07-Sep-08: Hamilton Takes Win at Spa, Pending Investigation
Today is the 7th September 2008, and this is F1 Minute.
The story of Spa is one of the first lap and the last lap. As the lights went out, Raikkonen had a great start and jumped into second behind Hamilton. Kovalainen had a poor start and dropped from third to 13th. Raikkonen managed to overtake Hamilton and dominated the race from there.
There were only two retirements during the race, Piquet spun out and crashed into the barriers, and Barrichello pulled into the pits with a gearbox problem.
As the last laps got underway, it began to rain, and Hamilton had closed up the gap to the Ferrari considerably. The pair were battling corner to corner, one second Lewis was in front, the next it was Kimi, until ultimately, Raikkonen spun in the wet and hit the wall. Hamilton and Massa crawled round the last lap in the wet on the wrong tyres and McLaren got the victory.
It has been reported that the stewards are investigating an incident between the pair where Lewis had to give a place back to Kimi, but as yet, we don’t know.
Therefore, I will be back later with another F1 Minute.
02-Sep-08: Red Bull Believe Tyres are Cause of Problems
Welcome to F1 Minute, it’s the 2nd September 2008.
Red Bull haven’t exactly been on top form lately, and boss Christian Horner says that they’ve established the root of the problem. “Tyres are proving to be the biggest factor at the moment. Over the past couple of months, Toyota has looked very strong tyre wise in the higher temperatures. It’s not a case of our rivals suddenly ‘bolting on’ more performance. It’s down to tyre useage and they have handled that better than us. We have understood why this happened and I feel we can get on top of this situation and return to our earlier form for the final third of the season, hopefully starting this weekend in Spa.”
Elsewhere, Raikkonen has finally admitted that he needs a good result in Belgium, to keep his championship hopes alive, but says that Spa is one of his favourite races. About negative stories in the press, he says: “These things happen. It wasn’t for the first time and it might not have been the last in my career. You just have to know how to cope with these situations.”
That’s it for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.