Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Oh – my – God! I thought the phrase ‘Anything can happen in motor racing, and it usually does’ was one of the biggest clichés in the world.

But how dramatic was the Brazilian Grand Prix? In the opening laps alone you had Hamilton’s dramas and Yamamoto being launched over the back of Fisichella, then other crazy events like Nakajima driving into his pit crew and Kovalainen’s rear suspension failure.

Through it all Hamilton was clawing his way back up the field, with the Ferraris comfortably running in the lead, but who would prevail? Even with Hamilton not in that all-important fifth place, you had that titanic scrap between Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld, and it would just have needed a bit of contact between them for the picture to change all over again.

At GPL we had a big screen erected in our warehouse and a load of us came in to watch the race together. It was a great atmosphere, although you had about two Raikkonen fans against 20 Hamilton ones!

I found the last ten laps almost painful to watch, not wanting to let myself believe that Raikkonen could maybe triumph, because it would have just been too much to bear if Hamilton had ultimately done it!

The Iceman won out though, with one of the closest final standings in Formula One history; Raikkonen 110, Hamilton & Alonso 109.

And so, it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the Grand Prix Legends 2007 F1 World Champion presentation is now available to pre-order (DC2007)! It will consist of Mattel’s 1:18 replica of Raikkonen’s Ferrari F2007 mounted on a wooden base surrounded by plaques detailing his results in every Grand Prix this year, and come complete with a perspex cover to protect it from the dust. We should be in position to despatch these during November.

And please, don’t give me a hard time because Hamilton didn’t win, young Lewis has loads of future championship wins ahead of him, and come on, Raikkonen was due one, wasn’t he? 

But what the hell am I going to do until the 2008 F1 World Championship starts!