difference to the world championship standings come the end of the season, doesn’t do much to enhance his reputation as a shrewd, mature racer.
Is it this sort of mistake that stands between Lewis and the true greats – the Sennas and the Schumachers? No, I don’t mean Ralf. When Schumacher pushed his car to and beyond its boundaries, it was always a calculated risk – could you imagine the German spinning out on the last lap with no realistic chance of gaining a place?
And, just as a side note, does anyone else think that Vettel’s lowly finish today has actually made Jenson Button’s championship charge just a little more difficult?
With the Red Bull driver effectively out of the running from the drivers’ title, it’s a head-to-head between Jenson and Rubens, so Brawn won’t have to worry about playing favourite with their two drivers to make sure of securing the championship. Is that a little cynical?
At least it’s the Singapore night race up next. Surely nothing underhand or dodgy could possibly happen there… could it?
i hope that hamilton isn’t punished by his team….he was only doing his job…
It is these kind of disasters that strenghten a racer and add to his experience. You may say it separates him from the ‘greats’ but he has only been racing 3 years. You never know with these things. Still he tried his best. What more is there to do but move on?
Pretty damn funny tho
This is really what i like about British F1 reporters. When a Brit makes a stupid mistake in the stupidest possible point in the race, British journalist stands up and says that the driver made a stupid mistake.
Had the same happened with lets say Alonso, the Spanish media would have come up with all kinds of crazy shit about car being impossibly hard to drive or oil on the track or shit like that. In that sense I think the British media really does a good job.
what was to gain?he was 1 second down. even if jeson went off, hamilton still could have passed
he wont get any its not like it was for the championship or anything so it doesnt really matter
Lewis was very fast again today – couldn´t agree more with Sam´s analysis though. Lewis tends to make mistakes under pressure – he is not a rookie anymore. That devides the excellent drivers from the true greats.
Am I the only one who thinks that Rubinho is dominating Jenson the last races?
He would really deserve to snatch the title at the last year of this career.
Wait, schumacher and Senna didn’t make many mistakes? I think you will find that they both made many mistakes in their first 3 years, in fact i seem to remember Senna crashing into a backmarker in Monza whilst leading the race…
I would rather watch a driver push during a race, even if they occasionally crash, if it means we get moments like Hamilton’s pass on Raikkonen in Monza 07 or his charge to the front in Silverstone 08.
Besides, does anyone really want to see drivers settling for 3rd place in processional style? Though not.
It was the Team’s job to tell Lewis that he didn’t have a hope of catching Button, so he should have been ordered to preserve his engine. End of story.
Agreed, Lewis needs to grow a brain, too, but the team has all the telemetry data etc. He gave up a straight forward podium!
Lewis not a rookie anymore….., yes,true.
But, he is still only in his 3rd season for crying out loud (Schumacher only won his first championship in his 4th season!). He has to make these mistakes and learn from them if he wants to win the championship again.
Being Irish I don’t see why all you English always celebrate Hamilton’s “great” overtakes and race wins, but then criticise him when only his lack of inexperience leads to the odd mistake (today, Fuji 1st corner etc…) when really he is just trying really hard. Why not have a go for it on the last lap? There’s always a chance due to Button having to go round a back marker, and Hamilton’s not fighting for a championship, so there’s little to lose.
Totally agree Jimmypagenr! (Probably better put than my effort as well
)
The teams get huge amounts of money which is shared to teams based on their success in the consructors championship.
So what Lewis basically did for the team was burn up a lot of cash. McLaren is fighting Ferrari for third in the championship. They get more money if they finish strong. To make such an idiotic mistake is more than enough for Whitmarsh to give Hamilton a slap in the face. From spectators point of view, of course it´s more entertaining to see the drivers push.
I absolutely agree to #8. Cut him some slack, he was only racing ‘as he should have been’. So what if he spun? it’s not like he’s lost crucial points towards the championship……. and anyway it’s from mistakes like these he’ll learn to avoid such errors in future. You should be giving him credit for how he drove, absolutely on the limit for the entire race, ‘that’ is impressive.
Enlil, are you a McLaren shareholder or a spectator?
