Lewis Hamilton is moral victor in Spa thriller (2008 Belgian Grand Prix review)
Lewis Hamilton celebrates his Spa win before the stewards took it from him
Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix – but the stewards’ decision to strip him of his hard-earned victory soured what would otherwise have been remembered as a magnificent race.
Kimi Raikkonen was poised to score a fourth consecutive win at Spa but Hamilton capitalised on a late rain shower to attack the Ferrari driver.
After a thrilling wheel-to-wheel duel Hamilton took the win as Raikkonen crashed. But after the race the stewards relegated Hamilton to third and handed victory to Felipe Massa.
Kimi Raikkonen takes the lead
The Belgian Grand Prix began and ended on a wet track but it was dry for the most part in between.
Lewis Hamilton got a perfect start from his 11th career pole position and scorched away from the chasing Ferraris.
Kimi Raikkonen took up second place by slipstreaming past team mate Felipe Massa at Kemmel but further back chaos broke out.
Jarno Trulli had made a sublime start, diving past a string of cars. But Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais braked too late at the first corner and brunched his nose into the back of Trulli’s Toyota.
Also in trouble was Heikki Kovalainen who bogged down terribly when the lights changed and tumbled down the order from third to 13th.
It got worse for Hamilton at the start of the second lap when Hamilton had a half-spin at the La Source hairpin. If he hadn’t pulled out such a large lead on the first tour he’d have fallen a long way back, but as it was he was able to rejoin in second behind Raikkonen.
Massa was third ahead of Fernando Alonso, who passed Mark Webber at Kemmel on the first lap. Trulli ran sixth before spinning at the chicane. Nelson Piquet Jnr took his place but slipped down the order after briefly taking Trulli’s place.
Heikki Kovalainen’s race gets worse
Kovalainen began to climb back through the field, taking Timo Glock, Nick Heidfeld, and then Piquet. Kubica surrendered seventh on lap eight but on the following lap a mis-timed move on Webber at the chicane tipped the Red Bull driver into a spin. Within a few minutes the stewards announced Kovalainen would get a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.
At the front Hamilton kept within range of Raikkonen. The McLaren was much faster than the Ferrari in sectors one and three, but lost over half a second per lap in sector two. The gap stayed at around a second as Massa fell to 5.6s adrift by lap nine.
Hamilton was first to pit on lap 11 and it worked perfectly for Ferrari as he came out of the pits behind Kovalainen. For some reason McLaren were not of a mind to get Kovalainen out of the way by bringing him in for his penalty, or a pit stop.
Raikkonen pitted on the following lap and came out with Sebastien Bourdais, Kubica and Kovalainen between himself and Hamilton. Once they had pitted, Raikkonen’s lead had grown to 5.6s, and Massa had reduced Hamilton’s advantage to 4.4s.
Kovalainen’s pit stop and penalty left him 15th, and he spent six laps stuck behind David Coulthard. He eventually cleared the Red Bull and on lap 28 put a (clean) pass on Webber for ninth.
Lewis Hamilton catches Raikkonen
At the front the status quo seemed settled. Hamilton could only take a tenth out of Raikkonen’s lead occasionally. The the final set of pit stops changed the picture.
First, Hamilton had a shorter stop and gained two seconds on Raikkonen. Then, with both cars on the harder compound tyre, Hamilton reduced Raikkonen’s lead initially, the McLaren seeming to heat the tyres up more quickly. By lap 28 Raikkonen’s lead was down to 2.4s, but by then the Ferrari was up to speed and the gap stabilised once again.
Alonso had taken fourth ahead of the Toro Rosso duo. Heidfeld was seventh after a poor pit stop for team mate Kubica. But a final belt of rain was about to change everything.
As the rain began to fall lightly from lap 39 so Hamilton began to reduce Raikkonen’s lead further. By lap 40 it was under a second, but Hamilton had a brief moment of oversteer at the chicane and lost over a second.
Fight to the finish
As lap 42 began Hamilton cut 1.4s out of Raikkonen’s lead again and they charged into the chicane side-by-side, Hamilton on the outside. Raikkonen, with Hamilton fully alongside him, pushed the McLaren clean off the track, putting Hamilton in the lead. Hamilton dropped back and let Raikkonen re-pass him, as per the rules, but caught Raikkonen’s slipstream and passed him again at La Source.
