His car smashed against the inside wall, shredding the Toyota and spewing shard of carbon fiber across the front straight.  The safety car was deployed, and Hamilton's 12-second lead was gone.  Everybody dove for the pits, wanting to get their cars refueled and new rubber put on... except for Hamilton; McLaren mysteriously kept him out on track.  Suddenly, it was not only a new race, but one at which Lewis was at a distinct disadvantage, for he had to pit before the end of the race.  When the safety car period ended, Hamilton, lighter on fuel than everybody else, began to reopen his lead.  Eventually it was up to 15 seconds when he guided the Glare On Wheels into the pits.  Here's the problem: to enter the pit lane, drive to your box, get serviced, then exit the pits takes about 25 seconds.  When Hamilton returned to the track on lap 50, he was in fifth with 15 laps to go.  BMW's Grizzly Nick Heidfeld, who also ignored the free pitstop offered by the safety car, went in for fuel and tires.  Lewis' teammate, Heikki Koveleinninninnie let Hamilton by after a (very) token battle.  He caught up to Massa on lap 57 (see: Move of the Race below), and then, with five laps to go, he took the lead from the Renault of Nelson Piquet (who was just pitting when Glock crashed, jumping him about 12 places in one instant) and ran away for the win.  A truly amazing display of driving ability and car performance, nearly Slappy-esque in it's quality.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE: Lewis Hamilton.  He was going to win this race before the safety car came out, then after McLaren fscked up by not bringing him in, he went out and won it again.  At least as impressive a drive in the last 15 laps as his victory by over 60 seconds in the wet at Silverstone, there's no question that Hamilton deserves to be the Driver of the Race.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Renault.  A lucky break gave them a gift podium, to be sure, but you HAVE to be lucky to be good, and it's their first podium in since 2006.  Perhaps more importantly, they managed to hold of Massa's Ferrari to stay in 2nd place.  Don't count on it happening again this season, but for now, Renault gets the TotR.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  On lap 57, Lewis Hamilton was closing in on Felipe Massa for second place.  He got close behind the Brazillian in Parabolika and was rewarded with a massive tow down the fastest part of the circuit, and headed into the hairpin in perfect position, just behind and inside of the Ferrari.  Hamilton held off on braking as long as he could, then decelerated like he had thrown an anchor out of the cockpit.  Massa, however, was having none of it willingly.  He tried to slam the door in the McLaren's face... but Hamilton was having none of that, either.  He shoved Massa outside, refusing to give him an inch of room.  Massa wound up in the runoff area off-track.  Still game, however, Massa tried to get the position back in turn 8.  Hamilton shouldered the Ferrari offline again, which almost let Heidfeld jump into third.  A gorgeous bar-room brawl of a passing sequence, well deserving of the Move of the Race... and, if this turns out to be the race where Hamilton takes the Driver's Championship lead for good, perhaps the Move of the Year.

*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE:  From the sublime to the ridiculous, the Mooooo-ooove celebrates the performances that make the best drivers in the world look like they only got their learner's permits last week.  While McLaren's attempt at giving the race away by not calling Hamilton in during the safety car period nearly won, saved only by Hamilton's victory, instead we'll be giving the award to an on-track incident.  On lap 49, Rubens Barrichello, the most experienced driver in F1 today, tried to pass David Coulthard's Chin, the oldest driver in F1 today, on the outside.  A dodgy attempt to begin with became much, much worse, when The Chin slipped outside to block... and wound up running into the Honda.  The Red Bull went wobbling away, the Honda lost it's nose, and both cars wound up losing a handful of positions for no real good reason.  Both of you should have known better, and that's why we lovingly present you with a joint Moooooo-ooove.  Well done.

*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

1

Wow, that was a great race!  I was rooting for Piquet to win, but second wasn't bad.  Have you ever seen a happier smile on podium? 

Hamilton elbowing his way back to the front was also good stuff.

And the Sarcasm Network was in fine form, too. 

All in all, two hours (mostly) well spent.

I think Zsolt may be traded Mickie Dee's for Burger King.  ;-)

 

 

 

 

2

Earlier I was looking at the driver and team standings as of this race. Ferrari has 105 points, BMW-Sauber has 89, and McLaren has 86. (Everyone else is off in the dust. #4 team is Toyota with 25.)

Which seemed weird, until I looked at the driver standings. For McLaren, Hamilton is 1st but Kovalainen is 6th. For Ferrari, Massa is 2 and Raikkonen is 3. BMW-Sauber's drivers are 4 and 5, and they have got to be damned happy with how Kubica and Heidfeld have been driving this year!

Hamilton's got 58 points. HWMNBN only has 13, and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. (Heh heh heh; his best finishes were 3rd in Turkey and 3rd in England.)

The season is still wide open, with 8 races left.

3 Moreso than I can remember, Steven.  Last year belonged to Lewis Hamilton until the last race, and even then he was a shoe-in to win the Championship until he peed it down the leg of his firesuit.

In fact, there has never been a three-way tie in Driver's Championship points this late in a season (as we were at the beginning of the race).  I suspect a lot of it will be decided at the two new race courses... which team and which drivers adapt best to them might just decide everything.