[SPOILER] 2008 Italian GP

[Kissyface]

Hamilton = Rainmeister? Hahahahhah

At lap 33, are you still laughing?
At lap 40, I am laughing for a very different reason...
Okay, enough gloating.

Race is over. A very interesting race and undisputable proof of Sebastian Vettel's talent and I salute him for a maturity beyond his years and an incredible race weekend.

[SHIZL]

what a great result for vettel u got to like him and a great drive from kubica. im sure hamilton had some ferrrari fans scared until it started drying up and he had to pit again the championship is so crazy right now. ferrari has got to start becoming scared of the constuctors championship dont know how it looks yet but its getting closer every race. ferrari 134, mclaren 129 constructors

[silentm]

man what a race... i was so nervous till the end because i was afraid Vettel might not hold it together but man was i wrong!

i was sooooo happy when he crossed the finish line, such an incredible and historical moment. man this was just epic!

[bettlejuice]

Originally Posted by Jona Today Heikki showed what he is made of. Kovalainen is a brilliant driver, no doubt about it. Hamilton = Rainmeister? Hahahahhah http://www.riemurasia.net/jylppy/media.php?id=45925&c=5 British media is currently quiet. They've been telling that Hamilton is the best thing since sliced bread.. well there you go. They are so biased that italian press looks like a UN convention. It will be a great race tomorrow. I'm expecting Heikki to take the lead, and there will be a big crash in the first corner. RAI and HAM will be out. Kovalainen will win this, he'll probably make just one pit stop. Vettel is good, but his car doesn't have what it takes to challenge McLaren. Vettel will be a superstar when he'll have the right tools, he is an excellent driver. Go Finland!

making results outta others' misery!?! i see some issues there
.............................................
kudos to Vettel, Hamilton and Kubica ... great race

[frnk]

Hamilton had a good drive but he made alot moves which were either mistakes (that no one else made) or what I would rat as overly aggressive moves, especially in the conditions. Pushing Glock off at the curva grande and then bumping wheels with Webber on the entry to rettifilo were both hugely uncomprimising moves which make the Schumacher comparisons seem more and more apt.

A bit of a disappointing race after a great race at Spa and the most exciting qualifying session of the season but a great result for Vettel who is definitely cementing himself as a huge prospect for the future.

[blue8]

Awesome race! Congrats to Vettel for driving a great race!
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1h26:47.000
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 12.512
3. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 20.471
4. Alonso Renault (B) + 23.903
5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 27.748
6. Massa Ferrari (B) + 28.816
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 29.012
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 32.048
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 39.468
10. Piquet Renault (B) + 54.445
11. Glock Toyota (B) + 58.888
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:02.015
13. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1:05.954
14. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:08.635
15. Button Honda (B) + 1:13.370
16. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
17. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 2 laps

[yellky]

and it was interesting indeed!
great race, i thought it would be impossible for KUB to finish on the podium

i didnt like HAM's driving style - esp. the incident with WEB


btw, i've just found the proof RAI can smile:

(that was BEFORE the race)

[styla21]

Appears the F1 press is describing Monza as a "One of the Great Races" and that it showed "why f1 is the greatest sport in the world".
....It was a good race and everything, but I found myself sort of frustrated the whole time. :S

Perhaps it was Hamiltons 3 unnecessarily overly-aggressive moves, or that the highest speed-track in the F1 calendar was being driven at a snails pace the entire time. I expected carnage, lots of rear-end powersliding, and slick overtaking moves.

Instead, Nakajima delivered his trademark Kamikaze move into Coulthard, the ITV commentators were doing their usual Hamilton-Fanboy speeches - claming Kimi has had it, and showing off their new cool quote for the day "the Minardi DNA". If I got a $1 for everytime i heard that one last night... I'd have like 20 dollars.

Why must the ITV guys talk-down Heiki's ability - he came 2nd as I recall it, and Hamilton 7th? He outqualified, and outraced his counterpart, but apparantly "isn't a good enough racer to challenge in a race yet". Please! He was blinded by a blizzard of spray, came 2nd. He drove brilliantly. Shut up.

All in all, i'm stoked for Vettel, and for both Redbull teams. They deserved some success, and you could sort of feel it brewing throughout recent time.

My sympathy award goes to Bourdais, who after a challenging season must have been thrilled to be up the front of the grid, to then have mechanical failure / unexplained stall.

