TIMO GLOCK was scared to leave the house after being hit with death threats over claims he helped Lewis Hamilton win the world title in 2008. 

It was the German who was overtaken by Hamiltonon the last corner, of the last lap, of the last race 17 years ago in Brazil to win his maiden title by a single point.

The title fight between Hamilton at McLaren and Ferrari‘s Felipe Massa that year went down to the final race.

Victory for Massa and a sixth place or lower finish for Hamilton would have secured Massa the title at his home race.

Starting the final lap, Hamilton was in sixth place,  but overtook Glock at the final corner as the German driver struggled with dry tyres in the rain.

Ferrari’s garage even began boisterous celebrations before victory was snatched away from them in the dying moments, leaving Massa’s dad stunned and a mechanic headbutting the wall in frustration. 

Former F1 driver and Sky Sports pundit Glock told casino.org: “I don’t think he (Hamilton) ever realised the full impact of it all. 

“I was happy social media wasn’t as big then as it was now, or I’d definitely have been in even more trouble than I was.

“It didn’t have an impact on my career. I just thought about what happened there, and I don’t think I did anything wrong.

“Felipe or Lewis didn’t realise what was going on in the background, or what was going on with my side of things. 

“I had an interview with Lewis two or three years ago, where we talked about 2008. He was surprised to hear what happened with me, in the aftermath of it all.”

Glock had to get a police escort to the airport following the race in Sao Paulo, with officers walking him on to the plane. 

He received hate mail telling him he should be banned from racing and death threats once returning home. 

Many people’s views of events changed after F1 released in-car footage of Glock struggling to keep a dry-shod car on track amid increasingly wet conditions.

He added: “I think because social media wasn’t as prominent, nobody saw what was happening. In general, I just tried to get on with my job. 

“It was still weird to go to Brazil the following year, or years even, but at the end of the day, it was a big story and it’s still mentioned whenever that race comes up in the calendar. 

“Overall, I have no problems with it. It’s all in the past now.” 

Glock reckons Hamilton can grab a record eighth title with Ferrari, with him currently level with Michael Schumacher on seven. 

Hamilton suffered heartbreak at the Chinese Grand Prix last time out when he was disqualified for the skid block on his car being half a millimetre under the minimum width. 

Ferrari need to get their act together in Japan on April 4-6 with his teammate Charles Leclerc also disqualified after the race due to his car being underweight. 

This came after Hamilton’s heroic victory in the sprint race on Saturday, which bagged him eight points in the table. 

Glock said: “I think he can win a title with Ferrari. 

“If the car suits him and the package is there, he will be challenging at the right end of proceedings for sure. It’s of course his ultimate goal.

“He will push and try everything to reach that. It will be interesting to see how his first part of the season goes.

“I think it will give us a good idea of how he will get on generally at Ferrari after the first half of the 2025 season.” 

• I'm a Gen X woman with a name beloved by baby boomers, but often misunderstood by my peers.
• Today the name Linda is often associated with a frumpy archetype, as seen in TV shows and memes.
• The unique "y" in the spelling of my name helps me stand out from the Lindas of the world.

"Linda? That's my aunt's name!"

I probably wasn't even out of my teens before I'd lost count of the number of times a cute boy said this to me. "You have an old name because you had old parents," my older sister flatly told me once. My friends more tactfully insisted that "No, the 'y' makes it a totally different name!"

But my sister wasn't wrong: I'm a Gen X Lynda with a name beloved by the parents of baby boomers and even the silent generation. These days, the name has been reduced to a frumpy archetype. How did a name that was the equivalent of a TikTok sensation of its day become so relentlessly uncool?

Lindas are getting a bad rap

The "y" is the only thing standing between me and the Lindas of the world. As a Linda, I'm an episode-long joke on "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" in which everyone is confounded by a baby named Linda because Lindas are adult women who work in HR. There's also the bossy busybody of the "Listen Linda" meme (there but for the grace of Karen go I), which originated with a Linda recording her three-year-old son repeatedly insisting "Listen, Linda" with all of the exasperated patience he can muster faced with the implacable bureaucracy that a Linda embodies. As a Lynda, I have plausible deniability.

The comedic success of both the TV show and the meme relies on the confidence that we've all noticed certain things about people named Linda and that we'll all get the joke, and we do.

"Who's Linda? Your mom's friend?" Linda is the type of person who carries SlimFast in her purse and gets mad when she can't find her keys. Linda says things like "Mondays," with that little rueful head shake, you know the one. Of course she does. And Linda's meddling opinions likely need to be shut down: Listen, Linda.

We all know this Linda, but why? How did this extraordinarily popular name become this frumpy archetype?

The name isn't poised for a comeback — yet

One thing all the characters in the Kimmy Schmidt episode agree on — including the five middle-aged Lindas who all work in HR at the same company — Linda definitely can't be a baby.

These days, they aren't wrong. In the US, the name Linda began its sharp rise in popularity in the late 1930s, peaked in the late 1940s, and declined dramatically throughout the 1960s and 1970s to become one of the unlikeliest names given to babies today.

This is my name, and I'm keeping it

Of course, we Lyndas with a "y" were always somewhat rare, which is why I've always side-eyed HR departments, try not to make everything my business, and can solemnly swear not a sip of SlimFast has ever passed my lips. I do get mad when I can't find my keys though.

I try not to think much about the fact that I was almost an Elizabeth as I'm convinced my life would have taken a completely different trajectory. Elizabeth surely would have been several inches taller than my five-foot-one-inch frame and would probably have had a decent sense of direction. She'd have published a novel in her twenties and probably landed on one of those "30 Under 30" lists.

However unenamoured I have always been of my name, I've also never considered changing it. Wouldn't that just leave me with another name I'd also get tired of, only I'd have no one but myself to blame?

There's another reason I'm kind of attached to Lynda though. My father loved the name and had always wanted a daughter named Linda. My mother suggested the "y" addition just so it would be a little different. The name meant something to them even if it seems slightly ridiculous to me. Now that they're both gone, it feels like a lasting thread of connection with them both.

That and the fact that it's Lynda with a "y." I'm not one of those Lindas other people talk about — at least not as long as I can find my keys.