| Sunday Race Day – Rain Showers Home Glory For Hamilton, Heidfeld 2nd, Barrichello 3rd!Lewis Hamilton got his world championship challenge back on track with an outstanding home victory in challenging conditions.
The McLaren driver coped with constantly fluctuating levels of rain to dominate the British Grand Prix, eventually winning by over a minute and moving back into the joint points lead.
Nick Heidfeld took his third podium of the year in second, ahead of the sensational Rubens Barrichello, who gambled on a mid-race stint on extreme wets to take his first podium in his three seasons with Honda.
Kimi Raikkonen only managed fourth for Ferrari, ahead of pole-sitter Heikki Kovalainen, as both fell back in the rain, while Felipe Massa was the final finishers after spinning many times…(read full race report here)
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1h39:09.440
2. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1:08.577
3. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1:22.273
4. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
6. Alonso Renault (B) + 1 lap
7. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1 lap
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
10. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
11. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
12. Glock Toyota (B) + 1 lap
13. Massa Ferrari (B) + 2 laps
Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:32.150
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 40
Button Honda (B) 39
Piquet Renault (B) 36
Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 17
Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 11
Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1
Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1
Just as well I didn’t go to the British Grand Prix this year then, hahaha! I would have been asbolutely soaked and covered in Lewis Hamilton fan sweat and alcohol. First of all, I think we all should sit down and applaud Lewis for how he did today. I ended up giving him a few claps as he crossed the line – what a win for him and a great way to say thanks to all his fans that had turned up there. Because really, at the end of the day, the fans deserve what they went to see! And no doubt the majority there were cheering for Lewis and McLaren though I hope the Kimi fans had a good time anyway. He deserves a break now, Lewis, he really does. Let’s go easy on him, because he took it pretty easy in the end and put his talent to use. It was his best win ever, he says.
The start of the race was pure madness – I didn’t expect that many cars to go off on the first lap but Lewis saw a great opportunity on the right of Webber and slipped through. Amazingly, Kovalainen was brave enough to take his lead back, almost hijacked by Hamilton before they ran into sweeping Becketts corner. Kimi had a really good start too, he was quick off the line as Lewis and looked eager to pass through the middle, but the gap inside between Heikki and Webber closed in on Kimi and he had no choice but to go back on the left and get past Webber into turn 1. So far so good for Kimi. He looked strong. But the McLarens’ looked stronger…well, one of them did. Heikki unfortunately couldn’t put his pole to use today but kept his momentum up in the end. Honda and Barrichello were a delight to see on the pdoium, how long has it been Rubens!? He dedicated his 3rd place to his son Eduardo, how sweet. The guy to miss out on the points, Alonso, did do a good job but even Nakajima looked just as good to recover from 15th at the beginning.
Coulthard, oh poor Coulthard. He didn’t even get to complete one full lap in his last British GP and spun out with Vettel’s Torro Rosso! And Webber completely lost his handy front row position and also spun out soon after being passed by Kimi. And if that was enough, Massa began spinning but managed to recover as well as Webber, and they tried to fight back through the field. Massa wasn’t as energetic this year at Silverstone, he did more spinning than much overtaking and found it really difficult to keep the car straight as there was so much aquaplaning. Unfortunately, as if that wasn’t enough to worry about for Ferrari, the Red team had to go and ruin Kimi’s chance to fight for victory later on…
Now some will say that it was a team decision, meaning Kimi was also part of the decision to remain on those tyres. This is fine. This is a driver trusting his team. However, he doesn’t have all the information as they do on the pitwall.
