Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap of the US Grand Prix, which was a source of encouragement for Ferrari. But it was the McLarens which finished first and second and the red cars that could not better third and fourth, some 13 seconds adrift.
Given their past record of six victories from the seven races held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ferrari came here full of confidence that they would be closer to McLaren than they were in Montreal. And they were, but at the vital stages of the race the silver arrows had the edge and that proved crucial.
Raikkonen’s fastest lap, 1m 13.117s, was set on the 49th lap as he chased after team mate Felipe Massa while he was running on Bridgestone’s softer tyre and the Brazilian was doing his final stint on the harder compound. Massa’s best lap was 1m 13.380s, set on lap 50. By contrast the McLarens did their quick times - 1m 13.222s for race winner Lewis Hamilton on lap 20 and 1m 13.257s for Alonso on lap 21 - on soft tyres just before their respective first pit stops. Had it been necessary, it is likely that each could have gone faster later. It was not.
Ferrari proved that their reliability is back to what it used to be, but need to find a little more of everything, whereas McLaren have their car operating right in its sweetest spot. And it is beginning to tell in the chase for the constructors’ world championship. McLaren have 106 points, Ferrari 71.
Renault led a race for the first time in 2007, courtesy of Heikki Kovalainen’s stint between laps 22 and 26, and the fact that he did not refuel until lap 27 put his sixth-place qualifying performance into even better perspective. The Finn rued being stuck behind Nick Heidfeld after his stop and thought he should have been more aggressive, but on a day when team mate Giancarlo Fisichella marred his homework with his spin on lap two, and also when BMW Sauber netted only one point, the four that he brought home were important. “The result is the maximum we can achieve at the moment. We cannot beat McLaren and we cannot beat Ferrari, but I think we can fight with BMW,” he said, and that about summed it up.
BMW Sauber showed strong potential again and Nick Heidfeld was sure they could have competed for a podium finish after getting ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari at the start. But he lost ground on lap 21 just before his pit stop, when he ran wide and lost a place to Kovalainen, and later retired when a hydraulic problem progressively affected the power steering, gearshift and then throttle. Courtesy of rookie Sebastian Vettel the team maintained their record of scoring at each race, but he lost four places in the first corner that he was unable to recover fully, and inevitably the second car did not realise the potential it might have in Robert Kubica’s hands. Nevertheless, Vettel made a good impression and was generally four- to five-tenths of a second off Heidfeld in his first real Formula One run. BMW Sauber have 39 points, while Renault now have 25.
Having lost Ralf Schumacher on the opening lap Toyota had to rely totally on Jarno Trulli, and the Italian did them proud with a strong run to a sixth place that he had trouble believing. His scrap with Mark Webber’s Red Bull was a feature of the closing stages of the race, and three points helped to close the gap to Williams, who failed to score. That was a shame for the British team, as Nico Rosberg was a strong contender for points all afternoon after another aggressive performance in the FW29. With six laps to run disaster struck when an oil leak started a fire at the rear of the car, and the visibly disappointed German pulled off just beyond the pit lane. With Alex Wurz unable to find a way past Tonio Liuzzi’s low-downforce Toro Rosso for the first 36 laps, Rosberg was their only realistic hope for points. They still have 13 for fifth overall, but Toyota are now only four adrift in sixth.
Webber’s feisty run to seventh brought Red Bull two more welcome points on a day when David Coulthard was savaged from behind and forced into retirement after a lap. The Australian called for “more downforce, more reliability, more speed,” but at least they moved ahead of Super Aguri and into seventh overall.
This time there was no magic from Takuma Sato, who spun his Super Aguri into retirement in the Turn Four gravel after 13 laps, but after getting delayed in the first corner debacle Anthony Davidson had the satisfaction of catching and passing Jenson Button’s Honda, and overtaking several other cars, on his recovery to an eventual 11th place finish. Encouragingly, the Briton’s fastest lap - 1m 14.066s - put him firmly in Red Bull, Renault, Williams and Toyota territory.
Honda had a tough time, losing Rubens Barrichello in the first lap melee, and then having Button delayed by a fuel rig malfunction during his pit stop. In that incident too much fuel - between 15 and 20 kilos too much - was put into the tank, not only losing him pit stop time but subsequently hampering the RA107 further out on the track. The best the Englishman could do was 12th.
For a while, when Liuzzi was running ahead of Wurz in 11th place for the first 28 laps, Toro Rosso looked as if they might be up for points, even when Fisichella subsequently found a way past his fellow countryman on lap 29. But then Liuzzi had a disastrous stop on lap 37 when his refuelling rig malfunctioned, and dropped behind team mate Scott Speed. Whereas the American made it home, Liuzzi retired in the pits with five laps to go when the telemetry said his water temperature had reached the danger zone. Both drivers found that their low-downforce set-ups were a real handful on a slippery track, and the lap times were very slow.
Spyker finished both cars, and for a while Adrian Sutil ran as high as 13th after the first corner kerfuffle, but inevitably he slipped back as faster cars recovered. Nevertheless, the German described it as a “perfect race.” Team mate Christijan Albers, who was on a single-stop strategy compared with Sutil’s two-stop, blamed leader traffic for upsetting his chances of beating the German.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Faultless win for Hamilton at Indy
In retrospect, his Canadian win came with relative ease. But in Indianapolis on Sunday Lewis Hamilton had to work every inch of the way for his second consecutive triumph as he beat McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso by just 1.5s after a gripping, race-long fight.
Hamilton just got the drop on Alonso from pole, and as they sped away from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen were both able to leap ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second red car.
Further back, Ralf Schumacher lost control of his Toyota and collided with Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who was in the process of running into the back of David Coulthard’s Red Bull. Jenson Button in the second Honda and fellow Briton Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri were also delayed, while Schumacher, Barrichello and Coulthard became the first retirements.
In that first stint Hamilton did enough to eke out a lead that enabled him to pit on lap 21 and then stay ahead of Alonso once the Spaniard had followed suit a lap later. They went back to first and second as Kovalainen pitted from the lead on lap 27.
Now Alonso turned up the wick, however, as Hamilton’s front tyres grained when he really pushed hard. On lap 38 they went down to Turn One side by side, but Hamilton had the inside line and was able not just to defend against his partner’s attack, but to open a small gap again.
When the next stops came, Alonso came in first, on lap 50, and when Hamilton did so a lap later he retained his advantage. Over the final stint he was able to maintain a two-second gap, as the two silver arrows circulated 13 seconds clear of the battling Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen. They were on different fuel strategies, and with softer tyres in his final stint the Finn was able to close in as the Brazilian was using Bridgestone’s harder tyre. However, Massa did not leave him any openings and they crossed the line in the same positions, only feet apart, after the 73 laps.
Fifth place was sound reward for a gritty drive by Kovalainen, who was always a points contender, but the late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams (which had earlier been delayed slightly by a sticking fuel nozzle) made life a little easier for the Finn.
Rosberg’s sad demise was also a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who had a feisty scrap with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the closing stages as they took sixth and seventh. Right at the end, BMW Sauber rookie Sebastian Vettel closed in on them, and as the trio crossed the line a second apart, the young German scored a point on his debut.
That was a small reward for BMW Sauber, as Nick Heidfeld had been heading for a possible fourth until power steering and gearbox problems intervened to drop him to fifth, and then to prompt his retirement with hydraulics failure on lap 59.
Giancarlo Fisichella fought back strongly for Renault after spinning on the second lap, and his side by side dicing with the Toro Rossos and Alex Wurz’s Williams was a highlight of the race. He finished ninth, ahead of Wurz, while further back Davidson recovered to catch and pass his old kart sparring partner Button for 11th. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed was 13th after a fight with Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, who ran as high as 14th initially after the first corner incidents. Christijan Albers was 15th in the second Spyker, ahead of the non-finishing Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi, who kept his Toro Rosso ahead of Wurz for the first stint but later retired with water temperature problems.
The other retirement was Takuma Sato, who fell off in Turn Four immediately after diving past Sutil in the first corner on lap 14. By then Sato had already picked up a ten-place grid penalty for the next round after passing Button under yellow flags, a charge the Japanese driver subsequently denied.
Hamilton’s second North American triumph increases his lead in the drivers’ championship to 10 points over Alonso, while McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.
Hamilton just got the drop on Alonso from pole, and as they sped away from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen were both able to leap ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second red car.
Further back, Ralf Schumacher lost control of his Toyota and collided with Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who was in the process of running into the back of David Coulthard’s Red Bull. Jenson Button in the second Honda and fellow Briton Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri were also delayed, while Schumacher, Barrichello and Coulthard became the first retirements.
In that first stint Hamilton did enough to eke out a lead that enabled him to pit on lap 21 and then stay ahead of Alonso once the Spaniard had followed suit a lap later. They went back to first and second as Kovalainen pitted from the lead on lap 27.
Now Alonso turned up the wick, however, as Hamilton’s front tyres grained when he really pushed hard. On lap 38 they went down to Turn One side by side, but Hamilton had the inside line and was able not just to defend against his partner’s attack, but to open a small gap again.
