Hamilton does the North American double
June 18th 2007 03:50
Another McLaren one-two
The McLaren driver beat home his teammate, Fernando Alonso in a tense battle right until the end.
With all the controversy surrounding the McLaren garage of the past couple of weeks, the battle between the two at the US Grand Prix was everything that was expected.
Hamilton led from Alonso from start till finish, but Alonso never lost touch with his rookie teammate, and was often shaping up for an overtaking manoeuvre.
However, Lewis held his nerve, and won his second successive race, conquering North America in his first ever visit.
Behind the McLarens, Ferrari was also engaged in a tense inter-team battle, with Felipe Massa pipping Kimi Raikkonen for the final step on the podium.
Raikkonen made a poor start and lost two places to BMW’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen to be stuck in sixth in the early stages of the race.
Massa meanwhile, made a clean getaway to hold station in third and kept in touch with the McLarens for the opening stint.
However, in the closing stages of the grand prix, the Finn was flying and had caught right up to Massa’s rear-wing, setting the fastest lap on his way.
Kimi’s fastest lap was a positive sign for the Scuderia, and begged the question as to what influence the Finn would have made had he made a better start to be right up with the rival McLarens.
Behind the Ferraris, was Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, who drove another solid race and scored more solid points, outshining teammate Giancarlo Fisichella again, with the Italian finishing outside the points in ninth after a spin on lap 2.
Jarno Trulli finished in sixth, after utilising a one-stop strategy to beat home Red Bull’s Mark Webber, with whom the Toyota driver battled all afternoon.
The final points position went to BMW rookie, Sebastian Vettel, who at 19, became the youngest ever point scorer after the German crossed the line in eighth.
However, his achievement was somewhat lucky, after he overshot his braking point going into the first corner on the opening lap, and he sent his BMW bouncing alng the grass to lose several places.
The rookie, who replaced the injured Robert Kubica, was running in 10th place in the closing stages, and was gifted his point when teammate, Nick Heidfeld retired from fifth with a hydraulic leak, and Williams’ Nico Rosberg suffered an engine failure whilst running in sixth.
Nevertheless, Vettel’s performance was still quite impressive for a rookie, especially when Toyota’s seasoned veteran, Ralf Schumacher managed to take out F1’s most experienced two drivers, David Coulthard (Red Bull) and Rubens Barrichello (Honda) after committing an identical mistake to his 19-year-old compatriot.
After Schumacher’s destruction derby effort, the midfield became heavily congested, with Jenson Button,s Honda, both Super Aguris, Williams’ Alex Wurz, The Toro Rosso pair of Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi and even Spykers’ Adrian Sutil all embroiled in a tight scrap.
It was Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso who led the train of cars, and used his superior top speed to hold Wurz and others at bay for most of the race, until his late retirement.
However, he could not hold back Giancarlo Fisichella, who after spinning on lap two, was slicing his way through the pack, pulling off some truly remarkable overtaking manoeuvres on Jenson Button and Alex Wurz around the twisty sections.
Fisichella’s wheel-banging heroics, though, were in vain, as his early mishap put him well outside the points.
However, while the midfield pack fought and squabbled rather entertainingly, the battle ensuing up front, between Hamilton and Alonso was quite engaging.
Hamilton pulled a three second buffer in the first stint, but Alonso was biding his time and protecting his tyres, as he later explained when pointing out the difficulties of following the turbulent air trailing another.
However, after the first stop, it was the double-world champion who appeared to have the quicker car, and with some help from traffic, he caught right up to Hamilton’s back.
After tailing Hamilton through the traffic, Alonso got a better exit from the penultimate corner and pulled himself right into the sister McLaren’s tow down the enormous straight.
Hamilton immediately went defensive, drawing Alonso right over to the pitwall, giving no space on the inside, so the Spaniard pulled alongside his teammate on the clean, outside line, but was squeezed out by a determined Hamilton.
It was a nail-biting encounter, but in the lap following, Alonso seemed to swerve violently towards the pitwall in the middle of the straight.
Immediately, most onlookers assumed the champ had spat the dummy, and was signalling to his team his displeasure at following Lewis.
However in the post-race interviews, the Spaniard said he was simply attempting to get some clean air.
“I followed the other car for so many laps my overalls and everything were so black because the carbon brakes were coming into me every braking point, said Alonso, “I think my brakes were hotter, all my car was hotter than normal, so I tried to pull away from the slipstream sometimes just to cool the car.”
But, McLaren’s managing director, Martin Whitmarsh said that his driver’s actions were inspired by frustration.
“At various points in the race it was clear that Fernando was a little bit quicker,” said Whitmarsh, “Yes, it was a message, he was sending it to Lewis.”
“Drivers do that from time to time,” said the McLaren man.
Whatever the reason for Alonso’s bizarre lap-39 swerve, it was his teammate who kept his cool, and made no mistakes on his way to his second win of his career.
“It just keeps getting better and better,” enthused Hamilton post race, “I can’t believe I have won and am so incredibly grateful to the team who have worked so hard to continue the development which has seen us taking one-two here today.”
“I was under pressure all the way from Fernando and we were both pushing as hard as possible,” he said.
Seven races and seven podiums now for Hamilton, and despite his refusal to talk title contention, the Brit’s record so far has only headed in one, clear direction: 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st…there is only one step to go.
2007 US Grand Prix: Result
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:31:09.965
02 F. Alonso McLaren 1.518
03 F. Massa Ferrari 12.842
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 14.422
05 H. Kovalainen Renault 41.402
06 J. Trulli Toyota 1:06.703
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:07.331
08 S. Vettel BMW 1:07.783
09 G. Fisichella Renault 1 laps
10 A. Wurz Williams 1 laps
11 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1 laps
12 J. Button Honda 1 laps
13 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 2 laps
14 A. Sutil Spyker F1 2 laps
15 C. Albers Spyker F1 3 laps
Not Classified
16 N. Rosberg Williams 5 laps (engine)
17 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 5 laps (water pressure)
18 N. Heidfeld BMW 17 laps (hydraulics)
19 T. Sato Super Aguri 60 laps (spin)
20 R. Barrichello Honda 72 laps (collision)
21 D. Coulthard Red Bull 72 laps (collision)
22 R. Schumacher Toyota 73 laps (collision)
Fastest Laps:
1) Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 49 1:13.117
2) Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 20 1:13.222
3) Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes 21 1:13.257
4) Felipe Massa Ferrari 50 1:13.380
5) Nick Heidfeld BMW 20 1:13.414
6) Sebastian Vettel BMW 53 1:13.862
7) Heikki Kovalainen Renault 67 1:13.998
8) Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 57 1:14.004
9) Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 67 1:14.009
10) Jarno Trulli Toyota 30 1:14.016
11) Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 34 1:14.066
12) Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 55 1:14.066
13) Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 41 1:14.486
14) Jenson Button Honda 42 1:14.703
15) Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 49 1:14.858
16) Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 66 1:15.092
17) Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 64 1:15.426
18) Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 65 1:15.902
19) Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 8 1:16.680
| 52 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Stanley
Comment by ChrisB
Formula 1
The Social Centre