Eurosport - Mon, 13 Oct 15:54:00 2008
Formula One World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton has shrugged off his disappointing finish in the Japanese Grand Prix and turned his focus on to the final two races of the season.
The McLaren driver started on pole but after impeding Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen at the first turn he then collided on the second lap with title rival Felipe Massa to end his hopes of a podium finish.
In the end, Hamilton finished a lowly 12th while Massa completed the race in eighth before being promoted to seventh after Sebastien Bourdais was struck with a time penalty after the race.
That saw the Toro Rosso driver drop to 10th, allowing Massa to collect a vital two points and close the gap on Hamilton in the driver standings to just five.
"There are positives to take," said Hamilton.
"I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it is definitely not over.
"Now I will forget [the race] ever happened and move forward. We have got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them.
"I am not happy after a result like today but I'm already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.
"Disappointingly, I didn't make a great start but I slipstreamed Kimi and went up the inside. I braked a bit late - but so did everybody.
"A lot of cars went wide at turn one and I just went a bit wider than everyone else.
"On lap two, Felipe went wide and I went up the inside, giving him room, but he tapped me quite hard into a spin."
Massa also let slip pole position in the previous race in Singapore to finish 13th and knows all too well that fortunes are capable of changing in an instant.
"It could have been better but it could have been worse looking at where we started and where Lewis started," said the Brazilian.
"We cannot leave here saying it was a disaster, it could have been better in terms of points but we at least finished in front [of the McLarens].
"You have to think race-by-race. Maybe you come here and you have a difficult result but in the next race you are very strong again.
"For me it will be two very difficult races. They [McLaren] can be very strong but so can we and we need to believe that."
Comment 93 - 112 of 112
FARRE IS THE BEST
YOUR DUM MASSA GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO ggggggg OOOOOOOO!
EM SHUT UP
every time you state the truth on this page it kicks you out as invalid comment what a load of rubbish
To Rocky,
Yes I agree that the involvement of other people is making a mockery of the sport but I think BE helping out was the right thing to do, like I said, it was Alonso at fault not McClaren, do you think Renault should be kicked out over their spying on McClaren? BE helping McClaren stay in the Championship was a one off thing, the FIA help out Ferrari at every possible opportunity, how else do you explain Massa being handed a fine in one race for an unsafe release from the pits (when he was doing well in the race) and then a drive through for exactly the same thing in the same season(when he was one doing badly and had no chance of scoring any points anyway)? It seems to me that every decision goes Ferraris way. The worst thing is when the results get changed after the race is finished and won, what is the point of going to watch a race when you leave the track, get home and find the results have all been changed (and always in Ferraris favour) - can you imaging watching your footie team win then leaving the ground and finding that they have had their goals taken off them and the other team have been awarded a win! There would be riots! The decisions should be made there and then!
sagittarius1958,.. pardon me for the comment..for insulting u and i wish u well.
Alonso has reminded us that, even not in a top car he is formidable and probably the biggest talent in F1 at the mo. However, to claim he is not arrogant is odd to me, still smarting somewhat that rookie Hammy outperformed him last year and again challenges for the title. Ok it may not be arrogance but he could still be a bit more mature I suppose.
If Hammy wants the title, frankly I'm beginning to doubt whether its anything actually worth having, it's his to lose. Even if he has to beat Ferrari, Alonso, FIA...to win is to win and he aint at the mo.
Has to be asked, How desperately do you want such a corrupted accolade as F1 Champion??? Hard to think of any other sport that makes Horse racing look relatively unbiased!
wot a giggle of frustrated young schoolgirl drivers
Pretty ALONSO is the only skilled in the circus DOUBLE WORLD CHAMP
doji_fere... tsk, tsk, tsk, you really should keep a civil tongue in your head... you did make the statement (post #89 "Believe it or not, black people will always do it better in any sport..") and i called you on it... you want to attack my character for doing so?? go ahead... i won't be losing any sleep over it... but, thanks for caring enough to write!! =;-))
To Nicola_Marrie1975
I don`t care about Lewis or Alonso , what I Am saying is that,if it
wasn`t for Bernie Ecclestone last year .
Ron Dennis and McLaren should have been disqualified the final 2007
and 2008 season ;so Ferrari has the FIA on their site ,and McLaren
has Bernie Ecclestone .
That`s the way it is ,and you or me can`t do nothing about it.
This Formula 1 , has become a joke ,it`s like Nascar in USA .
Hamilton is just too arrogant person, but then again he kinda reminds Alonso. But something´s badly wrong there, why does he need his father in a pit ? To keep pressure ?