It still wasn’t over. Halfway around lap 43 Hamilton had to dive off the track to avoid Nico Rosberg’s Williams, which was re-joining the circuit. Raikkonen charged between the pair of them and took the lead again – but only for a few metres, as he spun at the exit of Fagnes.
Raikkonen then lost it again at the exit of Blanchimont and swiped into the barriers. Race over, fourth consecutive win at Spa gone.
By now it was raining heavily but neither Hamilton nor Massa wanted to risk losing the lead by pitting for wet weather tyres. They crawled around the final tour, taking over two and a half minutes each.
Video of Hamilton and Raikkonen’s battle
Drama in the rain
Meanwhile seven drivers had switched to wet weather rubber. Nick Heidfeld, Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Kazuki Nakajima and Jenson Button on lap 42, and Fernando Alonso on lap 43.
Heidfeld and Alonso cut through the dry-weather stragglers on the final lap to finish third and fourth, demoting Vettel (fifth), Kubica (sixth) and Bourdais (seventh). The latter had begun the final lap in third place. Alonso later said if he’d been switched to intermediate tyres one lap earlier he’d have won.
Glock took the final points-paying place but only until the stewards got their hands on him. He was relegated from eighth to ninth for having passed Webber under yellow flags. Appropriately, Webber was promoted to eighth in his place.
The other drama on the final lap was the sudden disappearance of Kovalainen, who came to a halt on the Kemmel straight having been seventh.
More about Timo Glock’s penalty
Controversy after the flag
Sadly the drama was not to end at the chequered flag. The stewards determined after the race that Hamilton had gained an advantage by cutting the chicane while racing Raikkonen, and added 25 seconds to his race time, leaving him third behind Massa and Heidfeld.
Glock received the same penalty for passing Webber under yellow flags and was dropped from eighth to ninth behind the Red Bull driver.
The stationary Kovalainen was classified tenth ahead of Coulthard, Rosberg and Adrian Sutil, who moved ahead of Nakajima and Button when the rain fell, Trulli was 16th ahead of compatriot Fisichella, and the crashed-but-classified Raikkonen.
The only non-finishers were Rubens Barrichello, who load sixth gear, and Nelson Piquet Jnr. Piquet repeated the mistake he made in practice of touching a wet kerb, and spun off.
More about Lewis Hamilton’s penalty
The comments below have been split across multiple pages. If you are having trouble viewing all the comments click here to see them all.
As always, great post.
Prior to the appeal being heard, i think we should all revisit the Massa/ Kubica battle at the end of the Japanese grand prix last year. If i recall correctly, Massa went way off the track at the last corner only to rejoin in front of Kubica and taking the position at the flag.
Views?
Great report as usual.
I hope after such controversies, they would stop covering all the run off areas with tarmac! Nearly all drivers made fundemental driving mistakes yet they got away with them.
Why didnt Ferrari pit Massa for wets at the last lap, what did he have lose anyway? He was way ahead of 3rd placed driver and look how much heidfeld made up on him at the las lap.
Also why does a drive through penalty equates to 25secs? I remember the old 10 secs stop-go penalty was equal to that.
If lewis gained an advantage cutting the corner, then i hope every driver who miss the corner at every gp at the start get docked 25 seconds,simple biased fia ferrari fans. Lewis would be penalised either way, he gains an advantage or takes kimi out. FIA time to buck your ideas up and keep the racing fair!!!!
i actually have a question about heidfeld. well, bourdais i should say. everything was so focused on the kimi/lewis fight even afer kimi went off so what was going on behind was sort of confusing. i thought speed said there had been some sort of incident or spin for bourdais but everything i’ve been reading sounds like heidfeld and alonso were just plowing through on the wets. did bourdais actually spin or did vettel and kubica just get by him?
Thomas O, Now thats something. Come to think of it what do you make of this?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-5UnPeyzcHM
I’ve been a fan of F1 since 1978. I’ve been a Williams fan for nearly 30 years now, ever since I saw the beautiful FW07 raced by Jones and Regazzoni. But, after the disgusting decision made by the stewards today, I’m finished with this fixed, stinking, ’sport’ now. No more time to waste on this bent crock of dross. Bernie and Max, you’re welcome to your Ferrari at all costs championship, I hope you’re happy.
