Lewis’ ego gets the better of him

You have a seven point buffer in the World Championship, you’ve qualified first on the grid and your only real title rival has qualified fifth. All you have to do is keep it on the track and stay in front of your title rival to keep your Championship secure. Nothing else matters. Unless, that is, you have an ego as big as Lewis Hamilton’s… in which case you’ll out-brake yourself and go way too deep into turn one trying to regain a position from someone who is absolutely no threat to your Championship, take most of the front runners off the track into the overrun area and flat spot your tyres so badly that you’re forced to pit before you’ve even started racing. Hamilton’s blunder was compounded when Massa finished the race seventh and closed the Championship gap to 5 points. Lewis Hamilton got it ALL wrong in Japan.

At the start of this season I thought Lewis would romp it in. He came SO close last year. He outwardly (to the Press) conducted himself in a mature and professional manner despite all the pressure and the soap-opera happening at McLaren throughout the year. He got a boot load of experience in his rookie season and the scene was set for 2008. When Raikkonen slumped at the start of the season I knew his main rival would be Massa… someone I thought was way too erratic and inconsistent to trouble Hamilton. Wrong. It turns out that Massa became more consistent toward the latter half of the season and Hamilton disappeared up his own bum.

He still leads the Championship by 5 points and the scene is set for an AMAZING season finale… but in the last few rounds Hamilton has lost a lot of respect from his peers and fans with his arrogant behaviour and borderline dangerous driving. Even good friends like Robert Kubica have criticised his behaviour. I still have my money on him for the 2008 Championship but I’m almost hoping I lose it.