Media reaction: Italy accepts victory

Eurosport - Tue, 04 Nov 09:29:00 2008

Italy's media has paid a gracious tribute to McLaren's new world champion Lewis Hamilton after the Briton beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa to the title on the final bend at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

FORMULA 1 2008 Scherzinger Hamilton - 0

Massa won his home race and for a moment looked to have snatched the title before Hamilton overtook Toyota's Timo Glock to seize the fifth place he needed to become Formula One's youngest champion at the age of 23.

Italian television did not realise Massa had been denied the title for almost a minute.

Italy's main sports daily, Gazzetta dello Sport, was unsure how to react after Italian team Ferrari wrapped up the constructors' title.

"Honour to Ferrari. Felipe Massa did not deserve to lose like that, with a cruelty that a wizard in a thriller could not even have imagined," read the front page.

However, the paper praised Hamilton inside and absolved German Glock given that his Toyota slowed down considerably because he was on dry tyres in the wet.

"He stole nothing and Glock gave him nothing. We honour his skill," it said.

Reports said Glock had been insulted by Brazilian fans at the end but he protested his innocence amid accusations he had done Hamilton a favour.

"What? Are you taking the mickey? I had dry tyres, what could I do?" he was quoted as saying.

"When it started to rain it was always difficult to find the right line with dry tyres. At the end the track was totally wet.

"For five laps we asked if it was better to come in but I stayed out."

Italian daily Corriere della Sera also put aside its love of Ferrari to congratulate the sport's first black champion, who won the title by one point just as he lost by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen last season.

"We bow to Lewis Hamilton, who deservedly won the first title of his career. Other World Championships will follow for this 23-year-old blessed with talent," read its main story.

Corriere, which said it was wrong to blame Glock, also called on Ferrari to sign Renault's former double world champion Fernando Alonso to replace the struggling Raikkonen.

Back in Britain, the Daily Star led with Hamilton's assertion that he did not know he'd won the title when he crossed the finish line, while both the Daily Mail and The Times ran the headline 'Lap of the gods' to describe Hamilton's last-gasp comeback.

The Mail described Hamilton on its front page as a '£100m British hero'.

The Guardian likes its headlines long and informative and did not let the readers down on this momentous occasion: 'This is first of many says Hamilton as he becomes youngest champion'.

'Phew, Lew: Lewis makes history.. but boy was it close!' said the back page of the Mirror, while The Sun also liked 'Phew, Lew' - but the lead-in read 'He wins title in final lap drama'.

The Mirror's front page, showing his pop star girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger (pictured above) whooping up his triumph, led with 'Lew Beauty!'

The Independent said 'Champion... on the final corner' - with a picture of the McLaren star holding aloft a union jack and smiling.

But the boos of the Interlagos crowd, devastated by local driver Massa's narrow defeat, was summed up by Brazil's media.

The Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper dismissed Hamilton's achievement as 'a title of 700 metres', also pointing out that the Briton is 'champion with fewer victories than Massa'.

The French daily Liberation labelled the McLaren driver as 'selfish, egocentric, sometimes shifty and willing to do anything to meet his objectives'.

L'Equipe added: 'He has conquered F1 with the spirit of a rookie and the driving skills of a veteran, with intelligence and talent, but, with an obvious taste for celebrity and an evident need to win at whatever price, in total contempt of his opponents.'

F1-Live.com / Reuters

Comment 25 - 44 of 84

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  1. Hi Forza - in case you didn't catch my earlier post....

    From m.e.jenner@..., on Mon 3 Nov 9:19PM

  2. o

    From Donald D, on Mon 3 Nov 9:19PM

  3. Yikes Invalid will try in sections !

    From m.e.jenner@..., on Mon 3 Nov 9:18PM

  4. I'm Brazilian and I'm very happy to have again a Brazilian fighting for championships and to continue the Brazilian legacy in F1. And as a F1 fan I'm really happy to see all these great drivers competing like Massa, Hamilton, Alonso and why not Kubica. For many years there was only Schumacker...