When the next stops came, Alonso came in first, on lap 50, and when Hamilton did so a lap later he retained his advantage. Over the final stint he was able to maintain a two-second gap, as the two silver arrows circulated 13 seconds clear of the battling Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen. They were on different fuel strategies, and with softer tyres in his final stint the Finn was able to close in as the Brazilian was using Bridgestone’s harder tyre. However, Massa did not leave him any openings and they crossed the line in the same positions, only feet apart, after the 73 laps.
Fifth place was sound reward for a gritty drive by Kovalainen, who was always a points contender, but the late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams (which had earlier been delayed slightly by a sticking fuel nozzle) made life a little easier for the Finn.
Rosberg’s sad demise was also a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who had a feisty scrap with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the closing stages as they took sixth and seventh. Right at the end, BMW Sauber rookie Sebastian Vettel closed in on them, and as the trio crossed the line a second apart, the young German scored a point on his debut.
That was a small reward for BMW Sauber, as Nick Heidfeld had been heading for a possible fourth until power steering and gearbox problems intervened to drop him to fifth, and then to prompt his retirement with hydraulics failure on lap 59.
Giancarlo Fisichella fought back strongly for Renault after spinning on the second lap, and his side by side dicing with the Toro Rossos and Alex Wurz’s Williams was a highlight of the race. He finished ninth, ahead of Wurz, while further back Davidson recovered to catch and pass his old kart sparring partner Button for 11th. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed was 13th after a fight with Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, who ran as high as 14th initially after the first corner incidents. Christijan Albers was 15th in the second Spyker, ahead of the non-finishing Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi, who kept his Toro Rosso ahead of Wurz for the first stint but later retired with water temperature problems.
The other retirement was Takuma Sato, who fell off in Turn Four immediately after diving past Sutil in the first corner on lap 14. By then Sato had already picked up a ten-place grid penalty for the next round after passing Button under yellow flags, a charge the Japanese driver subsequently denied.
Hamilton’s second North American triumph increases his lead in the drivers’ championship to 10 points over Alonso, while McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Hamilton claims maiden Formula 1 triumph
LEWIS Hamilton claimed his first Formula 1 victory at just the sixth attempt in an incident-packed Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal yesterday.
With five podium positions in his first five races, Hamilton made the next step in his sensational rookie season by claiming the first pole position of his short career on Saturday at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
Yesterday, the Briton led from green light to chequered flag to regain the lead in the World Drivers Championship from McLaren team-mate and reigning world champion Fernando Alonso.
Alonso finished seventh, as McLaren's dominance shown at Monaco in the previous race and in practice and qualifying was broken. Germany's Nick Heidfeld claimed second place for BMW Sauber, with Alexander Wurz of Williams in third.
Yet as Hamilton drove to success there was drama in his rear-view mirrors throughout the 70 laps. Poland's Robert Kubica was involved in an horrific crash in his BMW Sauber, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella were both thrown out of the race, while the safety car was as busy as the F1 machines.
Hamilton, accused earlier in the week of over-aggression off the grid by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, got the perfect start from his first pole position.
The 22-year-old held his lead as Heidfeld stole a march on Alonso and tried to run down the inside of the young Briton heading into turn one.
Alonso added the drama this time, running wide at the first turn and cutting across Hamilton to return to the track before rejoining the race in third behind Heidfeld.
Jenson Button saw his problems with the Honda this season reach disastrous levels when he was left on the grid, pushed to the pit lane by marshals before finally giving up hope of getting into the race when his mechanics failed to start his car as his rivals started lap two. Honda later cited transmission failure as the cause of Button's demise.
All the time, Hamilton was building his lead at the front, up to 10.3 seconds on Heidfeld by lap 14 with Alonso losing ground as he once again went off the track at turn one - and again on lap 19.
Hamilton went into the pits on lap 22, ceding the lead briefly to Massa, but then the safety car came onto the track as Spyker's Adrian Sutil made heavy contact with a wall and came to a stop on the kerb unable to reach a run-off area.
When the pit lane re-opened with the yellow flag still out, Massa led the charge into the pits, leaving Hamilton back in front with Heidfeld second and Alonso third.
The safety car was barely back in the pit lane however, when it was redeployed after an horrific crash for Kubica as he headed towards the L'Epingle hairpin on lap 28.
The Polish driver appeared to clip the Toyota of Jarno Trulli which sent his own car airborne and ploughing nose first into a wall before barrel-rolling across the track and sliding on the car's side along the opposite wall.
There were very nervous moments as Kubica was attended to in his car, after a crash which sent vast amounts of debris from the BMW Sauber flying across the track.
As the Pole was being extracted from his car and taken to the track medical centre, stewards were handing out 10-second stop/go penalties to both Alonso and Rosberg for entering the pit lane as the safety car was on the track.
When the race finally got under way again on lap 33, Hamilton was left with the task of rebuilding his lead over Heidfeld.
