Hamilton takes F1 championship

Article
Gallery

By Matt Brogan | November 03rd, 2008

In a dramatic finish to the world championship, Lewis Hamilton took the title by a single point after securing fifth position on the final corner of the final lap of the final race of the 2008 season.

Hamilton finished the year with 98 points, one point ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who went on to win the race at his home circuit of Interlagos.

Heikki Kovalainen finished seventh, a result that saw Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team come second in the constructors’ championship with 151 points. Ferrari amassed a winning total of 172 points.

At the age of just 23 years, 10 months and 26 days, Hamilton is the youngest champion in Formula 1 history. He takes McLaren’s 12th drivers’ world title, and the third for the McLaren Mercedes partnership, which won the drivers’ title in 1998 and ’99 with Mika Häkkinen.

acilk

Final corner… wow
http://www.littlepixiegifts.com.au Gift-Ed

The most exciting season finale ever.

McLaren made it really difficult for themselves by driving for 5th, even qualifying too heavy and going conservative on every call.

Very lucky to get away with it.

But well done Lewis. Nice to see a different team win finally, despite the FIA!
Adstar

A well deserved champion even if he does drive for Mclaren.
Tom

Yeah my heart was racing for the final 5 laps, definitely the most exciting race of the year, followed by the most heart breaking. Still, have to give it to Hamilton, he did drive like a demon all year, it was well deserved.
http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com/ SuperCujo

Well done to Hamilton, the championship would have been over before this if not for the silly penalty from Spa…

How many unsafe pit releases were there? Where were the penalties for them? The stewards went quiet this race.

I had the idea a few years ago that all F1 tracks need a track wide sprinkler system installed and a random system be employed to throw water onto the track randomly. Every race that has some rain involved is so much more interesting.

Bring on next year and its reduced aero devices, slick tyres and KERS. It sure is going to be interesting. Waiting for the 29th of March is going to take an eternity.
http://. Naughtyius Maximus

A legend with drive inside mega – SHOULD OF HAD TITLE IN ROOKIE SEASON!

Speaking of drive….or ride! WHAT ABOUT A STORY ON BACKGROUND OF VALENTINO ROSSI (8 time WORLD CHAMPION IS REMARKABLE – ESPECIALLY AS NOT VERY OLD)!
http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com/ SuperCujo

Naughtyius: Doesn’t Valentino ride bikes though? I thought this was CARadvice.com.au.

Yes, Lewis should have had the title in his rookie season but he stuffed up. He has it now though.
http://Mini Ben Larden

Toyota and McLaren shoud both be DQ’d. Pulling over, and letting someone pass is called Match Fixing. It is illegal. Shame on the FIA for allowing it to happen.

Felipe Massa is the real World Champ.
Andrew M

Vodafone must be loving it at the moment.

Everything they sponsor seems to turn to gold!!!

they certainly know how to pick their value for money ventures
Andrew M

Ben,
well what about in the earlier ferrari days where team orders saw Schumacher allowed to pass to take the win.
that used to be a common occurrence.

you do have a point though.
I never saw the pass though, so im not sure how “Fixed” it looked
Joober

Congrats Boy wonder, Hopefully he can make a Mclaren 1 and 2 and eventually hattrick.

Haha yeah Vodafone must have the touch in sponsoring. Although the Ferrari fiasco of passing is within its team though, I missed watching this grandprix,(**shame**) I might utube to see how it looked.
http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com/ SuperCujo

Capcha word was ‘ferrari’. I nearly reloaded to get another one.

Ben: The pass was not fixed. Both Toyotas did nearly the same final lap time, they were both on dry tyres, not the wets everyone else was on. If that pass was fixed, how the hell did they coordinate the same lap time from both Glock and Trulli?

Who cares really, the championship should have been decided a few races back because of that whole stewards going against the FIAs directive, most notably at Spa. You know if Massa had of kept his car on the track at the British GP, he would have won.