“…. Kovalainen would get a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident.”
See they would have gotten Hamilton one way or the other. If he stayed on track and caused an accident with Kimi he would have gotten this penalty, instead he went off, spared both cars and gets penalized for having a competitive advantage.
Oh please, will you all just stop whining.
Hamilton’s move gave him a serious advantage on the next corner. He was faster them Kimi, and probably would have overtaken him after that, but that’s entirely not the point. He almost did not let Kimi get pass him when slowing down, just to get the vacuum behind the Ferrari. If that was in the middle of the race, he would have had a stop and go.
I’m not a Ferrari fan (actually I just watch the races these days. No team provides exciting races like before), but the punishment was right.
Don’t blame any of this on Massa, nor Ferrari. They didn’t even made a formal complaint to FIA. This is just the rules.
This is an UK blog, and will continue to be. Stop being so biased and get real.
Piquet hasn’t done himself any favours by crashing yet again in the wet. Monaco, Silverstone and now Spa.
Keith, great article again, but a couple of points.
Kimmi never passed Lewis when he spun, he overshot LaSource and went around the outside of Lewis. He then buried the throttle whilst on the run off area, and straight lined the run off to come back on the track right behind Lewis with greater speed, which he then used to pass him at Kemmel.
Gained an advantage by running off the track? You decide.
Also, I don’t think the onboard shows any contact between Lewis and Kimi, but there is no doubt Lewis had to move over as Kimi was definately about to be guilty of creating an avoidable accident by closing the door as he was.
You stated that Lewis closed the gap on the last stop by being quicker in the stop. I noticed this too- as they were both racing to the end, does this indicate that McLaren pitted with fuel on board- they seem to be very paranoid about Safety Cars!
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a Moral WDC. Schumy would never have won it though.lol.
On re-watching the Hamilton/Raikkonen episode a few times – I recorded the race – I believe that Lewis did gain an advantage by allowing Kimi to pass him and immediately tucking into his slipstream, so enabling Lewis to overtake him again. It would seem that Lewis followed the re-pass rule to the letter if not the spirit of the rule, and so a penalty that effectively strips him of the win is far too harsh.
Robert
Okay, think about this: later the same lap, like Lewis ahead of him, Kimi lost control slightly at Pouhon but made absolutely no attempt to stay on track and used the long stretch of run-off to gain speed, meaning that by the time they reached the curve before Fagnes he was all over Hamilton – precisely where Rosberg span and Hamilton went off track to avoid him. Kimi though ignored the yellow flags and overtook.
This was resolved shortly after when Kimi span and lost his position.
But going by the FIA ‘make it up as you go along’ book, I make that a breach equal to the ‘gaining a sporting advantage’ for which Hamilton was punished, and another breach of overtaking under a yellow flag. Is that 20 grid positions at Monza for Raikkonen then?
Thomas O — you are on to something!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53igbrZtELg&NR=1
It really is remarkably similar. You were right, Massa went far too wide, missed the corner, and used the paved runoff to build speed and pass Kubica. This is the most black and white ‘argument’ I have seen regarding this all day.
Well, I think the damage done to the spetacle, handing victory to someone who didn’t deserve it at all, while taking it away from someone who drove brilliantly, is evident…
Meanwhile, I don’t think it is as clear as you say that the decision took by the stewards is essentialy wrong, “stupid”, “ridiculous”… It was rather debatable, polemic, doubtful… not openly idiot…
Hamilton did NOT effectively surrender the position, he let Raikkonen pass, “but only just”, like a few people have said, and took the slipstream to re-pass Kimi immediatly…
Politicaly, I think they should have left him unpunished, just like they did with Massa in Valencia.
Legally, its a typical “hard case”, that, in principle, contemplates more than one possible decision, and the factors that inspire the veredict are well beyond the rules…
@ Kevin:
“Thomas O — you are on to something!”
agreed! Massa should have been penalized!!
