bangertastic:In my opinion Massa doesn't deserve it. His performances this year have been either brilliant or rubbish, lacking in the consistency that you need to be Champion. We saw at Singapore that he went to pieces after the fuel incident. Lewis isn't the perfect driver but he has shown that in circumstances where things have not gone his way he has just got his head down and pulled out the best result possible (Monza '08 being a recent example). In the end it's that sort of mindset that wins titles.
For what it is worth, as drivers, Massa and Hamilton have had very similar seasons. Bearing in mind Massa had two retirements due to engine failure (and another due to brain failure) the fact that he is only seven points behind Hamilton gives him the edge. Hamilton having just the one retirement.
It's hard to judge what kind of car Massa was driving after his refueling issue at Singapore. But given he had to sit at the end the pit lane for an age (in F1 terms) and had to do a drive through, I'm amazed he even bothered to finish at all. I can think of other drivers that wouldn't have bothered. Hamilton does show more signs of brilliance though, and the seven point margin should be enough to see him through.
On that point, this "only needs to come second to Massa" nonsense spouted by "pundits" needs to be knocked on the head. If Hamilton doesn't put in the wins, but he and Massa end up with the same points, Massa will take it with more wins (and he doesn't actually need to win again, just take seven more points than Hamilton).
bangertastic: I noticed an article on BBC sport where Luca di Montezemolo has hit out at the Singapore GP saying that it's a 'circus'.
He didn't say that. Read it again.
bangertastic: I don't suppose he would feel that way if they had scored a one-two?
He would have had a warm glow all over, no doubt, but di Montezemolo is a long-standing critic of street circuits, (and was moaning about Singapore before the race) reinforced now because of the issues around the intervention of the Safety Car; made all the more likely on such circuits. Singapore is a cracking circuit though, and should stand alone as a night time event. Not perfect, but much better than Valencia, which, with the exception of turns 8 to 10 (accross the bridge) is an incoherent, yawn fest. Don't see it lasting very long.