Saturday, December 19, 2009
Massa sees a chance
Ferrari's Felipe Massa celebrated his 100th Grand Prix and made up for his late-race disappointment in Hungary by dominating the European Grand Prix at Valencia from start to finish. The win was only confirmed once stewards had investigated his second pit stop on lap 37, in which he was deemed to have been released unsafely into the path of Force India's Adrian Sutil. It resulted in a reprimand for the Brazilian and a hefty €10,000 fine.
The race was a quiet one in terms of drama, with most of it happening in pitlane, provided by Ferrari. Massa's 'incident' with Sutil was one, Raikkonen knocked over a pit-crew member during a refuel in another incident, sending the man to hospital, and retired with a spectacular blow-up shortly thereafter. In all honesty, Kimi was just having another 'nowhere' weekend, and it seems as if Massa has asserted himself as the pace setter at Ferrari. Ferrari are now faced with a few interesting calls to make, with the season ending the ! business end, and the two most asked questions in F-1 must be:-
1) Will Massa be the man to take the Ferrari charge to Hamilton in the season's climax -
2) Will Hamilton keep it together this year, or unravel in spectacular style as he did to lose the title in 2007. It's adding up to 'must-see' viewing.