INTERLAGOS · NOVEMBER 2008 · TURN 12
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
THE STORY
Hamilton needed one more place. Glock was on dry tyres. It was raining.
Gary — 33 · Three Fantasy F1 leagues
Hamilton's pre-race championship probability: 89%. After the safety car deployment on lap 67: 12%. His probability swung from 12% to 87% in approximately 23 seconds — the time it took him to pass Glock through turns 11 and 12. No single sector-by-sector probability movement in the sport's history has been that violent, in that short a distance, with that much at stake.
Glock was on dry Option tyres in the closing laps as rain returned. In those conditions, his soft compound was generating approximately negative grip — not metaphorically, physically negative in terms of expected pace. His last three sector times were 12% slower than his rolling average. That's not a mistake. That's a man nursing tyres that had given everything and had nothing left to give.
Kat — 30 · Technical journalist
There is a narrative that Glock deliberately slowed to hand Hamilton the championship. This is wrong, and demonstrably wrong if you look at the telemetry. The Toyota TF108 on dry tyres in those wet conditions was literally incapable of cornering at normal racing speeds — the front axle was aquaplaning in corners it had been taking flat for most of the race. He was fighting the car, not cooperating with any outcome.
The decision to stay on dry tyres was made at the safety car period — Glock's team gambled correctly that it would stay dry, and it did until the final four laps. In that era, tyre compound switches at safety car periods were almost binary: correct call or catastrophic call, with nothing in between. Glock made the correct call. And then it rained.
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