F1: European Grand Prix: Winners + Losers

[Rory Phoulorie]

Sunday 22nd July 2007

Fortune didn't exacly favour the brave at the Nurburgring - most of those who gambled, lost out - especially the Turn 1 gravel posse of Rosberg, Hamilton, Button, Sutil, Speed and Liuzzi.


Star of the Race
Fernando Alonso, McLaren 1st
There was a certain amount of good or bad fortune to everybody's race today with the possible exception of Alonso. After a poor start he made the most of the conditions, kept his car on the island and clung onto Felipe Massa when he looked like he was going to get away.

Had Raikkonen not missed the pitlane entrance on Lap 1, then he would still have been in P2 - the Ferraris having to queue behind each other in those circumstances. He was already closing Massa down (albeit very gradually) when the second bout of rain arrived at the end of the race.

That transformed his car into a machine that was two seconds a lap quicker than Massa and after a brief (and unnecessary) bit of wheel banging he was through. Not only did he pick up a win, he picked up 10 more points than Lewis Hamilton, which made it doubly special.

Judging by his acting with Lewis in the very funny new Mercedes advert he also has a sense of humour.


Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 33, Lewis Hamilton on Giancarlo Fisichella for P13
Considering it was the corner he'd crashed in on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton showed no fear as he hurled his McLaren up the inside of the Renault into the braking zone at the Schumacher-S. To get the run on Fisichella he put two wheels onto the grasscrete at the edge of the track and genuinely surprised the Renault driver by his sudden appearance up the inside. It was a brave move, especially as he knew he had to come in a couple of laps later.


Winners
Markus Winkelhock, Spyker, DNF
It was only likely to be one Formula 1 race with the Spyker team, but he led it between Lap 2 and Lap 7 and at one point was 33.5 seconds clear of second place.

No other Spyker has ever done that and no other Spyker, we can confidently predict, will ever do that again. A great debut and swansong rolled into one.


Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 2nd
Massa looked a bit glum after the race, but he shouldn't be. Not when he gained eight points on his team-mate and eight on Lewis Hamilton. In the race he was perhaps fortunate to inherit the role of leading Ferrari when Kimi missed the pitlane for his first tyre change. Had he been double-stacked, then he would have dropped behind all the first-cars-in from other teams who would have got in and out before him. But after that he set a consistently fast pace, set the fastest lap of the race and was fair in his defence of P1 after the final switch to intermediates.

Alonso was alongside him even before he got into the Sachs Kurve, but the wheel-bumping was perhaps more a misjudgement than an attempt to dent Alonso's bodywork.


Mark Webber, Red Bull, 3rd
Webbo drove a good, if distant, race for third place and capitalised on the fact that Heidfeld accounted for himself, Kubica and Hamilton on the opening lap. It was also helpful to have Wurz behind him in the closing stages and not Nico Rosberg. Even then he almost blew it going into the Schumacher-S on the final lap - Wurz was nowhere near an overtaking move yet still Webber managed to cock the corner up. However he scrambled home and it's a just reward for all the great races he's driven where the machinery has let him down in sight of the prize.

It also makes for a comedy podium with Mark on the lowest step, still much taller than Felipe Massa on the second step. If Heiki Kovalainen had won, Mark would have been tallest.


Alex Wurz, Williams-Toyota, 4th
All hail the toothy plankmeister - surely he has done enough now to guarantee continued employment next year. Results like these must make the massively-funded factory Toyota team look more than a little foolish.


David Coulthard, Red Bull, 5th
Considering all the heartache and disappointment DC has endured driving a car that is about as reliable as Mike Coughlan's home photocopier, he probably thought he was going to get to Lap 58 before the gears packed in or the power steering went. As it was he joined Webbo in Red Bull's most glorious points-fest to date. All that from 20th on the grid including a romp down an escape road on the opening lap.


Heikki Kovalainen, Renault, 8th
Kovalainen's dash for early intermediates late in the race - before it actually started raining - was a gamble-too-far. Renault's Pat Symmonds has always duelled it out with Ross Brawn (who is still the Big Cahuna in our book) for biggest strategy brain in F1, so it kind of showed that you didn't have to be a rookie in your first season of F1 to make a stupid tyre call.


TV Coverage
The man who was responsible for the German TV coverage should be given the job for the rest of the season - there was so much going on and the cameras caught most of it. Top job.


LOSERS
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, DNF
Well, that's the last time that granny Raikkonen comes to a race then. Kimi's 80-year-old gran couldn't stop his Nurburgring jinx. He's blown up while in the lead, he's had suspensions shatter while in the lead and now he's missed the pitlane entrance while in the lead - and broken down.

He won't want reminding that McLaren have had both cars finish every race now he's left them.


Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 9th
Lewis Hamilton mistakes are like buses. You wait ages for one to come along and then two come along at the same time. First he aquaplanes into the gravel then he chooses the right tyre... but at the wrong time.

Unseen by the TV cameras his lap times through the race were sensational, he probably scored the most fastest sectors of anybody and was considerably quicker than race winner Fernando Alonso. Whereas Felipe Massa was edging out a seven second gap to Alonso, his overall lead over Hamilton remained the same. It's rare that a driver can set such a blistering pace and get so little reward, but that's the roll of the dice in wet-dry races.

It was a roller coaster ride from start to finish - he was unlucky to have a tyre failure in qualifying, but he made up for it with a sensational start to get 4th in Turn 1. He was unlucky to get a puncture from the warring BMWs, but he was very lucky to be towed out of the gravel after aquaplaning off. He gambled too much with tyre choice and lost out, but fought back, only to switch to inters too late. It wasn't dull.

And at least he knows where all the other drivers go at the end of the race now.


BMW-Sauber, 6th and 7th
We saw a bit of this last season - particularly in Brazil - the return of the Boulder Brothers. Heidfeld and Kubica got the reputation for knocking lumps out of each other and it's a credit to Mario Theissen for letting them go racing. But you kind of got the feeling that in front of a German crowd he wanted them to put the team first.

In Nurburg Robert got the better start, but Nick was counting on sneaking up the inside into Turn 2 when Kubica chopped in front of him. For some reason Heidfeld thought he could get the place back, failed to brake and spun them both.

At the end of the race he'd pitted a magnificent six times - surely a record for someone finishing in the points...?


Charlie Whiting, Race Director
Question: When do you know you've made the wrong decision and that deploying the Safety Car was not the right solution - waving the red flag was?

Answer: When a Toro Rosso passes the Safety Car going backwards at 100mph, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic accident.


Jenson Button, Honda, DNF
He was up to 4th on Lap 2 and then he threw it all away in the gravel. Massa only just held on in the braking (planing) zone of Turn 1, but the opportunity of a good result lured Button to his doom.


Michael Schumacher, Prize-giver
Uh oh. Schumi turned up on the podium wearing an horrific "rodeo" shirt that made him look - in the words of one race observer - "like a gay line dancing teacher from Hemel Hempstead".

As a local-boy-made-good he was presenting the prize to the winning constructor and had to get out of his Ferrari team gear to become the neutral celebrity. Accepting the prize was a man in a body-warmer that looked like it came from a third-rate supermarket chain. Schumi didn't really want to let it go.

You hate to think what music Schumi listens to when he's wearing a shirt like that. Y'all.


Andrew Davies


Planet-F1