Star of the Race Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber, 1st It was going to come sooner or later and it came sooner. Kubica benefited from the Raikkonen/Hamilton accident, but he could so easily have lost it on an afternoon when at least one World Champion got off-line and hit the wall. He also had the benefit of a compliant team-mate who moved across and let him past. As the race wore on it was reminiscent of the annoying new series of BMW adverts voiced by Donald Sutherland. The ones that go (teeth grindingly) "Thank you hill, for allowing our energy recovery to work even harder - Thank you gravity for not pulling on our light alloy engine" To which you wanted to add: "Thank you Lewis, for taking out the likely winner, Kimi Raikkonen." Overtaking Move of the Race Lap 52, Felipe Massa (Ferrari) on Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) Amazing to have two brilliant overtaking moves in successive races. (You wait all day for a bus, then two come along together etc) Following Rubens' move in Monaco we got a classic from Felipe at the Casino hairpin. This must surely qualify be one of the overtaking moves of the season, as Felipe Massa rally-crossed his Ferrari up the kerbs and onto the grass to find extra grip on the inside and scoot past both Rubens and Heikki in one corner. It was a line he tried in qualifying, though this time he was almost in danger of making an overtaking move off the circuit. What was also very impressive was the fact that the TV director had a camera on the Ferrari garage to cut to at the moment of triumph - almost like they knew it was coming. Massa certainly made the best of a bad afternoon. He made an extra pit-stop through no fault of his own and found himself back in 17th at one stage. To pick up another four points on Kimi Raikkonen on a day when he probably should have lost four or five is World Championship-winning form. WINNERS Nick Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber, 2nd Nick managed to contain his joy for team-mate Robert Kubica after the team scored their first ever 1-2 and he equalled his best ever result. Given a different pattern of traffic, it could have been the other way round - so Nick was probably thinking about what might have been. And that might have been the closest he'll ever come to winning a GP. David Coulthard, Red Bull, 3rd At a time when he probably thought he wasn't going to see the podium again in his valedictory season, DC came third. He possibly could have caught Heidfeld, but given the barrier bashing season he's had so far, discretion was definitely the way to go. Timo Glock, Toyota, 4th Glock needed to impress and after qualifying ahead of Trulli and falling behind him in the race, the German managed to haul himself back in front and resist strong pressure from Felipe Massa at the end. A fine performance at last. Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 6th Given that this was Jarno's first race where he qualified outside the Top 10, 6th place was no mean result. He only let go of 5th thanks to a mistake by his team-mate that let Massa through. For once the Toyota team can pack their truck up without thinking they should have done better. Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 7th For a car with no pace, Rubens did extraordinarily well; though he managed the rare distinction of being overtaken by two cars at once, TWICE in the same race. Sebastian Vettel, Toro Rosso, 8th Successive points scoring is great after Seb's rocky start to 2008, but skipping the final chicane to avoid being overtaken is not the mark of a class act. LOSERS Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, DNF Though he came out with the phrase "I was breezing it" afterwards, Lewis Hamilton's race pace was falling back when the needless Safety Car came out. The lap times showed that on Lap 14 it was Kimi Raikkonen who was getting the measure of the track and putting in much faster Sectors 1 and 3 than the Brit. Robert Kubica had been 7.1 seconds behind, but was actually closing a little (to 5.9 seconds) when the SC lumbered out. So the race result was hardly a foregone conclusion. However the penalty of 10 grid places for clattering into Raikkonen in the pit lane is a bit harsh when Raikkonen was effectively parked in the wrong place. Kubica was just in front of him as he was released by the Ferrari pitcrew and the Finn should have slotted in behind Kubica not stuff up the exit. (You can't overtake behind the Safety Car). Had Kimi slotted in behind, then Lewis would have had somewhere to dive to when he finally realised the red light was on and the cars were s-t-o-p-p-e-d. Clearly Hamilton's mistake but Raikkonen didn't help. And if Hamilton's penalty was harsh, Rosberg's was even harsher as he only gave Lewis the tiniest of taps. Lewis then added to his mistake by apologising afterwards. He should have taken the line adopted by Ferrari's Luca Baldiserri after Raikkonen had punted Adrian Sutil out of the Monaco GP by saying that first of all he was sorry he lost points and then shrugging off the fact that he knocked someone else out of the race. For his part, Raikkonen took it all very well. He knows he'll win in France. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, DNF What goes around comes around and having punctured Kovalainen in Turkey and assaulted Sutil in Monaco, the Finn was on the receiving end for once. If anybody was going to win the race today it was Raikkonen - he was beginning to look ominous before the Safety Car came out. Fernando Alonso, Renault, DNF Alonso put in a brilliant qualifying performance and was great entertainment value in a race where he threw caution to the wind and his car, eventually, at the Armco. I listened to him being interviewed by Louise Goodman afterwards and then James Allen apologizing for something he'd said live on air. Strangely I didn't detect a swearword first time round - then played the tape back and heard nothing but a polite Spaniard second time round... Unless "marbles" is gay slang for something or other. Adrian Sutil, Force India, DNF I'm sorry, Adrian Sutil may be a great F1 driver with balls of steel, but the little run he did between his car and the track exit gate was that of a hairdresser in a hurry. It was a camp, mincing little run, ill-befitting the macho status of an F1 driver. He needs to be sent to macho running school before he gets in the car again. Canadian GP Tarmac Contractor Last seen heading for the US border (but, knowing tarmac machines - at about 3mph. That's still faster than Rubens Barrichello, though). Mark - git orf me barra - Blundell A paltry helping of diamond Blunders to report. We'll have to make do with his very perceptive analysis of the Canadian track. "It's a lot quicker than what Monaco is" and: "It's got that feel to it what Lewis likes."
Hamilton has the air of champion about him; in the way that he swerved over to wound the Ferrari and not the BMW. CH
As per Raikkonen - does it matter where he was? He could have just as well been behind Kubica, but way to the left - LH would have hit him anyway. Never heard of any rule that cars have to line up in perfect single file at the pit straight...
Although lining up beside Kubica was indeed questionable, the "you can't overtake behind the SC" can't be true for the pitlane as Kubica obviously would have to be penalized for overtaking Hamilton (while refuelling)...
