By akademiotoelektronik, 10/03/2023

'Is that Glock?': When Hamilton won an F1 title on the last lap

Nicholas Latifi is not the first unfortunate driver in the peloton to find himself at the center of events, even of a controversy, for the awarding of a world title in F1 during the final race. Before him, there were also "Latifi bis" and who unfortunately also had to suffer, taunts, jokes, or even worse...

‘Is that Glock?!’: these three words alone evoke famous memories for F1 fans, happy for the supporters of Lewis Hamilton, heartbreaking for those of Felipe Massa.

In 2008, F1 believed it had suffered its craziest ending in the history of a season – it was well before Abu Dhabi 2021 – and once again Lewis Hamilton was involved. The Briton from McLaren was in contention for the title, in the last race, against the Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

At the last lap, the equation was very simple: Felipe Massa would win the Grand Prix after a superb performance; and Lewis Hamilton, stuck behind the Toro Rosso of a certain Sebastian Vettel, was destined to fall short of the title by a small point.

The McLaren, 6th, had to desperately overtake the Toro Rosso but nothing helped: Sebastian Vettel, very comfortable in the rain as on the land of his first victory, a few races earlier at Monza, rather resisted easily to a supposedly faster McLaren.

The whole paddock forgot the presence of Timo Glock, however. The Toyota driver, who was driving in 4th place, had made a winning bet, it seemed, by staying on the slicks even though the rain had started to moisten the Interlagos asphalt.

Behold, when the rain intensified, the Toyota lost 9 seconds per lap at the very least, and even 16 seconds in the last lap.

And then what had to happen, happened: in the final Interlagos corner (before the full acceleration phase), turning left, Glock was almost at a standstill; out of breath, he would still save a 6th place.

6th? Yes, so that meant that Sebastian Vettel, and especially Lewis Hamilton, in intermediates, passed the Toyota in this final corner of Interlagos. At the end, in a crazy scenario, Lewis Hamilton got the little point he needed to become champion.

Felipe Massa and his whole family believed in the title for a few turns, and everyone remembers the tragic disappointment of Felipe's father when he realized, after starting to celebrate the title in the red garage, that in reality, Lewis Hamilton had obtained the sesame he lacked. Not to mention, of course, Felipe Massa's tears in front of an auriverde audience as admiring as they were stunned, after Felipe's almost coronation, passed from champion to champion without a crown.

The Glock conspiracy, the story of a hoax

Some time later, conspiracy theories flourished: what if Glock, a German driver, had let a Mercedes driver win by stepping aside? Obviously the solution was simpler: with the wrong tires on a rainy track, Glock could only suffer.

Moreover, it should be remembered that Glock's teammate, Trulli, on a similar strategy, then set a similar time to Glock (a tenth difference).

"I didn't do anything wrong that day," Glock said a few years later, in 2015. allowed to gain two positions in the end. I didn't know anything, even if I had, it wouldn't have made a difference because I couldn't do anything about it! Hamilton would have passed me no matter what. »

Press officer for Felipe Massa, Luca Colajanni had however believed in the conspiracy, at least at first: “Immediately after the race, many of us in the Ferrari garage were very suspicious and thought that Glock had left pass Hamilton a few hundred meters from the finish line, thus depriving Felipe of a deserved world title, as he had been without a shadow of a doubt the best driver that year. But, after analyzing cold, it became clear that there was nothing Glock could do because he was on slicks on an increasingly wet track. »

History will ultimately remember Glock's time in F1, not his 3 podiums or his fastest lap, but his involuntary role in the crowning in-extremis of Lewis Hamilton, who thus won his first title. The Mercedes driver remains today the only one to have won a title in the last lap, and to have lost another in the last lap. ‘Is that Latifi’?

Previous episodes:

Brazil 2012: Before Latifi, another Williams driver almost decided the F1 title