My Dad happened to stay and watch the race with me during his lunch break from work, but as Dad always chatters on and still can’t get the name of the drivers right (he confuses Massa and Alonso, and he still doesn’t get that Lewis and Kimi are in different cars!), so I couldn’t follow the first stint clearly, I apologise if I’m missing out anything significant in my comments
All I know is, Kimi was keeping in touch with the McLarens’ and soon after Lewis passed Heikki for the lead I knew the race was going to be down between Lewis and Kimi. And it looked set that way, while Kimi set the fastest lap of the race (yay! Kimi’s scored the 6th most consecutive fastest laps, just one behind Ascari in Formula One history 
) and was catching Lewis. It was kinda on and off, exactly like the weather. And boy did it pour down again later. Surprisingly, Kimi pit stopped along with Lewis on the same lap whereas I thought he’d stay out longer. However, I was more worried about another pit collision between the two when they were finished. Thankfully that didn’t happen, but in hindsight it may as well have happened because Ferrari, being the complete clueless tacticians they are without Ross Brawn, didn’t fuel Kimi more and didn’t give him new intermediate tyres like McLaren did with Lewis. This was a costly mistake from Ferrari and quite literally threw Kimi’s chance for a good podium out the window.
Kimi kept his game up though, despite having to struggle with the new rain pouring down and he was sliding in every corner. It was TERRIFYING for me, to sit tight and never look away from the screen, hoping not to see Kimi off the track or in the barriers. He and the team decided to wait it out with the old tyres, frustratingly, until the next round of scheduled pit stops. I think Kimi did a good job to finish 4th after this, managing to overtake Alonso nicely with about 8 laps to go. He could have easily finished out of the points when struggling earlier on. He did go off twice later in the race once it poured down massively again, and so many others spun out such as Kubica. So, Kimi missed out on a podium but he scored 5 vital points again. He is now level with Lewis and Felipe in the championship with 48 points. It’s not a disaster, but today was extremely annoying because Ferrari could have done so much better. Now McLaren have benefitted from Ferrari’s slump and have managed to bounce back from disappointing weekends in Canada and France. The weather was completely bizarre though, everyone here kept going on about the good old British wet weather but seriously, this time of year it’s usually very hot and sunny like it was last year. Ferrari didn’t do so well, we got beaten quite bad today but I blame global warming!
The race was brilliant, there were the moves from Nick Heidfeld passing two cars and some other cool ones thanks to the wet, and it had a lot of drama and twists and turns. It was exhausting to watch, so I can’t imagine how it was for the drivers. Kudos to them for putting on a great show. But dag nabit – we’ve lost another race. I haven’t heard what Kimi has to say yet but as ever, I’m sure he’s quite philosophical about it and is grateful to have finished the race. He will be very disappointed though as he looked strong and promising at the start, and through no fault of his own it all went down hill and then Lewis had to come and lap him…ouchie.
Alas, F1 is a team sport so I won’t be too critical of Ferrari. Kimi and the team have won races together, and they have lost races together. They just need to come back fully focused and confident that they can win, as long as everything works well together it should be fine. I was saying yesterday Kimi would be fine – he was fine and looked finer than I thought. So that’s encouraging for me and it’s also encouraging to hear Kimi think similarly – "We win and we lose as a team. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. But I don’t complain to the team and they don’t complain to me." I hope you all enjoyed the race no matter who won it and I’ll get on with the usual website duties now, after having written this. Kimi achieved some nice results from today though, 31 career fastest laps, breaking into the 500 margin of career points with 504, and of course beating Michael Schumacher with 6 consecutive fastest laps in history, one away from matching Ascari. I know he doesn’t care for statistics and all that, but I, as a loyal fan, do. He’ll win again soon enough, no doubt about it! Keep Flying Kimi and keep your heads high and bright dear fans! I promise you will find a picture of Kimi’s big smile 
| Race Quotes – Interview with Kimi
Q. That looked a very difficult race?
Kimi Raikkonen: We only really made one mistake, which was to choose the wrong tyres. We didn’t really expect it to start raining so at the first pit stop we kept the old tyres. So, until that point we had the speed and the car to win the race. But that mistake cost us unfortunately, but at least we scored some points. It wasn’t as competitive as the car could have done, but it definitely could have been better.
Q. Did you suggest to the team to change the tyres?
KR: No, it was the team’s decision. Everyone is involved with the team so we make the decisions together. Sometimes you get it right, but unfortunately today there was one of those times we didn’t. It could have gone in any direction and we had a very good speed at that point. But at that point it started to rain and the tyres were pretty old already so there was nothing to do.
