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2008/09/10: Lewis Hamilton at Spa 2008
One year ago at Spa, I was quick to blame Fernardo Alonso for forcing Lewis Hamilton wide in the beginning of the race. This year at Spa, people are saying that Lewis Hamilton was again the "victim" when he received a 25 sec penalty. Only this time, I can't agree. I am not here to discuss the rules. I am not here to discuss if the stewards and Kimi Raikkonen have done anything right or wrong. FIA's bias towards Ferrari has been so obvious that it doesn't require proof at all. (Don't get me started on that!) I am here to share my opinion that Lewis Hamilton has himself done everything wrong and I actually think a penalty is good for him. He needs some lessons. Once it began to rain, Lewis was catching Kimi fast. The speed advantage he had over Kimi was very obvious. There was no need to hurry and you did not take half chances that you knew were only going to ruin your real chances. Hamilton's overtaking on the straight was not complete. Although he put half his car in front, once the pair turned into the right-hander, Hamilton's McLaren was behind the Ferrari. My view is that Kimi had every right to cover the racing line and Lewis had had his chance to lift. He didn't. I didn't blame him for that because he had managed to avoid a collision by going out, which was good. If he knew what he was doing, Lewis should have slowed down and rejoined the track behind Kimi. But he meant to use the shortcut to his advantage and came out in front. Only then he knew he had to drop back behind Kimi, which he did. But then, within a split second, he overtook Kimi again, which was the worst thing to do. Imagine you are in a football match. Your team has an injured player and your opponent kicks the ball out so your teammate can receive medical attention. You throw the ball back to your opponent in the resulting throw-in, but another of your teammate is right behind your opponent ready to tackle. How the referee reacts to that is not important to me. It is not going to affect how I think of your team. It is not going to help your reputation. You would have thought that Lewis has learned a lesson last year in Brazil, knowing what chances to take and what non-chances not to take. But as the championship fight is getting tight, he seems to be losing his head again. He needs some lessons, and it is important that he learns from them. God gifted Formula One a rare talent and it is important that we, F1 fans and Hamilton's fans alike, prevent Lewis from becoming another Ayrton Senna. Why should we be satisfied with a mediocre performance like this and not urge for classier driving and cleaner display of his talent from a potential future world champion? I think Ron should withdraw the appeal, talk to Lewis, learn their lesson and move on with it. |
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DISCLAIMER: All information/files in the Alain Prost Grand Prix Homepage are provided for personal interest only. This is no commercial advertisement and I do not intend to cause financial loss to anybody. Quotations from books or magazines do not reflect the quality or contents of their originals. If anybody thinks that his/her copyright is violated, please kindly inform me and I shall rectify the matter immediately.
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2008/07/04: We are angry! They took Rio away. They took Paul Ricard away. And now they are taking Silverstone away! How can they take away from us all these great circuits? Alain Prost won 14 F1 races in these 3 locations! Warn you, Alain Prost won in Monte Carlo 4 times as well. It can be the next to be axed! 2008/02/24: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALAIN PROST! 2007/10/23: APHPGP's 10 Conclusions from the 2007 Season 2007/02/24: Happy Birthday to Alain!! 2007/01/06: BrainyQuote 2006/12/25: Zandvoort 83 In the Suzuka Special 2004 I wrote: "I ... reassure those who try to change history that they will not succeed. Whenever they try, we shall react." And this time I shall react to Mr. Leung by announcing that a special feature will come soon because of him. Fans of Prost and fans of Senna will love it! Stay tuned!" APGPHP has moved to this new server generously provided by fellow Prostist Oskar Schuler of ProstFan.com! Please update your bookmark to http://www.alainprost.net/hk/
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Suzuka Specials
Suzuka Special 2005 (Sep, 05) Suzuka Special 2004 (Aug, 04) Suzuka Special 1997 (Nov, 97) Specials10 conclusions from 2007 (Oct, 07) BrainyQuote (Jan, 07) Zandvoort83 (Dec, 06) Slide Show (Feb, 05) Webmaster in Chinese GP 2004 (Sep, 04) The Prost-it! Game Results (Jan, 01) Schumacher to beat Prost's records? (Nov, 00) Webmaster in Malaysian GP 2000 Zidane and Del Piero visited Prost |
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Damon Hill (1996 World Champion, Ayrton Senna's last teammate) on Senna's fatal accident and manslaughter charge against Williams: "I am convinced that he (Senna) made a mistake, but many people will never believe that he could. Why not? He made many mistakes in his career. ![]() "He was identified with pushing to the limit and beyond. He would often prefer to crash into his opponent rather than be defeated." (See picture.) "These opinions are sacrilege in the world of driving gods. Ayrton was a great driver and a man with enormous humanity. He was not a god. He was as frail and vulnerable as you or I to the need to show what we are made of, and to whatever personal motives drove him to feel that risking his life was proof of his integrity. "It was not the fault of anyone else that he kept his foot flat when he could have lifted, but Ayrton had to be this demigod "Senna", and "Senna" does not shrink from fear. And in that moment he fulfilled all our sorry needs for a hero for whom death is just an occupational hazard."   |
Source: Planet-F1.com