@12 enlil
erm, Hamilton shares the responsibility of getting points for McLaren with Heikki Kovalainen don’t forget. So if Lewis drops it, they need Heikki to pick up the batton so to speak!
And, er, slap in the face? For the guy who won them the drivers champioship last year and lots of media exposure?! Catch yourself on!
Agreed with Aston, Lewis is the reason why there is a queue from woking to London of sponsors wanting to be involved with the team.
Does anyone know why Lewis Hamilton always shakes his legs after a big crash?
Looks like a brain seizure. I’m not saying that it is, I am just wondering. I could easy be a reflex to exit the stress after a heavy accident. You may see the video of the crash on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=N8xrM3f7j5k
Lewis Hamilton is a great champion. He fights and gives all he has all the time and for people telling he should think more, well my opinion is that Lewis was thinking to get the maximum points for his team. Sadly his left rear tire touched the artificial grass and he was off.
The accident was heavy and even him knows it as in his commentary he explicitly said : I want to apologize to my family and tell them that I love them.
I rather see a driver push his car to the limit and then crash than seeing a driver just cruising to settles for his position because there nothing more to gain from it.
^^ and when kimi crashes . . they say hes unmotivated
Mrs H wants to know if anybody has seen Kimi Raikkonin and Ronan Keating in the same room?
The sadest race in hisstory,Lewis was so pumped-up and he was driving like a mental it must be sad giving the car everything that he could.He left his heart and sould on that track and the dramatic mistake at the very end,i pissed sulphur,i can only imagine how he felt.And the poor gorgeous Nicole crying at home or where ever she was it just brakes my heart.I know you’re not gonna win Lewis,but remember that you have millions of fans like me to support you whatever happens and millins in the bank to get you drunk if you don’t.Wish you the best,bring some heat up Button’s ass.I like him and all,but you’re better
enlin, do you even speak spanish? what do you know about spanish media to assume british media say the truth and the spanish isn’t?
Many of Senna and Schumacher’s risks didn’t pay off, just like Hamilton’s last night. F1 has too many dull, percentage drivers. Lewis had nothing to really loose (he’s a World Champ, so what’s one more podium finish), and Jenson isn’t great under pressure (and he’s under a lot at the moment), so it was a worthwhile racer’s risk to get the McLaren as close as possible to Jenson’s rear wing on the lats lap. God bless the Kimi’s, Alonso’s and Hamilton’s in F1: drivers of flesh and blood and not of points and statistics.
well as Fernando Alonso said.. its much better to be consistent than being fast…
@21 – hmmm a big lewis fanboy i see…
to post 18, id prefer to see engines torn apart from driving over the limit (Kimi Raikkonen) than crashes from inexperienced and not as amazing drivers.. how many engines has kimi been through in his F1 career?
I predicted that Hamilton would take out Sutil in the first round, I was wrong, but he did not let me down, he took himself out in the last round. He will never learn that 6 points is better that no points at all. He is not a rookie anymore but he keeps doing himself no favours by actions like this. Raikkonen is a much more calculated driver and thus a lot more consistent.
I agree with the sentiment of “Go for it and to hell with the consequences” – what Lewis did was right and is what racing and competitiveness is all about. No one wants a gentlemans club of boring predictable race finish order decided 5 laps from the finish. And high speed accidents happen, if he hadnt crashed you would all be saying what a brilliant attempt he made today.
People here seem to think that it was well done by Lewis to push hard on the last lap. To be honest there was no chance in hell that he was going to catch Button with only a mile left in the race. I wonder why people are so keen on kissing this guys ass?
If Lewis would have been that close to Jenson five laps earlier, then I would agree that it was right to go as fast as possible.
Overall i think Lewis´ all in-attitude is great to watch. For example last year in Monza when he simply pushed people off the track to overtake. However i think the same attitude sometimes holds him back, as seen yesterday.
Lewis drove his best as ever, he was comiteded to the last second of the race and gave it 100% as always. if anything this makes me think hes an even better driver.
Even though there probaly was no chance he could overtake Jenson he wanted to give a go anyway.
p.s 28. were not “kissing this guys ass” were whats called His Fans!