Q. The championship is now very close at the top. What do you expect from the second part of the season?
KR: The last four races haven’t been easy for me especially. We haven’t had one good race. The last race we had a good speed but unfortunately I had a problem with the car, so if you look after all those things not scoring in two races and not really having a perfect race in the next two, we are still tied in the championship lead so it is not too bad. I am pretty sure we have a car to win races, there are many races to go and we just need to push hard. I think once we get everything running smoothly we should be up there winning races.
Q. In the early stages of the race you were quicker than Hamilton. Was the Ferrari the best car on the track today, if you ignore the situation with the tyres?
KR: I always believe we had a good car. It is not that our car is suddenly bad. We made one bad decision with the tyres and it cost us a lot. We had a very good speed until that point and it was easy going. Unfortunately it was just bad luck.
Q. Now there are three drivers tied at the top of the championship, does this mark a fresh beginning for your title ambitions?
KR: Like I said before, the last four races haven’t been easy. I had two non-finishes and okay, the last race we had a good speed but a small problem. Here we couldn’t get it right, so we are still tied in the lead. It could have been much worse after those four races. We know we have a good speed but we just need to get the weekend going smoothly and things in order. There are many races to go. Even though it has been difficult in the last few races, I think we are in a good position and we have a good speed so we shouldn’t get too worried about it.
Q. You mentioned the mistake with the tyres, but even on new intermediates the car wasn’t quick. Why was that?
KR: I was just behind people. We fuelled the car until the end so we were pretty heavy on that point. Also with the rain I went off a few times, once at full speed after the bridge. I just got aquaplaning and luckily got back on the circuit, so I was pretty sure the car was not in the best shape any more. We got it back and it was difficult conditions, and I am sure with the same decision with the tyres we would have been okay and able to fight for the win. Sometimes it goes like this.
Q. Championship-wise are you annoyed, or relieved that it could have been worse?
KR: Like I said the last four races have not been exactly as we want. But we are still in the lead, so it could have been much more worse. I am not worried about it, I am sure we can get where we want. We just need to get it right at the next race and then we will go from there.
Q. Did you do a better job here than the team?
KR: No, we win and we lose as a team. Sometimes we make the wrong decision and we need to learn from those. I don’t complain to the team and they don’t complain to me. I could easily have said to choose other tyres or keep these tyres on, but it is teamwork and sometimes we cannot get it right. We just need to learn from that.
Q. When you showed you didn’t have the pace of Hamilton after the pit stop, did you ask to change again like Alonso?
KR: No. In the end we expected the rain to stop quickly and when it didn’t we decided to come in. We were losing too much time, but it is easy to say afterwards that we should have changed all the way back. First of all we didn’t expect to have rain and then we only expected it to last a few minutes. In the end we got back to fourth place. It was a disappointing race, but we still got good points and are tied in the lead of the championship so we didn’t lose anything.
Q. Can you describe for us the fight with Fernando Alonso at the end?
KR: It was nice. It is always nice to fight and it was important points for me, but I didn’t want to risk too much. For Fernando he doesn’t have anything to lose so he can take more risks. So I wanted to for sure get one extra point and in the end I got past him, so that was good.
Q. What happened at the start?
KR: I got a very good start and I was planning to go between Heikki and Mark, but Mark came on the left and I had nowhere to go. Hamilton got a good start from fourth place and went past everybody, and I really didn’t have anywhere to go. I had good speed but had to back off.
Ferrari Team Quotes
Kimi Raikkonen – 4th: "I am disappointed, but I am equally aware that things could have been much worse. We had the possibility to win the race but we made a mistake at the first pit stop, keeping the same set of tyres, because we expected the track conditions to improve. It was a joint decision: we are a team and we win or lose together. Things are not going too well for me at the moment, given all that happened in the last few races, but I am leading the championship, even if it is on equal terms with Felipe and Lewis. We know we have a great potential, but we have to put everything in place to get the most out of it."
Felipe Massa – 13th: "This Silverstone weekend is one to be wiped out. On Friday I had an accident, yesterday there was the problem in qualifying and today a series of mistakes at all levels. We have to look ahead, because there is still a very long way to go in the championship and once again, we’ve seen that it only takes one result to turn the situation around…
Stefano Domenicali: "A Sunday to forget as quickly as possible in terms of the result, although we must remember certain elements of this weekend, as there were mistakes made that we cannot afford to repeat. We could have won this race with Kimi but we made a key mistake at the first pit stop, choosing to stay on the same set of tyres. The rain did not ease off and lasted longer and our drivers – Felipe had also gone for the same choice – found themselves in difficulty. With hindsight it’s easy to say we should have changed tyres, but Formula One is not an exact science: sometimes strategic choices pay off and sometimes they don’t…
| Race Videos – Start, Massa Spins, Lewis Overtakes Heikki, Kimi & Webber Spin, Kimi Overtakes Alonso
http://www.viddler.com/simple/cc50a24b/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/ef68cd05/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/cedff06d/
http://www.viddler.com/simple/28ea0e89/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/17a24db6/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/a1654410/
Controversy was in Kimi’s day even before the race started. Human nature is a funny thing sometimes. One guy is doing his job as a photographer (and it can be very irritating for the subject who is a person) and the other is trying to do his job but is interrupted. A photographer tries to get a shot of Kimi preparing for the race, however the Iceman doesn’t seem in the mood…
That was pretty odd. Damn. Kimi was quite annoyed at that guy being right in his face while he’s doing his business. But he probably didn’t expect the photographer to fall over like that. But it went both ways, the guy was in his face, stepping on his stuff, and Kimi didn’t like it. Also, Mark Arnall (Kimi’s trainer next to him) seems to have got annoyed too, saying "oi, mind the stuff", the exact moment Kimi looked up. The photographer was leaning on Kimi’s race stuff.
Taken from an interview in Saturday’s Silverstone Red Bulletin issue, Kimi says: "I don’t mind what people think too much. If they ask nice questions then yes, but for sure if they ask stupid questions I won’t answer and they will think I’m a dickhead. But it goes both ways. If everyone’s nice to eachother it’s much easier." Kimi’s manager Steve Robertson and Ferrari press man Colajanni were interviewed on the small incident. It seems the photographer was working for the Cahier Archive image website, and this is the proof with the famous Cahier signature.
The photographer who was pushed by Kimi can keep this bruising but golden memory with him, the moment is captured vividly highlighting the blue/green eye of the Iceman who went hot. Yummy.
It’s negative coverage of the world champion, unnecessarily provoked by a photographer who doesn’t know whee the limit is. Kimi’s not a jerk. He’s the most composed and laid back guy I’ve ever seen and I don’t even know him. If Kimi is a jerk for pushing this guy, he would have done far worse to Lewis Hamilton for crashing into him in the pit lane of the 2008 Canadian GP. But he didn’t.
LEAVE RAIKKONEN ALONE.
FUCK ISRAEL 
I guess this begs the question, "What if Ferrari changed Raikkonen’s tyres at the first round of pitstops?"I was reading this live blog thingie and now I’m regretting that I did. One of the bloggers said something like even if they did put Kimi on a new set of tyres, Lewis still would’ve run away with it. For some reason, that upset me a bit because I felt that he didn’t really have any proof. Maybe if he said it was down to McLaren simply having the edge this weekend, it would’ve consoled me a bit. Anyone else who had to put the telly on mute during the last few laps? :PAs always, good job, Evenstar! 🙂
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Thanks!Oh, Kimi would have certainly tried to pass Lewis had he got new tyres in his pit stop. Kimi was racey today, but for the wrong positions. McLaren were stronger than Ferrari and perhaps Lewis could have kept Kimi behind, but that’s just an unknown thing. No one can say Lewis would have still won, nor can we say Kimi would have passed him. What we can say, with fact, is that Kimi was fast and needed those fresh tyres and he would have given a challenge to Lewis.
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Gutted for Kimi. Yes, I know he probably had some input into him staying on the old set of inters, but Ferrari still would have been the ones to feed him the info on the weather, and they got it wrong again, like Monaco. I don’t think he’d have got past Lewis, as Golden Boy was really on form today, kudos to him for that win it was impressive driving, but a second place would’ve put Kimi at the top of the championship on his own, an opportunity wasted by Ferrari.Oh well, I guess we can only wait to see what Kimi and the team have to say about it…..and hope for no more wet races this year!!!
