October 7th, 2007
Someone has to be writing this stuff, and the plot line is still better than anything George Lucas put out. Not that that is a high bar to achieve. Complaints about the sport several years ago were centered around Ferrari wrapping up both championships with multiple races left in the season. This year the FIA may have handed the scuderia the constructor's title on a sliver plated platter, but the driver's championship is going to the last race after Lewis Hamilton's fight was Shanghai'ed, pun intended.
The young Brit driving for the McCheating squad had the stars lined up where he could have become the youngest F1 rookie winner ever. But, after leading the race almost easily, the Brit had issues with his tires and when he finally pitted, he stuck it firmly in the kitty litter. Game over.
Then it became a battle between Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard couldn't catch the Finn and it became a Ferrari 1-3 with Alonso closing the gap in second. This result has set up the top three drivers to be separated by seven points going into the last race of the season. Management at NASCAR is studying the season trying to figure out how to get a similar result…
Ferrari team
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The real winner out of this wet and wild race was Sebastian Vettel who finished in fourth. Not bad at all for Red Bull's supposed junior team and a sure way to be asked back with a better contract for next season. Joe Torre could only be so lucky this week. The team confirmed that this result more than made up for the fiasco that happened in Japan.
Honda won the Japanese bragging rights for the weekend with Button's fifth place win. There is no way that anyone in Japan will speak of them being beaten by Toro Rosso. But, it could have been worse. They could have been beaten by Super Aguri. With last year's car. Again!
Kimi Räikkönen
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Luizzi put the exclamation point on Toro Rosso's weekend by running sixth for most of the race and being able to fend off Nick Heidfeld's BMW. This pushed the team past Honda in the final standings, but still behind Toyota. If they end the season ahead of Toyota, you have to wonder when the Cologne based team will throw in the towel. The result also cemented McLaren at the bottom of the points table.
David Coulthard drove as he always does, staying in there and picking up the occasional points. What is kind of sad is that he's able to get the same result driving a championship level car as he is driving an also ran.
Flavio wasn't talking this weekend when back marker teams were still finishing ahead (and far ahead) of the team that won the championship last year. Surely the language between him and the French powers-that-be has to have a negative tone by now.
Jean Todt and Felipe Massa
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Toyota is going to deny that they were ever in China. Rumors are that Schumacher's gear is already being pilfered.
So it will all come down to Brazil, this year, which is what the organizers wanted. We'll have to wait until the end to see the results. But there is one guarantee, Norbert Haug will over indulge in a chuhascaria. I wonder if he will eat capivara, eating a large rat has to have special meaning for the Woking team now…
Felipe Massa
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Race Results