In the end, the championship was decided by a team that chose to keep their drivers out with dry tyres on a wet track. That will not change the result.

The bigger worry is the movable wings on the Renault. That has huge ramifications if true.
mark

dam i wanted massa to get the championship! the main reason is the fact that the british public are bad winners, also the whole season the commentary of the races has been a lewis love fest!!!!! i went to bed about 30 laps from the end as i knew this would happen. if massa did not have those 2 fuel stuff ups and the engine crap itself 3 laps from the end acouple of races ago then massa would have had it! massa did not loose the championship, his team lost it for him!
http://navelcontemplation.blogspot.com/ SuperCujo

As an addition to the Toyota and McLaren fixing the result, if Toyota really wanted Hamilton to win the WDC, they would have brought Glock in for wets like everyone else decided to do. Toyota took a punt in climbing the results and it didn’t pay off.

As Mark said, Ferrari lost this championship for Massa. Although Massa didn’t help himself too well at Silverstone.
http://. Naughtyius Maximus

SUPERCUJO…yes Rossi rides bikes. I feel its about motors and the road and dont think 2 or 4 wheels makes a hoot; after all I have seen the odd 3 wheel writeup! The way I see it, if it involves a motor and wheels its fun….hell I got a ZX10R with 173RWHP and dry weight 165kgs. NOW THATS INSANE FUN x100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BMWSauber

I suppose hamilton already had it won before the rain came in, all it did was spice it up before a predictable end.. a bit like a hollywood movie don’t u recken haha. But in all honesty my heart sank when i saw hamilton pass glock, even though i knew deep down he was going to take out the title before this race even started… i was hoping massa would take the title because in reality this was probably going to be his only chance, next year kimi will find his groove and perhaps alonso and kubica having faster cars, as well as hamilton keen on going back to back. the competition will be stiff and i dont think massa will have it in him..
Cupid Stunt aka No Name

Ben Larden – remember two weeks ago when Raikkonnen let Massa pass to win the race to bump up his points, no penalties issued for that. Hypocritical comment there.

Well done Lewis Hamilton for wining fair and square. I absolutely loved the look on the faces of the Ferrari pit crew when they realised they had not won. Priceless!!!
It was raining harder than it appeared hence Glock slowed and Hamilton equipped with the right rubber nailed it.

Bad was the Brazillian crowd Boooing. Massa is a sore loser as are Ferrari, He did not even acknowledge Hamiltons efforts.

Ferrari eat your hearts out rigged in their favour and still didn’t win. The bung to Ecclstone wasn’t worth it.
Genie

Cupid, what a load of crap. Massa did acknowledge hamiltons efforts, which considering the situation was fairly impressive. How is Massa or Ferrari sore losers? Ferrari won the constructors championship after all, and you can’t blame them for celebrating, Hamilton squeezed in 5th place on the last corner, and they’re in pit lane.

Talk about bad winners, even in victory you still want to play the ‘FIA is out to get Hamilton’ line. Grow up.
Cupid Stunt aka No Name

Boo Hoo – you upset me Genie. My opinion live with it.
WVB

A great race, A great result. Good on Lewis, a well deserved title after all the mclaren/Ferrari/Alonso sh*t that went on last year.
Also, I will be watching vettel closely next year. He’s going to end up at Ferrari before Alonso judging by his recent form.
…and Ron, your work is now done, it’s time to go.
Ivan

Good on Hamilton for winning. If you have seen the race, Massa was way in front leaving the pack behind to battle it out. Hamilton has been 5th place most of the race, until the last few laps where the rain started puring again.

Hamilton pitted and came back 6th place behind Glock who didn’t pit. But Hamilton ended up catching Glock in the last corner. It was Toyota’s miscalculation on Hamilton’s potential speed in the wet that was their downfall.

I wonder if Hamilton is going back to Topgear to make the lap time in the dry. They should ask Massa too. hehehe
FRUGAL_ONE

& FINALLY….

FERRARI TAKE F1 CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP

Cheers

F-0