Today, justice was done. This was a long and stupid investigation, complete with the usual unsubstantiated Hamilton bashing. Frankly, this type of witch hunt makes me sick and I’m glad it’s over.
Three parties involved in the incident where Hamilton had been accused of erratic driving behind the pace car during the Japanese Grand Prix got together to put this matter to bed. Mark Webber, Sebstian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton all appeared before stewards to explain what happened and in the end, all were happy and no one was punished. Even Vettel had his 10 place penalty reversed.
This race was held under terrible driving conditions as was evident by a number of drivers constantly complaining over their radios about how bad it was. When I watched the race and it was the same race that those crying foul watched, I saw other drivers passing each other unintentionally while behind the pace car. What they said about that was that the weather was so bad you could pass someone and not even know it. Immediately after Sebastian Vettel returned to the pits, he was in tears and admitted that the incident was his fault. He said that while watching Lewis, he failed to concentrate just for a second on Mark Weber in front of him. He also said he would apologize to Mark as soon as he could and admit fault. Just as Vettel admitted the crash was his fault, Weber was fuming in the pits about what Vettel had done. Hmm, I guess a lot of people conveniently forgot this being so happy to find another way to bash Hamilton.
The fact that Mark Webber didn’t submit an official complaint tells us that when cooler heads prevail and all evidence is looked at impartially, yes, impartially, a favorable conclusion is reached.

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The battle between Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica was a classic. This would have been a great battle in dry conditions, but considering that it was extremely wet, this is a great highlight reel.
Both Massa and Kubica wouldn’t give an inch pushing each other all over the track and off. Worth watching a few times.

Massa vs Kubica Battle In Fuji 2007

[tags]Massa and Kubica, massa, kubica[/tags]

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If you didn’t know how good Lewis Hamilton is, you do now. Lewis Hamilton drove his Mclaren Mercedes flawlessly in a rain drenched and action packed thriller today to capture the 2007 japanese Grand Prix. Teammate Fernando Alonzo who couldn’t match the pace and drove a ragged race, crashed hard in the later half leaving the drivers championship Lewis’s to lose.
From daybreak, it was apparent the weather was going to play the biggest part in this years race and it didn’t disappoint. The race began behind the safety car and continued for the first 19 laps. Race radios were crackling with complaints from drivers about the appalling conditions and indeed they were.
Early in the race, it was reported that Ferrari chose to race on intermediates and were forced to come in to the pits right away to change to full wets rejoining the race at the back of the field. What on earth happened there. It appeared to me that every other team, media person, and even the fan at the farthest reaches of the stadium knew they were told to start on full wets. Ferrari adapted to a new strategy of a one stop race hoping to gain track position as the race went on.
A promising race for Jenson Button was trashed when in turn 1, Nick Heidfeld challenged him up the inside knocking Jenson’s front wind off and sending Heidfeld spinning off the track. After a few laps without a wing, Jenson finally gave in, pitting for a new one and exiting the pits well down in the race order.
Felipe massa’s day went from bad to worse when he was struck by a spinning Alex Wurz sending him spinning as well. Luckily massa’s Ferrari was undamaged and he continued into the mist and rain.
By this point it was clear that Hamilton was charging hard to win this race and show everyone what he was made of. Alonzo already over 2 seconds behind and dropping.
The biggest break for Hamilton was when Alonzo pitted and came out in the middle of traffic slowing him down even more allowing Hamilton to widen his gap to over 14 seconds.
Treacherous conditions continued and in spots seemed worse as the race went on. What was amazing to me was that very few cars pirouetted off the track. Most seemed in control throughout with the exception of a few who simply had brain cramps.
First Kubica (who I admire quite a bit) feeling a little to confident charged straight into Hamilton punting him momentarily off the track giving Kubica the place. Hmm where is your head Robert. This stupid move cost Kubica a drive through penalty and Hamilton a vibration.
Later, on lap 42, Fernando Alonzo lost control of his Mclaren in turn 6 and slid hard into the wall ending his race and maybe his championship challenge.
Lap 47, under the guidance of the safety car, catastrophe for the Red Bull organisation Sebastien Vettel chose to watch Lewis Hamilton’s car instead of Mark Webber in front of him and in that split second of inattention thumped his car into the back of the Australian’s. Both cars were out, though Vettel was able to hobble back to the pits to retire his car in tears.
Was Mark Weber angry about this? A dimwit at Itv (who I won’t name here) raced over to him sticking a microphone in his face and was clearly surprised when Weber threw the “f” word in on live TV. Interview over and I hope some red faces in the media.
Suddenly, after effectively starting from the back of the grid, both Ferrairis at lap 52 were Massa 3rd and Raikkonen 5th. After a couple of hard charges at 4th place Coulthard, Raikkonen flew past him and took 4th place behind Massa.
Here’s where it stinks. Lap 59 with Massa still in front of Raikkonen, Ferrari ordered Massa in to the pits for new tires and a splash of fuel (clearly not needed and could only be team orders) giving the position over to Raikkonen who could then challenge Heiki Kovalainen for second place and even more important championship points. Now I don’t believe Ferrari was trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes with that ‘team order’ move and they certainly didn’t, but these tactics I don’t like one bit. Race for the place, end of story.
From this point on, Hamilton, lap after lap widened his gap over second place Kovalainen and Raikkonen was not able to get by Kovalainen for second place.
This was a terrific race. Usually I don’t really enjoy watching a wet race, but this one was special. I think every driver who took to the grid today drove a great race. The conditions brought out incredible bravery and skill in all participating.
In the end, Lewis Hamilton has proved to all of his critics that he IS the best out there and deserves the championship. With barely 500km of wet in an F1 car, he drove lap after lap smoothly without ever making a mistake. His fast pace and incredible skill literally broke Fernando Alonzo and caused all of the 4 leaders to take chances just to get close.

