Say that again? Raikkonen won?!
He did indeed. It kind of dawned on me after qualifying that he was in with a very good chance of winning the championship, but when the race came round I forgotten about that was praying for a miracle (i.e. a Hamilton mishap and an Alonso race win). As it turns I got half of what I was after.
I suppose I should explain myself as I’m probably one of the very few in the country (England) who wasn’t behind Hamilton. I noticed this odd sort of support earlier in the year, people who previously never showed any interest in F1 or had watched a race in its entirety were now experts and were telling me things “Ooh isn’t that Hamilton a breath of fresh air”, “He makes the sport interesting”, “He’ll win it for sure”. Bah…
For some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on, I just don’t like the guy and can’t get behind supporting him. I’ll not deny that he is a supreme talent who nearly blitzed the opposition, but it’s like having Schumacher back again, maybe he’s too good!
I was looking forward to a straight out fight between Alonso and Raikkonen, now that they’d finally made Schumacher retire (even if the man himself says otherwise). Now at the end of the season I’m left with a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
Hamilton should have won the championship, but it just looks like the pressure got to him in the end, that combined with a bizarre mechanical / electrical fault on his gear box.
Anyhoo, for a rookie he’s had an amazing season. He’s come joint second in the World Championship at his first time of trying, missing out by just one point and he led the championship from May through to the last race! He is going to a win a championship, it’s only a matter a time.
Alonso has had a rough season, mostly of his own making. At times I wondered why I was supporting him. Earlier in the season he was clearly rattled by Hamilton’s blistering start (see Canada as an example, Alonso was all over the place) and that prompted the whole spying scandal nonsense that didn’t do any of the protagonists involved any good. It just shouldn’t have come to light.
And that’s one of the reasons why I don’t think either Alonso or Hamilton particularly deserved the championship. The bitchiness and snide under hand comments between the two was a bit much, OK, so there’s no love lost, but at least try to be professional. Plus whole equality BS thing at McLaren, you can’t bring in the existing World Champ and not give him the star treatment, that’s just not how any of the other teams work.
Anyhoo, back to the point in hand, I was pretty stunned by the end result. I sat there in silence, mulling over what had just happened. Technically Raikkonen should have a championship under his belt already, since he has come very close twice before. But on raw numbers, he did have it. He won six races where as Alonso and Hamilton won four each.
And there was something in the commentary that amused me, which was that in a three way tie for something, it’s usually the person you least expect who wins. And that’s certainly true in this case. To come back from 17 points behind in the last two races, to snick the championship is some achievement.
Now I’m left pondering who to support next year. I like Rakkionen but he’s too cold and quiet to get passionate about. I was amazed at the final press conference because he managed to utter more than five words in a row. And almost crack a smile.
I’m not keen on Masa, his consistency is getting better, but I think it’s mostly car and not driver. As I’ve said I’m bit fed up of Alonso and Hamilton. None of the other teams are front runners, although BMW are looking good, but really I’m stumped…
And that’s that, the 2007 season has come to end. I might do season summary of all the races this year, in a couple of parts, since my race coverage has gone a bit to pot :) But then again, maybe not!
What does next year hold? Hopefully more racing and less politics.
Photos from F1–Live.com.
