F1: Italian GP: Winners and Losers

[Rory Phoulorie]

Sunday 9th September 2007

Star of the Race
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3rd

He may have been helped by the early Safety Car, but Kimi Raikkonen so nearly interloped on what should have been a straightforward McLaren 1-2. And he did it by keeping exceptionally focused and pounding out laps that belied his fuel load. What's more, he did it with a neck injury that made it difficult for him to control his head under braking - look at the onboard footage again.

Kimi's natural understated persona wasn't going to make a big thing out of it after the race, but it was an incredibly strong drive from a driver in pain. He even looked cheerful at the press conference for once.


Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 43: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren on Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Given the circumstances this could easily become the overtaking move of the season. Hamilton came from a distant galaxy behind Kimi Raikkonen to snatch second place from Ferrari - at their home race, at a crucial stage of the season, and at the corner where the tifosi have bated McLaren drivers ever since Mika Hakinnen threw his gloves off with tears of rage and frustration.

We are so used to cars following each other round Monza that once Raikkonen got ahead of Hamilton after his second pit-stop that looked to be it - game over. By the time Lewis caught up to the Finn the early advantage of the supersoft tyres would be gone.

Hamilton was a good 50 metres behind Raikkonen as they headed into the braking zone, but he managed to leave his braking stupendously late. Unlike the ITV commentary crew we believe Kimi did see Hamilton coming, because he moved to cover his line at the last second and realised that Hamilton was there and there was nothing he could do about it.


Winners
McLaren - 1st and 2nd
Even the most hardened of atheists would have to admit that after the Monza GP result, there IS a god.

McLaren have had everything slung at them over the last six weeks, culminating in some of the most vindictive behaviour ever seen in F1 toward one particular team and in particular team boss Ron Dennis.

Starting as far back as the ridiculous decision by the stewards in Hungary to punish Alonso and McLaren for what was strictly an intra-team squabble between their two drivers, things have got out of hand.

They have been fined $50,000 by the Italian GP stewards for not following the crash test procedure for their redesigned gearbox introduced in Turkey. They have been summoned back to the FIA to explain e.mails their drivers may or may not have sent. Their drivers have been subjected to ultimatums threatening them with superlicense suspension if they don't grass up their own team. They continue to be attacked for spying by Jean Todt, a man whose team employed someone to transcribe McLaren's radio traffic and give the transcription to their own drivers during GP weekends in the past. They have been visited by the Italian police just before qualifying in what would seem like an attempt to disrupt their qualifying preparations - the team had been there since Thursday. It sucks.

A friend who wanted to know what the Stepneygate spying row was "all about" was mildy surprised to find out that there was no actual spying involved. When he was told it was actually a disgruntled Ferrari employee trying to undermine his team by sending their secrets to a McLaren employee he used to work with, he was decidedly underwhelmed. No clandestine meetings, no long lenses, nothing John Le Carre at all. Spying involves actively going out and collecting information, not being the happy recipient of another team's poor man management. If McLaren actively solicited information from Nigel Stepney and tried to exploit his unhappiness at a lack of promotion by giving him money to pass on Ferrari Intellectual Property then yes, they should be kicked out of the World Championship. But we will have to wait till Thursday for all that evidence to be firmly established once and for all.

At Monza on Sunday McLaren put all the politicking aside and won a glorious victory at Ferrari's home race. What's more, they stuffed them on performance and they stuffed them on reliability, something that was always the Woking team's downfall in the past. The only downside is that Ron doesn't have long to enjoy it.


Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Mercedes, 1st
At almost every GP weekend this year Fernando Alonso has made more mistakes than Lewis Hamilton and often been slower. At Monza he was consistently quicker and made no mistakes. With this kind of form he can make it three World Championships in a row.


Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes, 2nd
Lewis had another dodgy start which was rescued by a brilliant re-pass of Felipe Massa going into Turn 1. Had he not been tagged by Massa going through the corner, then the duel between Alonso and Hamilton going down to Turn 2 would have been very interesting. Ultimately Fernando had the race pace to beat him via the pit-stops but it would have all been a lot tighter at the end.


Nick Heidfeld, BMW, 4th
Robert Kubica, BMW, 5th
Last year Robert Kubica showed that he was going to be a name for the future by taking his car to an impressive podium finish. This year his mechanics dropped him during the pit-stop and he had to struggle through to reclaim fifth. Nick Heidfeld continued in his role as the loneliest driver in F1 - but then again he has got a remarkably awful beard.


Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota, 6th
Rosberg again advertised his wares as part of the: Kubica, Vettel, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Rosberg New Wave. He had a firm but fair tussle with Jenson Button and it shows what skills both drivers possess that they could race so closely and not bundle each other into the barriers.


Heiki Kovalainen, Renault, 7th
Yet another finish in the points for the only non-McLaren 100% finisher.


Jenson Button, Honda, 8th
Button had a great race. How often have we said that this season? In fact it was so good he doubled the Honda team points total and has now scored 200% more than Rubens Barrichello - i.e. it's 2-0. Super Aguri must be trembling.


Losers
Max Mosley
The FIA are losing F1 credibility fast. While Lewis Hamilton is bringing new fans into the sport, the FIA witch hunt aimed at his team is driving them away again.

Max Mosley's latest ultimatum to the F1 drivers to hand over e.mails marks the lowest ebb of their interference in the sport.

If the e.mails are so important that they're prepared to threaten the drivers with unemployment if they remain silent, that goes beyond the judicial process of most societies. In British law you have the right to remain silent. Clearly not in FIA law.

Also, if it is so important, then they need to name the person who told them about the existence of the e.mail correspondence. So far, only two names are being put forward as the likely whistleblowers - Fernando Alonso and Flavio Briatore. Briatore is keen to get his star driver back and Alonso is keen to leave, and McLaren shame might facilitate that.

The complication is that Briatore is inextricably linked to Max Mosley's long-term associate Bernard Charles Ecclestone. In fact last week they went and invested in Queens Park Rangers football club together. So there is an uncomfortable set of interests here. Before McLaren's hearing on Thursday we need to find out who gave the new information to the FIA to make sure where everyone is coming from.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari, DNF
A miserable race for Felipe and very little way back in the Championship now. Should he be leading a Ferrari 1-2 next weekend (which he easily could be) then it wouldn't follow traditional Scuderia logic to let him win. Balanced against this is the fact that Jean Todt has said that his drivers will be free to race at Spa. And balanced against this is the fact that Massa is managed by JeanTodt's son.


Ralf Schumacher, Toyota
Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault
Alex Wurz, Williams-Toyota

Another race slips by and another opportunity to impress is gone. Four races left.


Mercedes Advertising Campaign
In the middle of the ITV race coverage there was an advert for the new Mercedes C-Class with what is a really unfortunate voiceover given Stepneygate

"I'll see your idea and raise it - that's how real design works."


Andrew Davies


Planet-F1