    From Blue Giant, on Mon 3 Nov 9:18PM

  5. Well done Lewis. Its all about who had more points and thats with some dodgy stewards decisions on the way. The first of many

    From jasonw, on Mon 3 Nov 9:16PM

  6. A week ago somebody said hamilton is a monkey and should go back to the jungle, well i dont know how you feel now after the so called monkey drove better than your super human massa, its seems to me like me the monkey has driven you nuts. call him all the vulger names... he will still run rings on your a....s chill bro dont be scared even in his worst days he still wins races.

    From tabukalu, on Mon 3 Nov 9:06PM

  7. Hamilton won fair and square, so, congratulations. But Massa showed he's championship material and it's just a matter of time until he wins his first one. But I think 1st place should get more than just 2 points more than 2nd place. Massa had the most wins and the same number of 2nd places as Hamilton, but still didn't have more points, I think that's wrong, but that's a criticism to FIA.

    From Blue Giant, on Mon 3 Nov 9:06PM

  8. jbolan you are a fool!

    From just another, on Mon 3 Nov 8:53PM

  9. All this Alonso bashing is unbelievable. The last 8 races alonso scored 48 points, that's more than anyone else in almost half a season's worth of races, IN A RENAULT! this proves he is still the best driver out there.

    From Ryan N, on Mon 3 Nov 8:01PM

  10. All i can say is with all the " BAD VIBES " that was thrown at lewis, he was still focused and kept it real.Also big respect to Massa.........."WELLDONE LEWIS".

    From a_jlivegood, on Mon 3 Nov 7:51PM

  11. Clispy. It does not matter. Lewis got the one that really counts. It was really close though. Last year Lewis was unlucky to lose by 1 point. I guess his luck turned around this year. Only fair!

    From Forza Ferrari, on Mon 3 Nov 7:35PM

  12. Italian press is more gracious than the French. They're just bitter the only French driver has been consistently outclassed by his German teammate.

    Have to say also that Massa and Alonso were also unexpectedly nice about Lewis's victory too. Fair play to them both, and now it seems Renault are competitive again, we may have an even more mixed championship battle next season.

    Rock on Lewis, I always had faith that justice would be served by the end of the season.

    From mhobbs53, on Mon 3 Nov 7:32PM

  13. Only a pro Massa paper would honestly print that Massa had more victories than Hamilton. Spa WAS Hamilton's. The FIA changed that result. Massa won 1 less than Hamilton.

    From crispyduck, on Mon 3 Nov 6:01PM

  14. thats how i would describe the french but they missed out no back bone easily defeated and envious of the british

    From wayne.self@..., on Mon 3 Nov 5:24PM

  15. elvis is king
    lewis is king
    got a good ring to that
    well done lewis
    well done mclaren
    get the double
    then the treble

    From garygood1@..., on Mon 3 Nov 4:57PM

  16. your right there delboy the race yesterday has just put in the right mind to wacth next season and with it on the bbc none of them horrible adverts to p you off all the time cant wait hope its on bbc hd channel aswell that will be unreal

    From garygood1@..., on Mon 3 Nov 4:54PM

  17. Say what you like, Hamilton won. He is by far, by far the very best driver there is, fullstop! He's better than Kimi, better than Massa, and certainly better than Alonso. Next year he will make sure he has won the championship a long time before Brazil by only entertaining us when necessary. Get ready for the reign of KING LEWY!!!

    From carlo1148, on Mon 3 Nov 4:41PM

  18. congratulations hamilton!!!
    u deserve to win it...i hope u can win it all again next season...GOD BLESS U :)..
    ue the best hamilton!!!

    From kacy yu, on Mon 3 Nov 4:31PM

  19. george a: you cannot acuse Fernando of racism, there is no evidence for this.

    From Julie4Fernando, on Mon 3 Nov 4:23PM

  20. lewis had another win but it got taken from him to keep the season interesting 4 ferrari fans without that deduction he didnt even have to turn up

    From delboy, on Mon 3 Nov 4:10PM
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