The Outrage

It was intermittently wet at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium and with that came the promise of a dramatic race. Lots of spinouts and agonising tyre choices to look forward to then. And indeed the race did not disappoint.

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Lewis Hamilton took pole position in the qualifying stages ahead of Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen and a harried Kimi Raikkonen who seemed overwhelmed by having to contend with both his team mate Massa and the sophomore driver. 

The Briton was in bullish mood following an early spin in the race that lost him the lead. Thereafter he was constantly on race leader Raikkonen’s tail badgering him to let him by. Then the heavens opened and sprinkled the track to make for a wet race and here Hamilton came into his own. Risky maneouvre, diving past Raikkonen on the bus stop chicane two laps to the end Hamilton went over the grass and took an unfair lead.

He then did the gentlemanly thing and surrendered the lead by allowing Raikonnen to pass him on the home straight. It was gloves off again as they went into the final lap and the ‘iceman’ cracking under the strain of keeping Hamilton at bay, spun and crashed into the wall. Hamilton kept his cool and passed through to take the chequered flag and (ostensibly) win the race.

Two hours later after all the bubbly had been drunk and the post-race conference wrapped up, Hamilton was slapped with a 25 second time penalty which effectively  snatched the win from him and handed it to the eager clutches of Felipe Massa. Hamilton wound up in 3rd place after they were done with the beatdown.

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Audiophile: The Shins – Pink Bullets
Off my shelf: Goshawk Squadron – Derek Robinson
Midday Matinee: Lolita [1962]
Starring: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelly Winters and Peter Sellers
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick