Hamilton wins maiden GP
June 11th 2007 07:44
Hamilton wins at Montreal
The McLaren driver led the race from pole, and was never under pressure, despite the several safety car intervals that created such havoc amidst the field.
BMW’s Nick Heidfeld scored his team’s first podium of the year, with a strong drive to second place.
The German slipped past McLaren’s Fernando Alonso at the start, and even had a look at Hamilton, but settled into second, and even managed to pull away from Alonso before the first round of pitstops.
While the first two positions remained stable throughout the race, it was from third place onwards where carnage regined.
When the lights went out, it was Heidfeld and Alonso who made the better getaways, but Hamilton managed to block Heidfeld on the inside of turn 1, while Alonso outbraked himself and bounced along the grass to lose out to Heidfeld by turn three.
Meanwhile, Jenson Button’s Honda was left stranded on the grid, unable to find first gear, while the rest of the pack jostled for position.
By the end of lap 1, Hamilton led from Heidfeld with Alonso in third and the Ferrari pair of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen running fourth and sixth, sandwiching Williams’ Nico Rosberg.
Meanwhile, further back, Red Bull’s Mark Webber was recovering from a poor start, which dropped him down to 9th, but a misjudged attack on Robert Kubica’s BMW saw the Australian spin and rejoin in 14th.
Hamilton was pulling ahead of Heidfeld by around 0.5seconds a lap, while Heidfeld was keeping a nice distance between himself and Alonso, who was making several mistakes and falling into the clutches of Felipe Massa.
On lap 20, Heidfeld was the first to pit, fitting another set of hard tyres to rejoin in 7th.
Hamilton pitted two laps later and emerged in fourth, but moments after his stop, the Spyker of Adrian Sutil met the wall outside turn 4, which brought about the first safety car of 2007.
The new rules for safety car periods wreaked havoc amongst the teams, as Alonso and Rosberg dived in before the pits were officially declared open, and suffered a 10 second stop go penalty for their effort.
Then, more confusion, when Felipe Massa and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella left pitlane whilst the red light was on, despite seeing Robert Kubica and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli waiting for the green light.
Racing resumed again on lap 27, with four drivers (Alonso, Rosberg, Massa and Fisichella) under investigation for pitlane indiscretion.
However, the safety car was soon back on track, following a horrific crash involving Robert Kubica.
The pole was attacking Jarno Trulli on the short straight leading to the L'Epingle hairpin, when they touched.
Kubica’s BMW was sent flying into the wall and then back down the track, barrel-rolling it’s way to a halt several hundred metres down the road.
The accident was of such ferocity that the car was reduced to it’s monocoque, leaving a trail of carbon fibre, oil and other debris all down the short straight.
Kubica's horror impact
Racing resumed on lap 34, and soon after Alonso and Rosberg entered the pits to serve their penalty.
Meanwhile on track, Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato was on fire, and he overtook Kimi Raikkonen on lap 35.
By the end of lap 40 the order was: Hamilton, Heidfeld, Webber, Massa, Fisichella. Sato, Raikkonen and Kovalainen, Alonso was busy carving his way back through the field, working from 13th to 8th in only a handful of laps.
Heidfeld pitted on lap 47, and Hamilton a lap later – and again, just as Hamilton left the pits, a Spyker, this time belonging to Christjian Albers, had gone off track and littered debris all over turn four.
Safety car was deployed, and several cars pitted, including Alonso, Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota.
Hamilton leading a snake of weaving cars had become a familiar sight this afternoon, and again, only a lap after the restart on lap 54, the safety car was out, this time after Tonio Liuzzi pranged his Toro Rosso into the infamous ‘wall of champions’, after launching over the kerb in the final chicane.
Racing resumed for the fourth time on lap 61, after Jarno Trulli exited the pits and drove straight into the wall causing the safety car to stay out a few laps longer.
But now, the racing was to continue unhindered until the flag.
The order after the restart was Hamilton, Heidfeld, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, (who was yet to stop, after inexplicably failing to utilise the safety car periods) Alex Wurz in the Williams, Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Ralf Schumacher and Takuma Sato.
Wurz had made great use of a one-stop strategy, and was even hindered by a damaged rear wing after coming together with Scott Speed early in the race, his soft tyres had overcome their graining phase and he was closing in on Heidfeld.
But it was Sato who was creating the most excitement, the Japanese driver was on the prime tyre, and was mercilessly hunting down Schumacher and Alonso ahead of him.
He launched his Honda-powered Super Aguri into the final chicane ahead of Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota on lap 66, and repeated the feat against the reigning champion, Alonso a couple of laps later.
But the day belonged to Lewis Hamilton, who was utterly faultless all afternoon, and won his first ever Grand Prix with authority.
The young Briton dominated the race all day, despite having his lead repeatedly cut by safety car intervals, and his mistake-free performance was in stark contrast to his double-world champion teammate’s.
It was also a good day for BMW, despite losing Kubica to a fearsome crash, Heidfeld’s second place, and the news that Kubica is ok gave the German outfit plenty to celebrate.
Third place went to Alex Wurz, who drove through the deluge from the back of the grid to claim Williams’ first podium since 2005 (scored incidentally by Heidfeld).
It was also a great day for Heikki Kovalainen, whose fourth place finish from the rear will give him a much-needed confidence boost.
With less than a week until the next race in the United States, the teams will have little time to take stock of the eventful Canadian Grand Prix before they are at it again around the brickyard at Indianapolis.
Race Times
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:44:11.292
02 N. Heidfeld BMW 4.300
03 A. Wurz Williams 5.300
04 H. Kovalainen Renault 6.700
05 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 13.000
06 T. Sato Super Aguri 16.600
07 F. Alonso McLaren 21.900
08 R. Schumacher Toyota 22.800
09 M. Webber Red Bull 22.900
10 N. Rosberg Williams 23.900
11 A. Davidson Super Aguri 24.300
12 R. Barrichello Honda 30.400
Retirements:
13 J. Trulli Toyota 12 laps
14 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 15 laps
15 G. Fisichella Renault 18 laps
16 F. Massa Ferrari 18 laps
17 C. Albers Spyker F1 21 laps
18 D. Coulthard Red Bull 35 laps
19 R. Kubica BMW 43 laps
20 A. Sutil Spyker F1 48 laps
21 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso 61 laps
22 J. Button Honda 70 laps
Fastest Laps:
01 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:16.367
02 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:16.494
03 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:16.696
04 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:16.849
05 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:16.861
06 Nico Rosberg Williams 1:17.156
07 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:17.411
08 Robert Kubica BMW 1:17.529
09 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:17.618
10 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:17.910
11 Alexander Wurz Williams 1:17.947
12 Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1:18.035
13 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:18.368
14 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:18.543
15 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri 1:18.780
16 David Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.981
17 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:19.092
18 Christijan Albers Spyker 1:19.254
19 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR 1:19.375
20 Adrian Sutil Spyker 1:19.452
21 Scott Speed STR 1:20.092
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