Tuesday June 10, 2008
Kubica ‘thanks’ Hamilton after first Grand Prix win
MONTREAL: Robert Kubica did not forget to express his gratitude to Lewis Hamilton.
“I have to thank him that he chose Kimi and not me,” quipped Kubica after making history with victory in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Kubica has enjoyed good results this season including two second- place finishes, but it took a “stupid” mistake from Hamilton to set the stage for a first GP win for Kubica, his home country Poland and his BMW-Sauber team.
“Lewis Hamilton takes collision course to catastrophe,” titled The Times yesterday after the bizarre incident in which Hamilton smashed his McLaren into the Ferrari of world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who stopped at a red light right next to Kubica at the pit lane exit.
Hamilton and Raikkonen had to climb out of their wrecks while Kubica kept his nerve and won from team-mate Nick Heidfeld.
The Sun titled “Wham Bam Ham – It’s the pits for Lewis after smash,” and Italy’s La Stampa was among many other publications that also made fun of the unfortunate Brit.
“Mistakes can happen but this one is just too stupid. It is unclear how a pilot who earns dozens of millions and can accelerate to more than 300kph doesn’t master the most important basic rule. The stop signal,” said La Stampa.
To add injury to insult, Hamilton will also be docked 10 positions on the grid for the next race on June 22 in France which will make it extremely difficult for him to win.
That is a massive blow for Hamilton who seemed on course for a repeat win in Montreal ahead of the incident which came during a safety car phase.
Victory would have allowed him to pull away atop the championship standings, while now he finds himself in joint second place with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa (38 points), with Kubica the new leader on 42. Raikkonen, meanwhile, is stranded in fourth place with 35 points after leading just two races ago.
No wonder the Finnish world champion was not amused at all.
“If there is a pit-lane speed limit and two cars are stopped and you hit them, it is stupid. I saw the red light and chose to stop. Unfortunately, someone saw a red light and chose not to,” he said.
Hamilton could only be apologetic, naming the incident “unfortunate” and saying: “It’s a shame I ruined Kimi’s race.” – dpa
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