:):):):)
In case it helps you see the other side, BBC’s F1 podcast (with Maurice Hamilton) said that the ‘entire paddock was united in the view that Hamilton was totally innocent’. You can download the podcast from iTunes. I don’t think Maurice lies or says things without making sure of the facts so this is pretty much a black day in F1 for me.
p.s. I was talking to those who think Lewis’ penalty is justified.
when Lewis spun on the 2nd lap, Kimi went around the outside to AVOID hamilton. Are you people blind?
that was for berni.
Thomas: I thought that that “pass” was suspect from the first second. Now I know that it WAS suspect, or maybe it IS completely legal. It has to be one or the other. Right? What are other notorious Chicanes? Montreal (my home town) has one, Monza has two (see below, France has one. It would be fun to find other instances of cutting.
IIRC at Magny Cours, they had a rule that the driver could not put 4 wheels on the other side od the line/grass-creete, on the exit of the last chicane.
Ben: In somewhat of an ironic twist we are heading to a track with 2 notoriously cut chicanes! This could be interesting.
Robert: you can’t spell Ferrari without F I A … FerrArI.
Bernification: In wet conditions, running off the traditional line often offers more grip, due to less oil, rain-slick rubber, etc. You are right about Schumacher though!
A simple clarrification of the rules to state that if a driver cuts a corner, they cannot pass for 2 corners. Clearly if you cut a corner you are at an advantage for the next corner (due to not suffering from aero turbulence and being able to be on the gearbox of the other driver much sooner than if accelerating out of the corner whilst behind the driver), but not for the one after that.
Keith, Thank you for this wonderful blog. I don’t know how you are able to maintain your composure because I spent most of the day trying to keep my emotions in check thanks to the gross injustice that was done today. Knowing that so many people including yourself are united against what is clearly unnecessary interference by faceless entities that contribute little to the sport, I actually feel better about the future of F1.
I almost decided to give up this sport but after reading through the comments, I have to say to (especially macca) fans: Don’t give up yet. Lewis will fight back and we’ll be right here to root for him.
No! No! No! Massa went off track, yes. But going off track is different than cutting a chicane because cutting a chicane gives you clear advantage (chicanes are in place to slow cars down). Going off-track at a straight part of the track like Massa did gives you a clear DISadvantage. Lewis fully deserves his penalty. The two situations are completly different.
Also, Hamilton is not the “moral” victor. Kimi was the real driver of the race, full stop.
the sad point is that every time there is a hard decision to take the benefit is for ferrari.
AmericanTifosi, running wide on, like Massa did is an advantage, it increases the radius, allowing a higher speed. Even though it increases the overall distance, the better acceleration more than makes up for it. Especially considering Kubica was on wet painted kerbs and grass-crete, though it’s not Massa’s fault that Kubica was there.
Further, the run-off area offers more grip, due to the more abrasive asphalt and due to the lack of oil, marbles, slick rubbered-in asphalt.
******** to F1! Should be called F(errari)IA
Lewis should’ve won! Down with Raikonnen!!!
I believe that Hamilton deliberately avoided the chicane to be closer to Hamilton on the straight. He took advantage of this illegal maneuver to not lost contact with Kimi.
The argument for Ferrari about advantage gained makes selective use of the facts. In the plainest terms, for car 22 to go into the corner besides or slightly ahead car 1, and then come out directly behind car 1, after being pushed off the track, is no advantage–it was the worst possible outcome for Hamilton, not the best.
As far as the slipstream-advantage, car 1 was passed under braking, after passing car 22 under full-throttle acceleration—Raikkonen did not have on a Hanford device. And as the fact of Hamilton running down Raikkonen like he was chained to post showed, Hamilton could have passed it at La Source on a bicycle. You can’t extract that factor and declare that the only reason Hamilton got past at La Source was by virtue of slipstream.
The rule about cutting the chicane is simple. The stewards decided it the FIA rules are a living document that needs to adapt to any circumstance where Ferrari loses.
When I first watched the race I thought the fight between Kimi and Lewis was amazing. Both drivers were pushing the limits and just all out racing. It was Great!! At first I didn’t notice anything wrong with Lewis’s cut corner. He let Kimi by and then got the pass. After I found out that Lewis got the penalty I watched the you tube vid over and over. It really does look like Lewis was too hot headed and should have waited before taking the pass. He was so close to Kimi that it seemed that Kimi was trying to avoid contact on the straight where Lewis made the move.