Question: Do you guys think Kimi's season is indeed finished? I realise there are unsurmountable odds against him... But it's never over till its over. How exactly, when its claimed Kimi will "now support Massa" does he do that? Drive into Massa's competitors? Or something more refined like some feedback throughout practice / qualifying? - I thought team orders were no longer allowed? :S

Good race. Bring on Singapore.

[79TA]

For the first time in a long while I found an F1 race entertaining. It was so nice to see someone other than "the usual suspects" be able to be competitive. Great job to Vettel. That kid is definitely going places if he can win a race that young in a non-manufacturer car. I knew F1 as dominated by the factory teams but I didn't realize that a non-factory team hadn't won a race since '03.

It seems Torro Rosso runs well in the rain. Does anyone remember how well Speed was doing in his car in that one rainy race before his incident?

[frnk]

Kimi is behind Kubica in the driver's championship now, I think he's pretty much finished. His role will be to rear gun for Massa and design his strategies around holding up Hamilton on the tracks where they have an advantage. Team orders are illegal now but it doesn't stop teams from controlling their drivers to make sure that the finish is orchestrated in the best way for the championship, they just have to make sure they don't get caught and don't do anything as obvious as the Schumacher/Barrichello days.

[fordgt84]

gr8 race indeed, i'm really happy for vettel. alot of people were cutting chicane's in this race though, i guess hamilton's "incident" at belgium was contagious. speaking of which hamilton did well getting from 15th to 7th, but i must admit, as a hamilton supporter, that some of his moves were a bit dirty ...anyways i'm very much lookin forward to that night race in singapore, should be interesting

[blue8]

Originally Posted by styla21 Question: Do you guys think Kimi's season is indeed finished? I realise there are unsurmountable odds against him... But it's never over till its over. How exactly, when its claimed Kimi will "now support Massa" does he do that? Drive into Massa's competitors? Or something more refined like some feedback throughout practice / qualifying? - I thought team orders were no longer allowed? :S

I think Ferrari wants Kimi to play the supporting role now. They won't openly say it as usual.

I've always said that our main interest is the team," explained Domenicali. "Of course, that's the most important thing and the drivers know it. "At this moment, at this stage, you can see that we haven't, in our situation, taken away points from one or the other, and for sure, considering from now up to the end of the season, in the way that it's possible to do, of course Kimi will do his best to be as aggressive as possible but also consider the fact that Felipe is much closer to the leader, Lewis."

But here's what Kimi's response:

Q. Are you going to help Felipe Massa? KR: I don't know. We will see what happens.

I'm not a Hamilton fan but I was actually impressed with his overtaking moves during the races. Sure some were potentially dangerous but it worked anyway. At least he had the balls to be aggressive. I didn't see anyone else like him there.

[5vz-fe]

Hamilton is making friends.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...15141257.shtml

A week after the Spa-Francorchamps penalty controversy, championship leader Lewis Hamilton's on-track antics are back in the spotlight. The McLaren driver got involved in some close encounters during Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, including with his old foe and former teammate, Fernando Alonso. "There was some unnecessary movements he made," the Spaniard told reporters in his native tongue at Monza, "and he repeated them with Glock and Webber. It is his way of racing." Toyota's Timo Glock was also not pleased when asked about Hamilton's driving. "I do not know what he was thinking. I was right next to him but he left me no room. Sometimes he drives as though he is completely alone on the track," the German is quoted as saying by RTL. "The next time I am with him (on track), I will behave with him in exactly the same way," Glock promised. 23-year-old Hamilton also made contact with Red Bull's Mark Webber during a wheel-to-wheel battle with the Australian at the first chicane. "I made sure I covered my inside spot, but I didn't want to stay there on the wet patch or I wouldn't have made the corner," the Briton explained afterwards. "He just clipped my front wheel and went on."

[HeilSvenska]

Wow... A Minardi-level team with Minardi-origin actually won a race...

Good for Vettel. It shows that you need some guts to pull off a heroic victory, especially since you're in the bottom tier and you have little to lose. But man, 12 second lead at the end is very commendable.

Good for Kovaleinen as well.

What's happening to Kimi? Ferrari must not suit him well.

[nthfinity]

Styla, i generally agree with you.

The race win was well deserved to Vettel.. and everything beyond that was pretty much boring. Hamilton made some gutsy moves, and seemed to always have the slip-stream in a straight after some turn, or chicane... some luck; which really helped him. Once his slipstream luck ended, his speed ended. It was bound to work for a while... but cannot guarantee a race win, or podium.

Kimi "showed" whats up by setting so many fast laps, and the fast lap of the race with his "hard to drive" ferrari.