August 26th, 2007 -- Well, we haven't heard the final bit of news from the FIA regarding the championship due to any espionage, so Ferrari has taken the fight back to McLaren on the track. The tifosi got their Turkish delight and the Woking based team realized that this one really is going to go to the end of the season.
Filipe Massa was able to make it two years in a row at the circuit that has been called the best one out there. The race was still a fast parade, but the Brazilian showed that he is willing to be the number one driver in the Scuderia if Kimi Räikkönen doesn't want it badly enough. The Italians were happy as their team was able to get a solid 1-2 finish this weekend which should get everyone excited about Monza in two weeks. Nothing like riding the red wave at home.
The Start
|
Fernando Alonso tried to prove a point this weekend and we normally don't see the Spaniard happy about a third place finish, but I think as we get to the end of the season, so long as he is ahead of Lewis Hamilton, we'll see a smile. I'm still convinced that he has a sparkle in his eye of shunting his team mate off the track if he feels threatened, just not sure if we're going to see it during the remaining races.
Nick Heidfeld brought the BMW home in fourth place and the gap between the team and the front runners is starting to close. We'll see in two weeks if the engineering effort gets shifted to the 2008 car like everyone else or if they are going to hold out and try for a podium finish with the current car.
Filipe Massa
|
Lewis Hamilton had his first bit of normalcy this weekend with a deflated tire with just a few laps left in the race. Late breaking news: he can't walk on water. Now if we can just get the English to realize that he's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, we might actually be able to watch racing again...
Kovalainen was putting pressure on the damaged McLaren towards the end of the race, but was not able to catch up. What was important was the Finn was able to get ahead of his team mate (again), and should be in a good position to be with the French backed team next year. Fisichella finished in ninth place, no points. And possibly no ride...
Nico Rosberg managed to get the Williams up into the points. No one quite knows how it happened. His parents noticed.
The last points paying position went to Kubica in the other BMW. The ex-Sauber team is making good use of the money.
Kimi Räikkönen
|
Speaking of money, there are still some teams that are burning through it without much success. Red Bull ran their expensive ad campaign again. Not sure if all of the fans are smart enough to realize that Toro Rosso also means "big waste of cash" in English, too.
Toyota beat Honda. But finishing 12 and 13 isn't really that much to brag about. You've got to believe that the time will come where enough is enough.
Super Aguri isn't wasting their money since they're not spending as much of it as the big factory teams are. You have to wonder about the difference in performance from a yen to fraction-of-a-second ratio. Some accountant is gasping for air in Japan.
So, the vacation is over and we're in the stretch of the last part of the season. I'm convinced that this one is going to either go down to the wire or the FIA will make a mess of it and we'll talk about the 2007 title with an asterisk.
Felipe Massa with the team
|
Race Results