I still think FIA should have let this go since it was a great battle in racing, but if you want to be technical I guess the penalty is justified. If they let it go Ferrari probably wouldn’t have pursued it. Its sad that such a great race ended like it did.
On another note, its a shame that Kubica’s pit crew made the fueling error. He had a good chance at podium!
I agree with Polak (about Kubica indeed)
Just watch YouTube video over and over and you see…
Lewis will be champion, sooner or later, but he deserved this penalty.
They will argue the facts at the appeal, not dessert, one imagines. The entire argument that Hamilton gained an advantage rests on the idea that he would not have been on Raikonnens’ tail going into La Source but for cutting the chicane. Given that he was abreast of Raikkonen seconds before and was in fact ejected from the track by him, this defies all logic. Furthermore, but for being run off the road, he would not have cut the chicane in the first place. The outcome desired by the stewards is that a driver gets to keep his pursuer behind him for not one but , at least two corners by running him off the track at a chicane.
Daniel, how many drivers in the history of F1 have driven spectacularly? Many. Did they all win their respective races in which they drove spectacularly? NO.
If you want a sport where the winner is judged on how “spectacular” they are, go watch figure skating.
dmw, of course Lewis gained an advantage by cutting the chicane. The alternative would have been to back right off (& probably brake) mid corner and then have to turn hard right to get back onto the track once Kimi had gone by, and then to turn left out of the chicane and accelerate.
There is no way he’d be on Kimis gearbox if he did this.
Therefore he gained an advantage by cutting the chicane, and that advantage take place though the corner and all the way down to the apex of la Source.
Given he overtook Kimi before the apex of la Source then he deserved the penalty.
will they be able to appeal?? it wont be justice if they cannot appeal.
Why was he penalized for passing kimi when kimi crashed the person that he got a so could advantage on is out of the race. and the way massa has been in the rain i dont think he could have got past him.
The only way this penalty makes sense would be if Kimi came home second. Then MAYBE the FIA could justify demoting Lewis to second and awarding the win to Kimi. Seeing as how Kimi so ineptly broke his car, why penalize the winner only to gift the win to Massa???
It would be appreciated if the word “moral” never be used in any context with the Mosley led FIA, as the word has no applicability whatsoever.
i am done with F1 its all run by the corporation with most money its not about the skill of the driver the FIA is all over McLaren and it dont matter how good Alonso is because he dont have the car so if all gos to plan the FIA and Ferrari have nothing to fear
Before I say anything, I just want to say I am a Williams fan of over 20 years, so I don’t really care about the whole McLaren victim thing (Williams have been on the end of it with Farrari once or twice in their history as well)…
However there are two points I want to make.
One that nobody has picked up on. When Kimi was driving down to the first corner, with Lewis about to make his move does anyone else think he was weaving like hell?? Given the official FIA rule about moving once to block a car behind, it seems to me that Kimi was madly weaving more then once to block Lewis. hmm surely a 10 place penalty at the next race…
Two, how lame does the non-decision last race concerning Ferrari and their release of Massa from the pit now look??
I don’t favor McLaren in this at all, but I am getting a bit sick of this post race steward pro-Ferrari standard that has been in operation for what seems since 1996.
Perhaps Bernie needs to extend the telecast for a further hour for the second half of the race, a live feed into the race stewards room to see who really wins every second Sunday..
Hey guys, like a lot of people here I too am a Lewis & Mclaren Fan.
But I think it is unfair to question the intentions of the FIA stewards. The facts are there for all of us to see. The decisions are based on interpretations of the rules and will vary from person to person.
Lewis is still the best driver around. This incident is not going to change that fact anyway. He is still 2 points ahead of Massa and 19 points ahead of RAI. There are 5 races to go. Lewis can still win the WDC this year if he scores more points than them.
Then why all this fuss?
the fuss is because there is no consistency in the way f1 handles certain people and certain teams. everyone should be treated fairly and stealing people’s wins is making a fool of all us who watched. WE ARE NOT SO STUPID U KNOW. we can see when someone has been cheated from a hard earned win.
