What happened to the pace of Ferrari yesterday? After six races of dominating the fastest lap (by Kimi) table, Ferrari was down to third in Germany. The two red cars were both no match to the silver cars of McLaren-Mercedes. Ferrari looked like a bit more of a mid fielder in Hockenheim than a front runner leading the constructor’s championship.
Had it not been for the safety car interruption after Toyota’s Timo Glock accident, Hamilton could have easily lapped Raikkonen, and possibly even Massa with Lewis racing over at least a second a lap faster than any other cars. Ferrari had another chance to steal the race when during that safety car period, Hamilton did not pit with the rest of the front runners. After the yellow flags, all the front runners except Hamilton were already racing to finish. A second pit stop for Hamilton left him behind his teammate in fifth place.
I thought Massa would be able to at least show some class and overtake the one-stopping Piquet of Renault or at the very least defend his second place position against Hamilton. But of course Hamilton won’t be denied. He easily overtook his teammate (or Heikki just let his Lewis pass him by) and then Massa who did not even tried to defend his position as he gave Lewis too much of a room to maneuver his car for a pass. Schumi would simply not let that happen if it was him driving the scarlet car! Kimi would also try his best to defend and retain his race position if it was him in that Ferrari. Massa was a marshmallow yesterday.
Fast forward to the post race press conference, Massa even appeared giddy for his compatriot and looked very happy for Piquet. That’s not how champions act. He should have been fuming and disgusted that he did not only won the race, he lost to a rookie driver driving for a struggling mid fielder team! Even Lewis and Nelson had that uncomfortable look when Felipe started that congratulations speech as if Nelson was his crush or something LOL.
Anyway… I hope Ferrari considers signing Fernando Alonso to drive for them next season. Ferrari + Fernando should equate to an unbeatable combination. For Massa? He should be relegated to driving tests duties or even released.
Here’s a table of the Hockenheim fastest lap race timing from Formula1.com.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Lap | Time Of Day | Avg Speed | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 52 | 15:14:54 | 216.700 | 1:15.987 |
| 2 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 17 | 14:24:49 | 216.552 | 1:16.039 |
| 3 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 66 | 15:33:20 | 215.692 | 1:16.342 |
| 4 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 63 | 15:29:26 | 215.261 | 1:16.495 |
| 5 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 19 | 14:27:34 | 215.241 | 1:16.502 |
| 6 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 17 | 14:25:08 | 214.937 | 1:16.610 |
| 7 | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 24 | 14:34:28 | 214.652 | 1:16.712 |
| 8 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | STR-Ferrari | 20 | 14:29:11 | 214.484 | 1:16.772 |
| 9 | 6 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 66 | 15:33:10 | 214.099 | 1:16.910 |
| 10 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 63 | 15:29:49 | 213.935 | 1:16.969 |
| 11 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 18 | 14:26:53 | 213.866 | 1:16.994 |
| 12 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 17 | 14:25:13 | 213.785 | 1:17.023 |
| 13 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 17 | 14:25:16 | 213.530 | 1:17.115 |
| 14 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 20 | 14:29:15 | 213.278 | 1:17.206 |
| 15 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 34 | 14:48:15 | 212.799 | 1:17.380 |
| 16 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 56 | 15:22:03 | 212.097 | 1:17.636 |
| 17 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 23 | 14:33:43 | 211.947 | 1:17.691 |
| 18 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 66 | 15:34:13 | 211.408 | 1:17.889 |
| 19 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 30 | 14:42:45 | 211.145 | 1:17.986 |
| 20 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 67 | 15:35:21 | 210.546 | 1:18.208 |
