The Hamilton/Massa Rivalry
"And is that...is that Glock? Is that Glock going slowly?"
"It is"
"Thats Glock"
The moment Felipe Massa's 20 second reign as World Champion was over. Was this the moment that a season long rivalry became personal?
No. I believe that this now seemingly intense rivalry, started as early as 2006. Massa is starting to become convincing as Michael Schumacher's understudy at Ferrari and a kid called Lewis Hamilton is rocking GP2 for ART. Noook overtakew ART's team princial was, and still is, Nicolas Todt who is also Felipe Massa's manager. Lewis says himself that he knew Massa in 2006.
In Malaysia 2007, having overtaken Massa from the start, they fought wheel-to-wheel into turn 4.
Their next conflict would take place in Germany 2008. Lewis had stayed out behind the Safety Car, and built a gap. He emerged from his stop behind Massa. Into the hairpin Lewis pulled of a textbook overtake. In turn 9 Massa tried to come back at Lewis who, fairly, ran him out of road. Lewis went on to win the race while Massa finished 3rd. In Belgium, Lewis won fair and square. Except the stewards took the win away from him. Massa inherited the win despite losing a place to Raikkonen, never leading and overtaking no-one.
In Japan that year, Massa and Hamilton had their collars felt for incidents. Lewis, harshly, for locking up and "forcing another driver off track" at turn one and Massa, rather fairly, for spinning Lewis round into the chicane.
In 2011, the rivalry flared up again. In Monaco qualifying, Lewis felt Massa had blocked him and in the race both were involved in a fifty/fifty at the hairpin. Hamilton was given a penalty. Into the tunnel, Lewis muscled his way past Massa quite fairly. Massa went onto the marbles and hit the wall. After the race he made strong comments: "What Hamiton did was wrong, not just to me but to other drivers." These were harsh when you consider Massa turned in on him then crashed by himself. It was also only Maldonado he made a misjudged move on.
In Spa, Lewis pulled of a legitimate overtake on Massa and yet for some reason, Felipe still had his hand in the air as Lewis made the move.
In Singapore qualifying, Lewis eventually forced his way by Massa to get soem space for a lap. This upset the Brazilian. In the race, Lewis made a mistake and gave Massa a puncture. Massa struggled to recover, while Lewis fought his way back through the field after getting a new front wing and having a drive through penalty. Then came that moment in the media pen
Massa clearly was upset, but maybe it was a tad unwise to confront Lewis infront of the cameras. It doesn't hide the fact that Massa is having a poor year and is possibly feeling the pressure from Sergio Perez and co. for his raceseat.
Credit: The F1 Times (www.thef1times.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment