Throughout his Formula 1 career Timo Glock he competed in 91 GPs and won three podiums, all at the wheel of Toyota between the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The German, however, is remembered by all fans, despite himself, for being theinvoluntary protagonist of the 2008 title race between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. At the last corner of the lap of the last GP of that championship, in fact, the Lindenfels driver was overtaken by Hamilton, who by gaining that position, the fifth, managed to conquer the first World Championship of what would later become a legendary career. In the crazy final race of that Brazilian GP, conditioned by intermittent downpours, the then Toyota standard bearer remained on the track with dry tires while it was raining on the track, but found himself unable to push during the last lap, with the circuit now flooded.
On that lap Glock lost 18 seconds to Hamilton, being passed by McLaren # 22 just in sight of the finish line. Massa, winner of that race and virtual champion for about 30 seconds, lost the championship by just one point. Remained for years in the center of speculation and conspiracy theories regarding the behavior held in that last lap, Glock told his truth in a very long chat with the official F1 podcast, Beyond The Grid. Just last year Glock himself had been the protagonist of an interesting interview with Felipe Massathe ‘injured part’ of that incredible day, in which he showed the Ferrari driver the onboard of his last lap to explain the difficulties he had faced on the track now full of water.
The arrival of the rain
“On the track I tried to do the best I could I remember the last 3-4 laps very well because for me the direction in which we were going was clear. I mean, it wasn’t clear to me that I was going to decide on the title, but we were between seventh and ninth and then these clouds came on the circuit. Three laps to go I remember telling the team ‘I think it will end in disaster, because these clouds will come within one or two laps to go. If it rains it will be chaos. They told me that we had nothing to lose and that we would stay out “.
Unable to return
“On the penultimate lap it was already starting to rain on the last corner and I said over the radio ‘guys, I have to go back’, because you could see how much water there was. They told me that I couldn’t get back to the pits because the pit lane was already full of people for the podium ceremony and people were out of their minds because Massa was world champion at that moment. So they told me to stay out. At that moment I was fourth, even though I had no information and was just trying to survive. I couldn’t keep the car. If you look at the on-boards you understand it. There was no grip ”.
Unknowing protagonist
“My track engineer only told me that Hamilton had won the title, but not that I had decided it. I went back to the pits, I had Hamilton parked in front and I congratulated him, in front of I don’t know how many thousands of Brazilian spectators. And then all the reporters came and asked me why I helped Lewis, why I decided the title. And I was thinking inside of me ‘what the hell is going on?’. Then my physiotherapist took me away and locked me in a closet explaining everything. Mass? I haven’t talked to him for 10 years. I thought it would kill me“.
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