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Fog and rain were the initial story in Fuji today, but soon into the 1st qualifying session at least the fog abated leaving only a slow drizzle of rain and a bunch of nervous drivers.
Not only is this the first F1 race in 30 years at this redesigned track, but with little practice this morning in the rain, qualifying began with not one driver putting in more than a lap or two in the rain.

By the time qualifying was over, the rain had all but stopped and the track was in most sections just damp. This gave opportunities to lesser drivers and drivers needing good results and they didn’t disappoint. Both Jenson Button and Sebastion Vettel made it into Q3 placing high.

Jenson Button’s a guy whose career is fast fading away with Honda Racing and I can’t help but scream at him to get out. He’s talented, fast and can drive even this pitifully slow Honda fast. Today he proved it in the rain.

Things looked up for Jenson Button and Honda on the latter’s home turf, thanks to the effect of the wet track on car performance. Button was able to remind people of what he can do as he lapped in 1m 26.913s to shade Mark Webber’s Red Bull by a thousandth of a second. (f1.com)

“It was really tough,” Button said. “The track was drying all the team but that was just making it more and more greasy all the time.
Button said one of the keys to his position was his decision to use scrubbed intermediate tyres in all three parts of qualifying.
My other performer of the day is Sebastian Vettel. I was first impressed with Sebastian when he stepped in to drive in place of injured Robert Kubica. The result, 8th place in the BMW.

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Now that it’s Monday we can finally say ‘This weekend is the Japanese Grand prix’. I for one am looking forward to this new old track. The Fuji Speedway hasn’t hosted an F1 race since 1977, 30 years ago. In that race Gilles Villeneuve was involved in a crash that killed two people on the other side of the fence and this ended up being the second and last race held at the Fuji Speedway. Until now.
There’s a lot to learn for just about everybody this weekend especially the drivers. Not one driver taking to the grid Sunday has ever raced on this track creating a slightly more level playing field.

There have been a number of changes in this track the last few years, but it’s soul essentially remains the same. Fuji continues to have the longest straight of any F1 circuit at close to 1.5 km long and has been used for Japanese drag racing and even track and field events.
Throughout the track, additional corners have been added to encourage more exciting racing and slower corners have been added at the end of the track to slow entry into the long straight.

Suzuka isn’t out of the picture however. Starting 2009 Suzuka and Fuji will alternate hosting the Japanese Grand Prix.

[tags]Japanese Grand Prix, Fuji Speedway[/tags]

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