Nick Heidfeld is not the only driver to have been the subject of considerable pressure in the last couple of months or so. Felipe Massa's apparent ascendancy over Kimi Raikkonen has raised questions over Kimi's position in the team and the possibility that he might have to support his team mate's title bid over the last few rounds of the championship.
Kimi Raikkonen
Luca di Montezemolo has been supportive in his comments on Raikkonen but has also muttered about the team's performance as a whole, increasing our suspicion that Ferrari are not happy with the return on their investment in Kimi to date. The Finn remains cool in interviews, insisting that he has no thoughts of retirement, but I think that his driving at Spa was evidence of a man under pressure and feeling it.
There was a certain desperation apparent in his driving, first shown in his squeezing of Massa down the Kemmel straight on the opening lap. That was a fairly robust way of preventing a pass and Felipe has expressed his surprise at the move in subsequent interviews. I cannot escape the thought that Kimi was determined not to face the prospect of passing Massa before he could get at Hamilton, having had so much difficulty in overtaking the Brazilian in the past.
For most of the race thereafter, he looked in dominant form, easily able to hold Hamilton at bay. It was the change to the harder compound tires and Hamilton's closing on him that began to introduce a certain raggedness to his style again. But he coped, stabilizing the gap at about two seconds, until the rain started. And then it all began to go to pieces.
I have seen criticism of Hamilton's actions during the now-famed incident through the Bus Stop chicane and down the following straight, alleging that the McLaren driver should have kept his cool and settled for second place. Apart from the fact that this makes a nonsense of our desire to see more overtaking in F1, it seems to me that it was not Hamilton whose judgement went missing at that moment.
At the entrance to the chicane it was Raikkonen who insisted upon his rights as the man with the inside line and Hamilton had the sense to allow him room. And it was Kimi who cut through to the inside of the second segment of the Bus Stop, thereby presenting Lewis with no option but to shortcut the corner. Hard of the Finn but not desperate, we might think.
Once past Hamilton on the following straight, Kimi dodged about rather more than necessary to keep the McLaren behind and then swooped over to the left of the circuit to grab the wide line through the La Source hairpin. It looked wrong at the time and still seems inexplicable that he would open so wide a door for Lewis to claim the inside of the corner. What on earth was Kimi thinking?
We will probably never know the exact thoughts that went through Kimi's mind at that moment but I suspect that he tried a rather desperate ploy. In the past, Hamilton has been known to con Massa into attempting a pass on the inside that ends with the Brazilian in the dirt; is it possible that Raikkonen was trying to sucker Lewis into over-extending himself in a wild lunge for the corner and a subsequent spin? That was how Raikkonen gained the lead on the second lap, after all, and Kimi may have hoped for a repeat performance from his rival.
Whatever the reason, it was a move that gave Hamilton the lead without a fight. Using the McLaren's better grip in the wet, he was able to outbrake the Ferrari and claim the corner. And we all saw how Kimi tried everything he knew thereafter to regain his place. That ended, unsurprisingly, in disaster.
But where are the cries that he should have settled for second place, that he would at least have gained points on his team mate had he taken a cooler approach? I hear none and must presume that different yardsticks are being used in our assessment of Kimi and Lewis.
There is a lot of speculation in this post, I know, and I offer it only as food for thought. But I think we can say that we saw a Kimi last Sunday who was desperate to prove himself at all costs. It is only a pity that the price proved so expensive in the end.