Hamilton Wins Rain Hit Belgian GP
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Sep 07, 2008
McLaren
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won a Belgian Grand Prix thriller on Sunday after fighting wheel to wheel with luckless world champion Kimi Raikkonen in an all-or-nothing duel over the closing laps.
It was the 23-year-old Englishman’s fifth victory of the season for McLaren and allows him to take his points tally to 80 with five races to go.
In second place was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, with German Nick Heidfeld in third place.
Massa remains second in the drivers championship table on 72 points with Poland’s Robert Kubica, 58 points, taking third ahead of Raikkonen, who failed to add to his tally of 57.
For most of the race it looked as if Raikkonen would win his fourth straight Belgian GP, but the low-flung clouds over the wooded circuit suddenly released a huge shower in the last three of 44 laps. With most cars having switched to dry tires at the final pit stop, that was enough to decide the race.
“I was praying: rain, rain, rain. I wanted the rain to come,” said Hamilton, who realized it was his best chance at victory.
Hamilton and Raikkonen almost crashed into each other, but after some spectacular maneuvers Hamilton came out of the Source hairpin in front. The British driver soon lost the lead again, however, when he had to veer off the track to avoid a slower car in front of him. But Hamilton got back in front when Raikkonen lost control. The Finn was then forced to take risks, resulting in a crash into the side railings.
“It was incredibly tough,” Hamilton said.
‘’It really was an experience and a half,’’ said Hamilton.
‘’I could see him way out in front but I kept on pushing to try and close the gap.
The British driver admitted that with ten laps to go and Raikonnen looking good in first, he considered surrendering his relentless pursuit of the Scandinavian, but kept pushing in hopeful anticipation of a typical late Ferrari implosion.
‘’At one stage it looked like Kimi had won and I was really considering giving up pushing him before I thought ‘Hey, what if he makes a mistake?’.
‘’So I kept pushing and pushing and thankfully when that mistake did come, I was in a position to take advantage of it.’’
Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen, meanwhile, slipped from third to 11th in the start. His comeback was effectively stopped when he drove into Mark Webber on lap 10 and was penalized with a drive through the pit lane, putting him back in 15th place.
At halfway, Raikkonen led by 5.5 seconds over Hamilton and 11.2 over Massa. Fernando Alonso was 32 seconds back in fourth place.
