by
Autonet Insurance
| Nov 05, 2008
German racing driver Timo Glock has denied gifting Lewis Hamilton the Formula One world championship, blaming the excitement in the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix on his dry tyres.
There was anguish in the British camp with two laps to go when title hopeful Hamilton slipped to sixth after being passed by Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel then overtook Glock into fourth place, leaving Hamilton one place shy of the position he so desperately needed to clinch victory.
In one of the most tense moments in the history of the sport, Hamilton then overtook Glock on the penultimate corner of the race to win the title.
There were questions as to whether Glock had given the championship to Hamilton, but the German denied intentionally allowing Hamilton to pass, saying: "I was pushing really hard to keep fourth place and if you look at the lap times I was actually faster than Jarno (Trulli) on the final lap and he was the only other car on dry tyres at that stage."
Crucially, Glock had kept his dry tyres after a downpour five laps from the end when the rest of the leaders pitted to change to intermediate tyres.
"I didn't even know that Lewis was directly behind me. I was concentrating so hard on keeping the car on the track," said Glock.
© The Press Association 2008