Incidents continued aplenty as Rosberg and Trulli spun out, before Scotland's David Coulthard suffered his fourth retirement of the season on lap 38.
Anthony Davidson was the last driver into the pits for the first time but he caught his team napping as he came to a halt outside his garage with no mechanics in sight.
The Super Aguri crew eventually scrambled to attend to their lonely driver, who emerged at the rear of the 17 remaining cars.
Kubica, meanwhile, was being airlifted by helicopter to Montreal's Sacre Coeur hospital for further investigations, with a BMW Sauber spokesman claiming the driver was "okay and talking to doctors".
Tonio Luizzi brushed a wall to end his race and, with the safety car back out, Trulli crashed his Toyota into a safety barrier, just as he was re-entering the race from a pit stop.
That left just 12 cars left in the race with 10 laps remaining.
Thankfully for Hamilton, they were relatively uneventful and the British rookie took his first chequered flag to thunderous applause from the sell-out crowd and the delight of his McLaren crew.
With five podium positions in his first five races, Hamilton made the next step in his sensational rookie season by claiming the first pole position of his short career on Saturday at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
Yesterday, the Briton led from green light to chequered flag to regain the lead in the World Drivers Championship from McLaren team-mate and reigning world champion Fernando Alonso.
Alonso finished seventh, as McLaren's dominance shown at Monaco in the previous race and in practice and qualifying was broken. Germany's Nick Heidfeld claimed second place for BMW Sauber, with Alexander Wurz of Williams in third.
Yet as Hamilton drove to success there was drama in his rear-view mirrors throughout the 70 laps. Poland's Robert Kubica was involved in an horrific crash in his BMW Sauber, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella were both thrown out of the race, while the safety car was as busy as the F1 machines.
Hamilton, accused earlier in the week of over-aggression off the grid by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, got the perfect start from his first pole position.
The 22-year-old held his lead as Heidfeld stole a march on Alonso and tried to run down the inside of the young Briton heading into turn one.
Alonso added the drama this time, running wide at the first turn and cutting across Hamilton to return to the track before rejoining the race in third behind Heidfeld.
Jenson Button saw his problems with the Honda this season reach disastrous levels when he was left on the grid, pushed to the pit lane by marshals before finally giving up hope of getting into the race when his mechanics failed to start his car as his rivals started lap two. Honda later cited transmission failure as the cause of Button's demise.
All the time, Hamilton was building his lead at the front, up to 10.3 seconds on Heidfeld by lap 14 with Alonso losing ground as he once again went off the track at turn one - and again on lap 19.
Hamilton went into the pits on lap 22, ceding the lead briefly to Massa, but then the safety car came onto the track as Spyker's Adrian Sutil made heavy contact with a wall and came to a stop on the kerb unable to reach a run-off area.
When the pit lane re-opened with the yellow flag still out, Massa led the charge into the pits, leaving Hamilton back in front with Heidfeld second and Alonso third.
The safety car was barely back in the pit lane however, when it was redeployed after an horrific crash for Kubica as he headed towards the L'Epingle hairpin on lap 28.
The Polish driver appeared to clip the Toyota of Jarno Trulli which sent his own car airborne and ploughing nose first into a wall before barrel-rolling across the track and sliding on the car's side along the opposite wall.
There were very nervous moments as Kubica was attended to in his car, after a crash which sent vast amounts of debris from the BMW Sauber flying across the track.
As the Pole was being extracted from his car and taken to the track medical centre, stewards were handing out 10-second stop/go penalties to both Alonso and Rosberg for entering the pit lane as the safety car was on the track.
When the race finally got under way again on lap 33, Hamilton was left with the task of rebuilding his lead over Heidfeld.
Incidents continued aplenty as Rosberg and Trulli spun out, before Scotland's David Coulthard suffered his fourth retirement of the season on lap 38.
Anthony Davidson was the last driver into the pits for the first time but he caught his team napping as he came to a halt outside his garage with no mechanics in sight.
The Super Aguri crew eventually scrambled to attend to their lonely driver, who emerged at the rear of the 17 remaining cars.
Kubica, meanwhile, was being airlifted by helicopter to Montreal's Sacre Coeur hospital for further investigations, with a BMW Sauber spokesman claiming the driver was "okay and talking to doctors".
Tonio Luizzi brushed a wall to end his race and, with the safety car back out, Trulli crashed his Toyota into a safety barrier, just as he was re-entering the race from a pit stop.
That left just 12 cars left in the race with 10 laps remaining.
Thankfully for Hamilton, they were relatively uneventful and the British rookie took his first chequered flag to thunderous applause from the sell-out crowd and the delight of his McLaren crew.
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