gentlemen drivers and sportsman-like drivers like Button, Massa or Webber are not taken as seriously as the win-at-all-costs drivers like Schumi, Raikonnen, Hamilton or Alonso. Villenuve was favoured by frank williams because of his uncompromising attitude when Hill was out performing.
The dye has been cast this way probably because schumi knew this was the only way he could successfully challenge senna

Awesome race to watch, sucks that The Ham was the winner, nothing special about his drive, it was almost everyone else who impressed.

As for him embracing his father at the end, well he just made him $120m richer!

Frankly I think some people are just looking for reasons not to like him.

Try the time he called anyone he was going to lap during the race “monkeys at the back of the grid” before the Moncao race. And that’s just for starters.

Basically, an F1 race is run to a maximum distance of 200 miles or a maximum duration of two hours. The two hour time limit does not include any time spent under red flag as at the European Grand Prix this year.

This race ran to two hours and 34 seconds. This is because as Hamilton began the final lap the race would have been run for something like one hour and 59 minutes – short of the two hour limit. The race therefore ends when the leader crosses the finishing line for the first time after the two hour mark has been passed.

Robert’s explanation above is right, and the positions are not ‘frozen’ at the moment the clock hits two hours or anything like that.

Clearly the coverage directors weren’t sure whether they were going to get the full race into the two hours, which is why the display flicked from laps remaining to minutes remaining at one point. In the end, the race went the maximum duration in terms of distance and time.

I dont think anyone is saying that hamilton is 1 of the all time best, it just looks like he has the potential to eventually do so. I am 1 of them people, but il wait the next 2 3 seasons before i make my mind up having seen what happened 2 villeneuve. Fact is hamilton has beaten alonso fair and square this year and some people just cant accept it.

and i forgot to say fantastic drive by hamilton and also kovalainen. hamilton will wrap it up in china now unless he gets a dnf i cant see him losing this tittle, well deserved.

Just to clarify in this case, am I right in saying that the race just ends as normal upon the first point where the leader crosses the line after two hours? i.e. everyone can race on (Massa vs Kubica) until every car crosses the finish line.
OR, does everyone just receive the position they were in as the clock ticks over to two hours?”

It’s not a “2-hours exactly” race, it’s simply once the clock has reached two hours, once everyone crosses the finish line they are classified, so everything was fine in that respect.