A great sporting moment?
It’s easy to get carried away in the excitement of the moment, so I waited until today before writing this piece.
Was what we saw yesterday one of the great sporting moments? How does it compare to other memorable F1 championship finales?
A clean fight
One of the most gratifying things about yesterday’s title decider was that it was a clean fight.
The Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost collisions of 1989-90 stick in the memory for obvious reasons, as do the Michael Schumacher scandals of 1994 and 1997.
Yesterday’s stunning title decider was all the more exceptional because it was clean from start to finish (unless you subscribe to The Glock Delusion).
Flashback to Spa
Remarkably, the season finale ended in similar circumstances to the notorious Belgian Grand Prix earlier this year. A rain storm blew in, soaked the circuit, and left the drivers faced with a perilous decision whether to change tyres or not.
Given how close the Spa penalty came to deciding the championship, it was deeply ironic that the final race should end in similar circumstances – but with a different twist.
F1 Fanatic live blog
While the world’s TV commentators struggled to keep up with the action the 722 of us following the race on the F1 Fanatic Live Blog were doing the same. Here’s a small sample of the discussion (with typing tidied up):
18:42 Journeyer: Hamilton now exposed to Vettel. GOODNESS.
18:43 Ben Goldberg: this is for the championship!
18:44 Journeyer: KUBICA?!
18:44 sam: this is horrible
18:45 rich: Vettel passses him
18:45 DanD: Vettel got by HAM, putting HAM in p6
18:46 Filipe: Now the only hope for Ham is Glock having some problem
18:47 gerdoner: last corner
18:47 Ollie (BlogF1): GLO ran slow. They passed for 5th.
18:47 DanD: Glock gave it up, HAM in p5
18:48 Journeyer: WHOAAAAAAAA!
18:48 doctorvee: OMG WHAT A RACE
18:48 rich: HAM WC 2008
18:48 DanD: shocked Massa family
18:48 F1Fanatic.co.uk: That is incredible. That is the most stunning championship I’ve ever seen.
18:49 Robert McKay: Greatest title climax ever.
Read the full original live blog here.
Other great sporting moments
How does that race compare to other great moments in other sports? I’m not an expert in much sport beyond F1, so I’d appreciate your thoughts on it.
Yes, the middle part of the Brazilian Grand Prix was fairly static. But for me that only served to heighten the tension: all race long Massa was poised to grab the title if Hamilton faltered in the slightest.
The last time I remember seeing the destiny of a major championship change courses so late in the day was when Manchester United snatched the Champions’ League trophy from Bayern Munich in 1999.
What other sporting moments would you compare the Brazilian Grand Prix to?
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Romain from Grenoble said on 4th November 2008, 10:10
Hello all.
I think of 2 sporting events, one I saw live : the soccer Euro 2000 finale (France-Italy). Italy was leading 1-0 when the clock was 93 minutes. Then one goal for France before extra time, which meant there had to be a ‘sudden death’ or ‘golden goal’ extra time. Then Trezeguet scores : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uJb2WsQmvA . Since then, he is called Tr*z*GOOOOAL. Recap of the match : http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/history/season=2000/round=1461/match=65299/index.html .
Another interesting end of championship, in motorsports, was “The Pass”. Zanardi won the 1996 Cart Championship with a pass on the last lap of the last race. It was not actually the last corner of the lap, but almost (there were 3 corners left) : http://www.motorsportmad.com/view/2909/champ-car—that–famous-pass . A pass in the Corkscrew deciding the championship. Impressive.
A bit off-topic, but I have suggestions for articles related to this last race :
– What about Kubica behavior? He unlapped himself from Vettel and Hamilton, clearly impeding Lewis, it is this event which allows Vettel to pass. Had Lewis not won the championship, McLaren would be very upset towards Robert.
– An interesting article could be “What was the most exciting season finale?”. 2008 scores high of course, but 1997 was also a classic.
El Gordo said on 4th November 2008, 11:21
Nicole Cook at the Road Cycling Event at this years Olympics was a similar ending – she dropped behind at the last corner and managed to sprint through on the final straight to clinch gold.
It was very similar, but obviously a lot slower.
Roger Carballo AKA Architrion said on 4th November 2008, 13:37
who whooooo….. the english camp has forgotten one of the most intense moments in sports finals…… Come on, guys, don’t you remember the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United? That was electrifying!!!! Awesome. I was rooting Manchester, who played and extraordinary game while loosing 1-0. And in final moments Sheringham min 91 and Solskjaer min 92 won the cup while Bayern players fall down thinking it was a nightmare that couldn’t be real…. The best football final I’ve seen. And it was yours, brits……..
Jian said on 4th November 2008, 13:56
As dramaturgy goes this one was similiar to Nadal vs Federer and Super Bowl XLII. Leaders looking like they are bottling it just to recover with almost no time left. (obv tennis doesn’t have time limits). Obviously as emotions goes this one is up there with any thrilling title deciders encounters of your favorite sport.
Liverpool vs Milan would be like Suzuki 05 with Alonso in Fisichella’s position and the title still up for grabs. It was a game that was thrilling all 120min+. Mancs vs bayern would be more like Hungary 08 being the final race of this season. Massa(Bayern) taking an eary lead, Hamilton’s tireblow leaves him limping in sixth, Massa leading and bam! Almost there and the engine goes! I want to make the point that this season has seen mayber more than half incredible races, any of which had made exciting title deciders (think Monza, Spa, Monaco, Singapore, Canada, Hungary, Turkey and so on).
Lustigson said on 4th November 2008, 14:43
I’m no football fan at all, but stumbled across the quarter final between Croatia and Turkey, at Euro 2008. Croatia scored in the 119th minute, and believed the match was over and they had made the semi-finals. But Turkey made a goal 3 minutes later, 2 minutes into injury time, tying the game. Croatia was gutted, while the pepped-up Turks took the win through penalties.
Abhishek said on 4th November 2008, 16:43
I’ll write some spectacle provided by 2 matches combined:
In the 2007 season of La liga
Going into penultimate day the La Liga table looked like this:
Real Madrid 72 pts
Barcelona 72 pts
Sevilla 70 pts
Real were playing Zaragoza, Barca were playing Espanyol
88th min – Barca were winning 2-1, Real losing 2-1
89th min – RVN scores – Real 2-2 Zaragoza
90th min – Raul Tamudo scores for espanyol , 2-2 draw there
That was something!
http://dodgyatbest.blogspot.com/2007/06/penultimate-day-of-la-liga-que-ridiculo.html