Typical UK biased reporting.
It is not disputed that Hamilton is talented. However, he is not infallible, saintly nor standing on any high moral ground. He tried for an advantage and lost out.
If any of you couch potatoes had played any kind of real sport, you would understand that the umpire has the final say, regardless of whether or not you might agree with it. In this case it is the stewards making the adjudication.
Would any of you more blinkered ones have anything to say if there had been an issue not involving Hamilton?
KBS just read your comment out loud and listen to yourself. referees often get beat up for unfair rulings. this is not about hamilton because hamilton did what he had to do, its about fia biased rullings. dont miss the point.
All the teams should boycott the Italian GP (for starters) if Lewis is not reinstated the Spa win. Massa and Ferrari should step up for once and refuse the win, but unfortunately they do not have the principals or the guts and they won’t.
This stewards decision has been a damaging and disgusting farce and fiasco and has made a mockery of F1. I guess the stewards feel the Mosley affair wasn’t enough to spice things up and have resorted to blatant open cheating.
(P.S – thanks for the accurate reporting of the facts as we all saw it happen on the TV Keith)
Ron Dennis had Charlie Whiting confirm to the team that he had followed the rules. The telemetry shows that Hamilton was running 6km/h slow than Raikkonen as they passed the start finish straight. Raikkonen’s slash from side to side from directly in front of Hamilton confirmed that Hamilton was behind him.
So, Hamilton quite clearly followed the letter of the law. He may well have pushed the law a bit, I conceed, the spirit of the law may have been bent a little bit, but we’ve seen that countless times from Prost, Senna and particularly Schumacher. Usually without penalty like this.
It’s a very poor decision because they are now going to have to reword the law and make it clear that you have to give the place back for at least 1 or 2 corners.
Not sure if this was already posted in the previous thread but here is David Crofts interpretation of events (audio).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/7603144.stm
“Moral victor”? Purify your eyes, People… Even fanatism has its limits.
Sorry Keith, i did post it on the previous blog, but this seems relevant here as well.
Lewis, with all due respect to a talented racing driver as him(am not a fan of his though), should have done what logically should have been done. Use the god-darned brakes(even in Canada he should have had). All those people who justified him cutting the corner, we should remember that vehicles have BRAKES to slow them down, which were also available to Lewis. He could have lifted off, or used the brakes, isn’t too hard, or is it(keeping Lewis’s actions in mind, i could be wrong)? He got a penalty in France and one would think, “boy musta’ learned his lesson!†Guess we got it all wrong, when he goes on to say “If there’s a penalty, then there’s something wrong because I was ahead going into that corner, so I didn’t gain an advantage from it.†Lessons in humility are in order for him, one would imagine.
About giving back the advantage(which he shouldn’t have have had in the first place), this is not the first time that this driver has resorted to such a move(France being the case in point). I know we all have our loyalties lying with something/ someone, and we root for it/ them. Does it have to be so blind though? FIA/ and stewards did very well to penalize him as a deterrent, to any such future incidents by this particular driver(or anyone else for that matter).
Some people have questioned Kimi over the move, squeezing Ham out. Well, he had the inside line, he did what he/ anyone else in his position, would have done, what’s all the hoopla about?
Now about Valencia and Massa. Let us get one thing straight, it is one and the only such incident in F1 which got penalized(in more than a decade or so), even if it was monetary. Infact, i was quite surprised to see it being raised by the stewards, for that matter. So, with all due respect, can you all please quit whinging about it?
That was one of the worst decisions I have seen in F1, since Schumacher rammed Hill preventing him becoming two time world champion.
As soon as he cut the corner, I thought “slow and let him pass Lewis”. And he did, immediately.
I had a feeling the penalty would happen all afternoon, but why did it take 3 hours after the race before the announcement? The race director said there was nothing wrong when interviewed after the race.
If Ferrari had any decency they would give the points back.
Think it damages them too. Formula 1 fans already think there is huge bias.
You can’t really disagree with them now.
The actual race had a brilliant ending though!
This is how i see it. Massa started 2nd , ended up 3rd, passed no-one and won the race…….well done the FIA