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Hi Saima!!!I´m feeling surprisingly confident today about Kimi´s race. I´m not disappointed as I mentioned earlier, I´m proud because despite the set backs, the tyres and that bloody rain, he drove a fantastic race and managed P4.I too wonder what if….Ferrari had changed his tyres in the first pit stop, maybe he could have won or at least come second, but we cannot be sure, the weather conditions kept changing and that´s why perhaps the team chose not to change them, I honestly don´t know. For sure (as Kimi would say LOL ) , maybe they could have ended on the podium and Kimi leading the championship, but it´s over now, we´re not going to change the result by speculating, so let´s just be happy with the result, as it could´ve been worse.When he and Lewis pitted at the same time I was nervous that Lewis would freak out in an attempt to exit ahead of Kimi, but luckily nothing happened lol! The rain did help him win, that´s out of the question, but Ferrari were clearly a bit off today. But Kimi still manages to set the fastest lap time, every time, he just flies and flies…..sixth in a row, for sure more to come : )But well, all is good anyway, but Ferrari should probably look into the tyre problem, what is it with them not being able to choose properly?And Massa, oh my, he kept spinning and spinning, he does not drive well in the rain!I enjoyed it overall, despite the result; big congrats to Rubinho, I thought he was going to cry on the podium LOL! But well deserved!KEEP FLYING KIMI-KEEP FLYING EVENSTAR-FORZA FERRARI!!!
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"We win and we lose as a team. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. But I don’t complain to the team and they don’t complain to me."
> http://eurosport.yahoo.com/06072008/4/tyre-choice-costs-kimi.htmlLol Good man. Kimi’s the best 🙂 I also said above earlier that "F1 is a team sport so I won’t be too critical of Ferrari. Kimi and the team have won races together, and they have lost races together." Nice to know Kimi’s attitude is rubbing off on me lol and that’s the spirit Sol! You make me feel even more better now actually, and I wasn’t that disappointed eventhough you should have seen my face during the race > 😦 LOL
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Can I just say that after reading everyone’s comments, I’m rather amused how we’re all starting to think and talk like Kimi =Þ
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Hi… um, never commented here before, but Evenstar, we watch your website all the time, you’ve got so many great pictures and articles and info about Kimi. 🙂 You’re like, the gift to all Kimi fans, hehe. :)Anyone else who had to put the telly on mute during the last few laps? :PGuilty, hehe.And yeah, it is funny how we’re all starting to think like Kimi- but we think he’s got the right attitude, people can definitely learn from him. :)We were disappointed with the race, during the race. But really, he drove well- it would have been more embarrassing if his performance was like Massa. Kimi drove well, and we’re proud of him. Hi… um, never commented here before, but Evenstar, we watch your
website all the time, you’ve got so many great pictures and articles
and info about Kimi. 🙂 You’re like, the gift to all Kimi fans, hehe. 🙂
Anyone else who had to put the telly on mute during the last few laps? 😛
Guilty, hehe.
And yeah, it is funny how we’re all starting to think like Kimi- but we
think he’s got the right attitude, people can definitely learn from
him. 🙂
We were disappointed with the race, during the race. But really, he
drove well- it would have been more embarrassing if his performance was
like Massa. Kimi drove well, and we’re proud of him.
As for the photographer- we kind of think he was overdoing it. The
photographer, we mean. It’s kind of strange that he fell down and
rolled on his back. Well, maybe he stumbled over something, but usually
if you’re pushed like that you’d just step back. Maybe the guy was
already off balance, or maybe he just over did it. Poor Kimi. It must
suck to have a photographer in your face like that.Also, does anyone know what Kimi keeps in that backpack that he always carries around? :)-Pippa and Chiara
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Sorry! Um, it’s kind of our first time using our Space and we messed up. *facepalm* So sorry. We have to learn how to use this thing. Sorry! There’s no way to edit our comment, is there? Ah, well. :(-Pippa and Chiara
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Hi Pippa and Chiara! Thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts. I guess we all agree with each other lol And we are equally interested to know what Kimi carries in his back pack…maybe we should ask him? 😛
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