JAMES ALLEN'S VERDICT

Linked from http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&PO_ID=40460
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A great win for Ferrari and for Felipe Massa, which means that the Scuderia will go to Monza on the back of a 1-2 finish, something which is bound to get the Italian crowd stirred up.

I cannot wait for the next two races in Monza and Spa, partly because they are my favourites, but also because the sheer intensity of this four-way title fight will add to the thrill of racing on these majestic tracks.

It’s very well set up now.

Ferrari had to do damage to Hamilton’s points lead today and they did that with a dominant one-two finish, while Lewis’s puncture only cost him two points relative to what he would have got if it hadn’t happened.

He had settled for third place when his right front tyre let go at Turn Nine on lap 43.

He was unlucky that it happened, but lucky in many ways. Lucky that it didn’t happen in Turn Eight, where the consequences could have been severe, lucky too that it was a front tyre failure rather than a rear, which would not have allowed him to recover to the pits so well.

He damaged the front wing, but the car was still quick enough to keep Heikki Kovalainen behind him.

So it was a major save for Lewis.

Red revival

The Ferrari situation was interesting. The order was dictated by qualifying, as it was last year, where Michael Schumacher made mistakes in qualifying and lost the race as a result.

This year it was Kimi Raikkonen who made a mistake in the penultimate corner and handed pole to Massa.

As we found out this afternoon, Kimi was a lap lighter in qualifying than Massa, so he really hurt himself there because he should have had pole. It meant that whatever strategy he might have wanted to try, Massa had him covered.

It’s not the first time he’s made an unforced error in qualifying, he did it in Monaco and Silverstone, although he got away with it there because Hamilton and Massa had problems in the race.

Some people think that these are concentration errors, but whatever they are, there is no hiding from them as they are costing him the chance to challenge for the title.

He did the old ‘fastest lap at the end’ trick, some seven tenths faster than Massa’s best, but it was more a sign of frustration than anything.

A soft touch

Ferrari won today because their car is more gentle on it tyres than the McLaren, so they were able to use the softer Bridgestone tyre for two stints, where McLaren were heavily reliant on the hard.

Lewis’s last stint, on the soft tyre, was only going to be around 12 or 13 laps long, before he hit trouble.

There was little to choose between the two teams in qualifying, Massa was on pole by 0.04s, but Lewis had 2.5kg more fuel in his car, so they were virtually identical on performance.

But in the race the Ferraris had the legs, particularly in the second and third stints.

Lewis was able to stay with the Ferraris in the opening stint, but faded on the long second stint.

Star drives

There were some excellent performances from Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen in fourth and sixth places.

Both men again punched above their weight and are now regularly showing their quality. I thought Jenson Button had a great race too.

Dropped to the back of the grid after an engine penalty, he did not sulk, but fought his way up to 13th.

It may not sound like much but it’s hard to do in a dog-slow Honda and Jenson was really happy afterwards that he had passed 10 cars on the track, although he lost some of those places again in the pit stops.

The Pole trap

Kubica’s story is interesting; BMW believed the times in second qualifying.

I’ve long believed that some of the front-runners carry a Q3 fuel load in Q2 to give themselves a feel for how the car will feel in Q3, when they go for pole.

They don’t lose anything by doing this because they are easily fast enough to make it through to Q3, even with the extra fuel and the upside is that by the time they do their dash for pole, it is their third lap in those conditions so they should have their eye in.

Most teams are in low fuel trim at that time.

BMW saw that Kubica was only 0.3s off the Ferraris and McLarens in Q2 and decided to gamble on a front row start slot.

They put just 12 laps of fuel in his car, but it didn’t work because he was half a second slower than he had been in Q2, while Massa was only 3/10ths slower!

So then he realised that maybe Massa hadn’t been so close in Q2 after all.

Thus he was a lamb to the slaughter on lap 12 when he pitted, as all the others overtook him. He ended up eighth, whereas Heidfeld, who started alongside him on a reasonable fuel load was fourth.

We live and learn.

Dash to the line

Onwards to Monza and Spa.

Spa will be like this race, so Ferrari should be strong, while Monza with its low downforce set-up, is now a one-off one the calendar.

I hear that Ferrari have a special package and expect to do well there, but McLaren will be pushing hard too.

The next retirement for any of the top four is going to be decisive. No one can afford any slip ups.