PS Gladstone, Lewis may have acted rashly but so did Massa when he overtook Webber by going into the pit lane with no way on knowing if any cars were coming! Also Rocky, Alonso was the only guy at Mclaren who cheated last year, RD did the right thing as soon as he found out what was going on even though he knew he would be heavily punished! I liked Seb Bourdais's comment best when asked if there was anything else he could have done to avoid the 'incident' with Massa - "Roll out the red carpet and let him have HIS corner" - ha ha ha class! Maybe it's finally sinking in with the other drivers now too that unless they are driving a Ferrari, they are not going to be allowed to win, even if they have a Ferrari engine! As for Alonso saying he will help Massa win, that goes without saying, he is after his seat so arse licking is no problem for him and he is still sour about being outdriven and outperformed by the "Rookie" last year! GO Lewis GO!
Derek Waddell you talk a lot of sense! I don't believe that there is any racism direct at Lewis Hamilton but I do believe that the FIA are biased towards Ferrari! Did anyone else here Martin Brundell saying that the old Ferrari boss would be joining the FIA! Will Ron be invited to join if he ever leaves! I don't think so! I used to like Massa but he won't even own up to his own mistakes, yes he got penalised for taking Lewis out but he must know that the FIA stepped in when HE messed up with Seb Bourdais and why did he not get penalised for using the pit lane to overtake, I believe he said there was nowhere else to go, he could have tried slowing down and backing off! Lewis Hamilton is one of the most exciting talents F1 has ever seen and has been a huge boost for F1 round the world and I agree the other drivers are simply jealous, he is a natural born racer and I for one will be cheering from the roof tops when he finally wins the title he truly deserves!
McLaren should have been disqualified the rest of last year and this year for cheating .
Sorry, in that last one, I meant "hammy did very badly by his lofty standards"
People people, can't we all just get along??
Seriously though, the written word is a master of leaving itself unprotected by context and I think I see a bit of this here. I do not regard what doji_fere said as racist, but then i have the context of his other posts to qualify my opinion. Equally, just because someone says Hammy should be penalised, banned etc for this or that, does not indicate anything than just that. Its the context kids.
Anyways, hammy did very by his lofty standards, Alonso is on fire and it must feel like he's fighting against everyone else as they pull together as a team to prevent him succeeding.
But hey, any black person competing in an individual sport that is predominantly white goes through this 'barrier' thing. He'll have to keep on doing it too. He's been doing it for most of his life I would think. Its just that now people like us are interested. He'll make it, win lose or draw.
Although I ratlle a few cages and like a laugh there is a serious serious problem here that must be addressed. The thing is, I havent got the slightest idea of where one would start. The totally biased slants to the way penalties are being handed out leaves me totally bemused. As far as I am concerned, it is with great sadness, that I will no longer be following this sport. 30 years I have followed this through good times and bad times but I am afraid it has now reached rock bottom. I try to convince myself I am wrong but the recent decisions that have been allowed leads me to the conclusion that there is a far more dangerous precedent being set in that a coloured person is not welcolm as a world champion.
This I find to be very sad in that there are a lot of fantastic suporters fans out there (even Ferrari Ones) that I am sure must be felling the same way. Perhaps a petition or somthing similar would be a thought. At the very least one could hopefully make the decision makers in this sport aware of the feelings of the fanbase. And do not be kidded no fanbase no sponsor no F1
Hamilton Dangerous? Excuse please but this is about Racing Cars! Not Scalectrix, or? When people are paid Big Money, Big Big Money, it usually mean that they are doing something dangerous, where they stand a good chance of being seriously hurt or even killed! Yes there is a degree to everything, but they have made the cars with their safety measures even when they have horrific crashes, Robert Kubica for one as safe as they can to prevent serious injury! Do you tell a football player not to go into a tackle because he could get injured, No! but you don`t want drivers to go all out to win? Boxing dangerous, more so than F1, so are many other Sports or occupations and with alot less compensation! Just ask any Fireman, Policeman or Squaddie for that matter! C`mon lets quit hammering a guy cos he acts like he is expedcted to act and NOT like a paid muppet!°
sagittarius1958.. there u are, in what state of mind do come up with that assumption, that i am racist?
U´ve being wheeling ur ignorance since when LH has being a seriuos contender for the championship, i told u, that u need some growing up to do, b´cos u are wasting ur damn time commenting rubbish, commenting stupid assumptions from ur polluted state of mind, as if u have something "original". Mind u.. u so damn blind and dishonest. You are prabablly working together with the media responsible for igniting indirectly racial prejudice or i´ll rather state, insulting the integrity of people of colour by means of smear.
People like u are a disgrase. In other words, u and ur kinds will fail to exsist as time goes on, as in that, people around u will fail u,....redeem urself from selfhate then u´ll be free from the deemed course on ur damned head..fool
doji_fere... you may not realize it, but you made a racist comment, namely "Believe it or not, black people will always do it better in any sport"... are you kidding me?? you can NOT make that kind of generalization about anyone...
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