After making a good start Jenson Button did what a good driver would in keeping his position and setting himself up for an opportunity should one show up. He stopped slightly early for tyres, luck came in the form of a complete botch up of pit stops at Red Bull Racing and Jenson assumed race lead. By then the team appeared to have decided to run him on a 3 stop strategy. The second stop was one lap too early, getting onto super soft’s in hindsight seems to have contributed to what was in store there after.
Safety car was out, cars ran at speeds much lower than race levels saving tyres that much more and have tyres left for much more race distance and Jenson hadn’t use his primes yet. He had to pit one more time to change to primes which he did and caught up once again to the leader Vetter and Alonso who was frenetically chasing him down. A red flag, race restart and an unprecedented move of allowing cars repairs and tyre changes while they waited for the restart on the race track itself meant that Jenson would keep his 3rd position with no chance left remaining to give a go for the top podium spot.
Yesterday’s race might have given us different results if the two safety cars weren’t necessary. The other McLaren car has a different story to say. In the initial stages of the race Lewis was doing a good pace, he was on primes. An early brush with Michael caused some damage to his rear. He pulled off an excellent move on 5 time race winner Michael Schumacher. McLaren’s pit crew who usually do an excellent job let Lewis down at his stop, Lewis says he was asked to box and when he did the pit crew weren’t ready.
In the remaining period of the Lewis he demonstrated an abject lack of decorum and decency one would expect someone of his nature and calibre to have. Lewis tried to get into the inside of Felipe Massa entering Loews hairpin, Massa is no angel to go wide and allow him to pass, he’s racing too. Massa took his line and both cars brushed. They raced going into the tunnel fiercely and in the tunnel Lewis passed Massa who then loses control and rubs the walls coming out of the tunnel with a broken front wheel. Game over for him. Lewis said “I went up the inside and he turned in me on purpose” to his pit over radio, the message itself is baffling as if Lewis expected him to wait and let him pass. Lame that was.
On lap 74 Lewis tried to pull off another move on Pastor Maldonaldo who stood his line and turned at San Devote clipping Lewis off onto the kerbs and ramming into the barriers himself there. Maldonaldo’s race ended at that point, he was running 6th and would have brought home some much needed and deserved points. And then Lewis goes on to say “he turned in a good car length too early”, that’s absolutely ridiculous.
Lewis ought to know he’s racing people who are racing drivers too. Radioing to his pits or talking to the media about how everybody else is turning too early when he misses a chance to make a move and thereby causing an accident is the sour grapes story. The icing on the cake is attributing racist motives to the stewards’ decision, which of course he’s attributed to as a joke, Matt Bishop must have given him a lesson or two on what you say to the media.
This weekend is worrying for a McLaren fan, I’m sure it should be worse for the team. One is because if drivers go shooting their mouths off to the media in this fashion then where is the sport headed to. You got to accept defeat and mistakes with as much humility as you would take to success. Second is around some strategy decision the team have been making around pit stops and tyres. Third is Lewis Hamilton. It must be intensely frustrating being where he is, the pressure must be getting onto him, not to mention the girlfriend whose presence in the track almost certainly makes Lewis that much more aggressive. Don’t take my word for it, go to YouTube and see for yourself.
The red flag came in just moments before the McLaren pits said over radio to Lewis that he needs to drive back to the pits and retire because of the damage caused by the Torro Rosso to his rear wing was beyond repair. And then by some stroke of luck they are allowed to conduct repairs to the wing on the race track itself while being red flagged. Isn’t that a mighty stroke of luck ? Someone like Lewis shouldn’t forget the European GP of 2007 where a crane lifted him and put him onto the race track, check out 00:36 – 00:38 of the video link. There are lucky days, there are unlucky days. There are days when the machine behaves like it’s an extension of you and there are days when it’s a beast that doesn’t behave no matter how much you tame. We don’t need an English Fernando Alonso mate, we already have a Spaniard.
Martin Whitmarsh gives a measured response to the race to BBC, that eloquence and dignity is exactly what’s missing in Lewis’ ramblings. I hope the team talks to him and brings him back to the usually jolly fellow he is, the talented and aggressive racer, not this jerk that keeps ruining other people’s races and then says “these drivers are absolutely freaking ridiculous, stupid”. On the lighter side don’t miss this funny exchange between the Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard, Jake Humprey and a FIA official.
Note: This writer is a huge fan of Lewis Hamilton as his posts on this blog from the past would prove and has been following the McLaren Mercedes team’s Formula ONE races rather closely for over 1.5 decades.
