Monday, July 23, 2007

Rain, Raikkonen n Reliability

The surreal run of Hamilton was bound to come to a halt but the way in which it ended was really unfortunate considering the fact that his position on the starting grid was compromised due to the slackness of his pit-crew. Having said this, he did bounce back by gaining as many as six positions in the first two corners of the race but once again, he was forced to slow down due to some technical glitch. When everything seemed to be back to normal, the clouds opened up and he found himself struck in the gravel trap and by the time the race restarted , he found himself two laps behind.

Raikkonen was back to his erratic best as he over-shot the pit lane and ended up doing an absurdly slow lap in the equally absurd wet track on his dry-weather tires. He somehow managed to claw his way back to third place before his reliable reliability problems forced him to retire.

Massa was in complete control right from the moment when he over took Alonso in the first lap but the race isn't a one lap show and the Brazilian was once again humbled by the hungry Spaniard who literally muscled his way past him with just a handful of laps remaining.

The race will mainly be remembered because of the havoc created by the rain and as the first non-podium finish of Lewis Hamilton.

"If the European GP were a movie, it would be a cult classic"--Steve Slater

Cult movie or not, it surely ruined the hopes of Raikkonen who started on pole and was looking good for a hat-trick of wins.  Marcus Winclehock deserves a special mention because he found himself leading the race after just four laps in a Spyker in his debut race.(That was something which even Hamilton couldn't achieve)

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