Also arnt people forgeting throughout the race he set 6 or 7 fastest laps every single one doing better than his own previous fastest lap most of the time with heavely graining rear tyres!!
He a Legend!!
of this lewis nonsense he is not even in top 6 of the standings so he well-really is nothing this year. even felipe massa has 22 points to his 27, what a sap.
@30 fastest laps don’t give any points, he was the lightest on the grid [hence the pole] and the Brawns were just as fast towards the end of each stint but they got their cars home. Heavily graining tyres is a sign that either the car is not so kind on the tyres or that he has no idea how to preserve the tyres to last long enough. [Remember when he got stuck in the gravel on his way to the pits a few years ago?]
Being half way through the last lap with a solid 3rd place and still pushing shows a lack of experience.
to post 28, i agree with the ass kissing. its what the whole of Britain do to every one of their young ‘talent’ no matter what their quality level, to post 30, Schumacher is a legend for being as good as he was, he earned that over time. Valentino Rossi is a legend for being so good and consistent and winning so much, just like Schumacher. Hamilton has done none of this, he is not a legend. British will disagree with me, almost the whole rest of the world will agree with me.
hmm
@#17 ; I think he shakes his legs there to be sure everything is still attached and working after a heavy front-end impact. I’m no Lewis fanboy but trying hard to the last second beats giving up.
stig stig brother stigs brother hamilton is the stig stig is the hamilton no stig s.cks a.. and every body who says stig or anything abot stig god i am getting stigged just stop it please!!!
Hamilton is a useless driver,that he ever became champ is a travesty, i doubt he’ll ever get that lucky again
Someone in the Army said to me once.
“THERE IS ONLY ONE THING HARDER THAN CARRYING ON. GIVING UP”
I think that says it all.
i felt really sorry for him crashing on the last lap i was gutted. a one stop was clearly the way to go though.
unlucky
son you shall go to bed now
i think lewis is over rated, from everybody racing these days only alonso has what it takes to be a legend, he is going to do what shumi did 5 consecutive titles,..
I do wish that people who use phrases like “useless driver” (post No. 37) would back up their comments with some well documented examples, instead of showing their ignorance. Constructive criticism is one thing, but comments such as that are, quite frankly, pointless.
As for “ass kissing” (what a revolting offensive phrase, for which I daren’t use the English for ass, because it might be censored), yes being English/British, I do support our guys in what few sports I take an interest in, but I’m not blind to their possible lack of talent to reach the very top. I cheer when they win, and commiserate when they lose. I certainly don’t lose any sleep over their defeats (unless it happens to involve The Ashes.)
Hamilton is a very good driver, but I suspect that many people are against him because they view the confidence he demonstrates in his abilities as arrogance. It’s their loss, not his.
As for who is likely to come out on top by the end of the season; provided Button can hold his nerve, then he is the one with the points advantage. He merely needs to ensure that he finishes ahead of Barrichello for a couple of races to off-load the pressure onto his team-mate.
It’s great to see a driver pushing that hard on the last lap, normally they’ll have given up by then. Now, be honest, if you were in an F1 car and were just behind another one, would you push like mad to get past at all costs? Thought so.
Anybody against Hamilton is an arrogant s**t cake.
poor hamilton
I would Ben Ashcroft, if I was ‘just behind’. But Hamilton wasn’t, and had no chance except if Button came off the road, in which case he would have got him anyway. There is calculated risk, when you can gain a lot or lose a lot, and reckless risk, when you have nothing to gain and a lot to lose. Hamilton took a reckless risk, there is nothing particularly admirable in that.
Well he was only about a second behind with KERS wasn’t he Tom? And what did he have to lose?
And what did he have to lose?
Credibility and millions of pounds for mr whitmarshes piggy bank to spend on his own challenge next year !!!!!
He blew it ! big time and everyone can see that!
No wonder nicole dumped him !
c
Compared to lap times Brawns were fast enough to keep Hamilton away. Remind that KERS is not endless source of power – once you pushed the button you have to load it.
And kers is not much of an advantage in the corners.
lewis hamilton is just like jack villeneuve a one hit wonder