Felipe Massa has emerged as the dark horse to claim the 2008
Formula 1 World Championship laurels – that is the view of expert
ITV-F1 commentator Martin Brundle, as the Brazilian heads to
Silverstone for the British Grand Prix this weekend leading the title chase for the first time in his career in the top flight.
Massa claimed the lead in the drivers' standings following his French Grand Prix success just over a week ago, and he now sits two points ahead of BMW-Sauber's
Robert Kubica, with
Ferrari team-mate
Kimi Raikkonen a further three in arrears and
Lewis Hamilton ten adrift.
Though he is in many ways the unnoticed member of the quartet seemingly battling it out for glory – with Hamilton taking all of the media glare, Raikkonen being the defending champion and Kubica's consistent brilliance this season coming so out-of-the-blue – Brundle believes the man who has won more grands prix than anyone else so far this year could just go all the way, crediting his race engineer Rob Smedley with giving Massa ‘a more steely edge' in 2008.
“We saw him deliver his almost customary victories at Bahrain and Turkey,” the 49-year-old wrote in his latest column for the
Sunday Times, whilst acknowledging that Massa had ‘made major errors' back towards the beginning of the campaign, “but it was generally accepted that over the course of the season Raikkonen would be the one to put in the critical fast laps around the pit-stop window, get to the front and control the race.
“Massa has apparently upped his game yet further this year, though. On his day Massa is immense. [He] is impressing me in the level way in which he is handling success and failure, taking both in his stride. It is not at all inconceivable that he could be this year's world champion.”
