"Oh.... Spa!" by Heikki Kulta

Oh.... Spa!

25.8.2011 19:33, heikki.kulta

Spa is at hand again. The expectations of a great race are always high when arriving in Belgium. I doubt one has ever experienced a dull race in these sceneries. At least the weather has taken care of it...

I talked with Kimi Räikkönen especially about Spa after Rally Germany. Kimi could have won this race five times in a row. However the strike ended in 2008 when it started raining in the end and Räikkönen's superior lead escaped from him. At that time Lewis Hamilton overtook Räikkönen and Räikkönen tried to respond back, yet he ended up in the wall.

I reminded Kimi that if he wouldn't had forcefully tried to overtake Hamilton in the rain he could have won since the Brit got a time penalty afterwards.

Räikkönen's reply described the man's competitive soul.

– There was nothing wrong with the attempt to overtake. It just shouldn't have rained - or then the wall shouldn't have been there!

Right. I asked from my colleagues in the press room sitting nearby, what comes first to their mind when thinking about Spa.

– I guess it's Räikkönen's and Fisichella's mental battle in 2009. Räikkönen overtook and protected his lead with all the skill he had against Fisichella's faster car. It was a really emotional battle, says Corriere dello Sport's Marco Evangelisti.

Autosport's reporters Mark Hughes and Tony Dodkins again are strongly on the race in 2008. That's when Räikkönen's and Hamilton's spectacular battle took place, when Felipe Massa was finally declared as winner in the cabinets.

– It had nothing to do with any penalties or rain. Hamilton's and Räikkönen's battle on the track was out of the league. It was the fierce battle between two talented drivers, racing at it's best. Hamilton's penalised overtaking or Räikkönen's off was only a secondary spice. The greatest was to see a duel like that, says Hughes.

Dodkins also nods to agree but puts the race in the top three.

– I think that the best was in 1995 when Michael Schumacher came up from 16th position to challenge Damon Hill and overtook him in the rain on the hill with slicks.

– Perhaps the most emotional moment in these races was in 2000 when Mika Häkkinen overtook Schumacher after Eau Rouge. I don't mean the overtake, I mean what happened one lap before. Mika was faster and tried to overtake but Michael acted completely irresponsibly and prevented it in a very dangerous way.

– I think that on the next lap Häkkinen overtook using many Finnish cursing words.

– Of course the 3rd memorable race was that one with Hamilton and Räikkönen and their duel on a track filled with water. I think that it must be the most spectacular culmination we have seen in these races, Dodkins says.

Auto, Motor und Sport's Michael Schmidt and La Gazzetta dello Sport's Andrea Cremonesi again have their own line.

– First of all I remember Michael Schumacher's collision with David Coulthard in 1988. That race started with a mass-crash and then Ferrari hit McLaren's rear in a shower. Schumacher walked to McLaren's pits blaming Coulthard for an attempt to murder. That was emotional if anything, Schmidt says.

– I remember that Michael's attack. I couldn't believe my eyes when he tried to attack Coulthard in front of the tv-cameras. The whole race was an unbelievable spectacle and for me that memory is number one from these races, Cremonesi says.

Luis Vasconcelos doesn't leave anything for guessing.

– What I think of first? Of course Häkkinen's and Schumacher's battle of battles in 2000. I never get over it because everytime I open my computer, this first attempt to overtake starts rolling on the screen.

– Although all this culminated in Schumacher rudely blocking and then Häkkinen spectacularly double-overtaking him in the last laps, the race still offered more than enough of program all the time.

– First the track was damp but they started the race with slicks. Apparently Schumacher's setups were more for rain and Häkkinen's for dry weather, because Mika was faster the more the track got dryer.

– This overtake blocked by Schumacher still gives me goosebumps when seeing it on the screen. The rear of Schumacher's Ferrari comes so near to the viewer that it still scares you. It was only afterwards that I noticed how Mika's hand comes up out of anger on the straight. There is the mix for the overtake of all times. It was a real masterpiece of racing, Vasconcelos tells.

Fonte: Turun Sanomat/Tradução para o Inglês: Nicole

Oh God, chegou o fim de semana onde meu coração dói de hoje até domingo. Por favor, perdoem-me o tom triste, saudoso, melancólico, mas simplesmente não consigo evitar. Portanto, já aviso, caso não queriam ler nada do tipo, melhor não lerem meus posts sobre F1 este fim de semana... rsrsrs...

Well, sobre o texto bacana do Kulta, devo dizer duas coisas, Kimi está certíssimo, em 2008 era aquilo ou nada. Não deveria ter chovido ou muro deveria ser em outro lugar...rsrsrs... #adoro

E a segunda coisa, devo dizer que quando falo em Spa, obviamente, me lembro de Kimi e a minha vitória favorita dele ali foi em 2007. Inesquecível aquele zerinho!!! Mas falarei mais sobre isto no sábado, na coluna "O que elas pensam?". #aguardem


Beijinhos, Ludy

Comentários

Rebeca disse…
"Oh... Spa!"

Acho que isso define bem essa pista, as corridas que a gente vê nessa pista.

Das poucas que eu vi (e a maioria delas foram vitórias de Kimi), a melhor e pior, ao mesmo tempo, foi com certeza a de 2008.

Uma corrida linda, dois pilotos que eu admiro muito batalhando pela vitória... pena que terminou daquela forma. Mas é como o Kimi disse, era tudo ou nada, valeu a pena.

Tenho ótimas lembranças de Spa. Gosteria de conhecer essa pista um dia.

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