Photo: Ferrari
Hamilton (McLaren) arrived at the last race of 2008 leader, with 94 points, seven more than Felipe Massa (Ferrari), in a Formula 1, which gave 10 points to the winner of the race and 8 the second. The brazilian could only be first or second in your country and wait. Spurred on by his audience, got the pole in Interlagos. The englishman was overtaken by two cars of the Cavallino and by Trulli, and started in fourth position, although he was worth to be fifth if your opponent saw the chequered flag in first position. The rain wanted to give it emotion, protagonist Sunday, give epic the final of the world championship, which will decide, for the fourth year in a row, in Brazil.
In the output, with the wet track, none of the first four lost its square, and a very young Vettel, who came seventh with his Toro Rosso, was fifth. Massa could only hope that Vettel (5th) and Alonso (6th) walk to Hamilton or east to suffer some kind of problem. Precisely the Spanish and the German were the first stop, one lap before Massa and the two before that Trulli, Raikkonen and Hamilton. After the first pass by the pits, and they all rode dry tires, Felipe kept his head, but everything had changed. Second was Vettel and third placed Alonso, with Raikkonen fourth, having overcome the stop to Trulli. Between the two had strained Giancarlo Fisichella with the Force India. Hamilton was seventh after twelve laps, with the ghosts of 2007 (he lost the title in that same place a year before) to visit.
The track was still wet in some areas, and began to be corrections and spinning tops, such as that suffered by Trulli, allowing Hamilton to move up to sixth place. Shortly after, Fisichella would not endure more, and Hamilton reached the fifth position, which gave virtually the world, with the track drying more and more. Vettel, who was second, went to three stops, and Hamilton placed fourth without major problems, behind Massa, Alonso and Raikkonen, the drivers occupied the podium. But there still was the most exciting and, in the absence of 15 laps, it was announced rain.
Photo: Ferrari
And came. Had six turns and, with nothing to lose, Rosberg (12th) decided to mount tires in the middle. Hamilton, in fourth, was very close to Vettel, in fifth, though losing position with Sebastian didn’t make him lose the crown. It was raining. Both Kimi as Fernando changed their tyres for the wet floor, and so did Hamilton and Vettel a lap earlier than Massa. But a secondary actor had joined the party: Timo Glock, which had not yet entered the pits. Was fourth, with Hamilton fifth and Vettel sixth, with the option of giving the title to Massa.
in the absence of two laps, Robert Kúbica unfolded of Hamilton and Vettel, and the German took the last stop is Lewis, nervous about that overtaking and unexpected Kúbica, to take away the fifth position…and the championship. Two laps, each time it was raining more, and Hamilton had lost the world. Vettel driving a Toro Rosso with Ferrari engine, would not yield his position, and Massa crossed the finish line as the winner of the race and virtually the world champion. Hamilton was sixth, getting seven points less than the winner, with what empataban and the title remained in Brazil (six wins versus five). Four curves left to Hamilton to overtake Vettel. Many bent in the middle. Nothing. Three. Both men were still passing other cars. Nothing. Two. Nothing.
Photo: Ferrari
they Came to the checkered flag and the box of Ferrari exploded in jubilation. Also the McLaren. The father and the brother of Massa jumped up and down and hugging the mechanics of the Scuderia, celebrating that their son and brother was the world champion of 2008. But life changes from one second to another. Plop, a punch of reality. One of the workers wrapped a mono-red had seen the same thing a few others: among these assumptions are bent, there was a pilot that was not, Timo Glock. The German Toyota survived as I could with dry tires in the pouring rain brazilian, and not endured all that to Ferrari he would have liked. Vettel and Hamilton had gone ahead, with what the british was fifth and champion by a point, for a turn, for a few seconds. The box that was right was the McLaren, where the bride, the brother and the father of Hamilton were celebrated with reason.
Nine years later, McLaren came back to be champion riders. Hamilton became the youngest in history to take a title, and Massa went in the ‘Club of now or never’, without stop crying. The final most exciting possible had been given, as always, with a protagonist exhultante and another sunk. Of those careers that some day we will tell to the grandchildren.
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