'The heart still bleeds for the Brazilian who gave us the finest, most memorable start we've seen in Formula One for many a year,' says Raja Sen.
At Silverstone, Felipe Massa needed a win. There are times the sport bears down upon you and points seem less relevant because you are straining simply to quell your younger, faster teammate, and even when finally, at long last, you manage to make it to the podium one day, right behind the two invincible Mercedes cars, your fortieth career podium scored in Austria a fortnight ago, it must really sting that your adorable 6-year-old son, Filipinho -- Bassa Massa to those in the know -- dreamt of that very position for you.
It may certainly be every father's wish to make his child's dream come true, but where do things stand if even your son can't imagine you on the top step. Is it that unthinkable?
Felipe Massa started the British Grand Prix as if the others were standing still. Starting from third on the grid, he flew forward and with needlepoint precision, bisected the two helpless Mercedes cars in front of him.
At a time when Formula One has too-few moments of genuine elegance and too much pit-lane overtaking based on worn-out tyres, this was a shining, crystal clear bit of beauty.
Massa catapulted into first place and had every intention of bloody staying there. It was, in short, the stuff minstrels sing about.
But then it started getting hotter in the cockpit. Massa's preternaturally talented Finnish teammate Valteri Bottas started radioing back to the pits to say the Brazilian should let him through because he was faster. Indeed he was, setting purple fastest-sector times on nearly every lap and breathing down Felipe's neck.
The idea of sending him ahead to pull out a gap so as to hold back the routinely-unstoppable Mercedes cars is a solid one, but Felipe was having none of it.
Part of this, you understand, is because Felipe has finally -- after a career of moving over for world champion teammates -- found some parity at Williams, if not an official Number One status. He refused and kept his nose ahead, Bottas unable to overtake cleanly, and all was well with the world.
That is, till Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel stopped for fresh tyres and started burning up the track with the two scarlet Ferrari cars: Blazing innocuously in the middle of the field, the Ferraris were fastest; the new tyre advantage was instantly significant.
Lewis Hamilton was the first man to stop, and immediately found such a vast advantage -- not in the least because of Mercedes's inch-perfect 2.3 second pitstop -- that he took the lead and there was no looking back.
Sir Frank Williams, the 73-year-old legend perpetually glued to the screen, watched his cars go from 1st and 2nd to 3rd and 4th soon enough, largely because they didn't take the tough call to let Bottas through or the quick strategic call.
By the time sporadic bursts of rain interfered by the end of the dramatic Grand Prix, the Williams cars had been further hoodwinked by the never-say-die Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
This result is a shame not because Hamilton doesn't deserve his win -- he might have locked his tyres schoolboyishly a few times, but he led his teammate throughout and hence deserved the strategic advantage, and made no mistake once he was in control of the race.
It is a shame because heroics didn't come into play, even on a day when a plucky Brazilian drove his heart out and deserved to wink at his son from the top step.
Formula One is leaning so heavily on tyre-degradation these days that drivers -- consistently told not to go flat-out -- end up slaves to the pit-lane.
The major overtakes don't even happen on the track, despite a bunch of driver aids like DRS and KERS there for the taking; nope, we don't get to see Hamilton attack and pass the Williams cars on the circuit.
We applaud instead his strategy -- which, given a race where rain came in tiny bursts, was purely lucky. (Rosberg, who, for the record, did overtake Massa on-track, and who is trailing Hamilton in the World Championship by less distance than a race-win, probably cursed the Brit under his breath for every second of the last five hopeless laps.)
Speaking of luck, of course, Felipe Massa could have it much worse. Jenson Button, a veteran World Champion who raced in his 16th British Grand Prix last weekend, failed to finish the race in his McLaren; he has never yet been on the podium at his home race. But the heart still bleeds for the Brazilian who gave us the finest, most memorable start we've seen in Formula One for many a year.
So chin up, little Felipinho, it's okay that your dad didn't win. Ayrton Senna, that great Brazilian swashbuckler up in the sky, would be proud.
