We Stick Like Glue

That must be the song on Hamilton's lips right now. His 9th race in his rookie season and he has managed to stick to the podium in every single race. Sunday's british grand prix was no different. Lewis started off on pole for his first home grand prix alongside Kimi on row one. Row two was a Ferrari-McLaren affair as well with Alonso and Massa taking positions three and four respectively.

Disaster struck early for the Brazillian driver when he stalled his engine just before the start and had to start last and from the pitlane. It was a perfect start for Lewis as he fended off the flying Finn into the second corner. The pace settled down pretty much after that. A short first stint was predicted for Lewis, with his pit strategy compromised to get him on pole at Silverstone. He was indeed the first to pit from the front runners. That handed Kimi the lead of the race. Kimi was within striking distance of Hamilton until he dived into the pits and managed to get some fliers under his belt before Kimi went on for his own pitstop, which resulted him in coming out ahead of the Brit. Alonso however, had other plans in mind. He had a very short pit stop (6 seconds) and took almost half the fuel on board in a bid to get out ahead of Kimi, which he did. Kimi once again had a McLaren just ahead of him, but this time it wasn't the young Brit, it was double world champion fernando Alonso.

Alonso had a 5 second lead from Kimi when it was time for him to make his early second stop. That difference in pit strategy was what swung the advantage in Kimi's favour, once again he had a clear track aheead of him and he broke lap records in succession to not only close in on Alonso, but he opened up enough advantage to come out in front of him after his own second stop. There was no catching Kimi after the second stop as he left the spaniard down in the dust. Alonso had no answers to match the scarlet car ahead of him.

Massa in the meanwhile had a "tigerish" drive from the back of the grid. He made up 10 places in the first 10 laps. He managed to get upto 7th after the first round of pit stops was over. 5th was the best he could manage on the day. More importantly, he finished just 28 seconds adrift the race winner, which just shows the pace of the Ferrari of Massa starting from the pitlane. The podium might have looked a little different had he started off from his qualifying position.

Kimi took the second consecutive victory in this season, third for this season. Alonso finished one place ahead of his teammate Lewis who finished third. The gap between Ferrari and McLaren in the constructors championship remains unchanged as a result but Kimi has now clawed back another four points on championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Alonso maintains his second position in the leaderboard. Kimi now stand third in the championshp ahead of Massa as a result of his second consecutive victory.

The glitz and glamour was plenty at the Silverstone circuit with the likes of Beckam and Victoria, Simon Le bon, the singer from Duran Duran, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent (the dude who gave away the Wimbledon mens singles champions trophy just 3 hours later) were just some of the many celebs that were present to witness (possibly) the last British gp at Silverstone.

The next race is the European grand prix at Nurburgring on the 22nd of July.

Did someone say rookie??

Rookie:A newcomer to the professional arena;a person new to an activity or in his first year of an education or job.

Right...Lewis Hamilton, 7 races into his first season as a professional formula one driver, has not put a revolution wrong. He has not crashed his car, he has not been fined, nor has he been given any penalties for breaking any rules(so commonly done by even the exprerienced drivers) by the FIA even once. Heck...the kid hasn't even spun his car once on the track. The only time he did make a mistake was in free practice in Monaco, where he managed to crash into the barriers breaking his left front suspension. That was when it mattered the least. No penalties, no fines...it's free practice.

So lets talk about all that he has done in the season so far. He has managed to stick to the podium like glue, has finished in the top three all season long until now. He has won two grands prix back to back, the first for a 'rookie'. As a result he is now leading the world championship(WDC) with a 14 points the gap between him and second place Alonso.

Spare a thought for Alonso though, the reigning double world champion came into McLaren with the hype, and the expectations of a McLaren revival on his shoulders. Alongside him a 'rookie' (I can't believe we are still calling Lewis that) Lewis Hamilton. Damn...the guy looks like a couple of seasons old already!! What's worse is that while Alonso has managed to be on and off in terms of the pace, has had his engine changed, and managed to get a 7th as his wors finish to in the season so far, Lewis has been unbelievably consistent and managed to walk away with a trophy in each of the grand prix. His worst finish this year has been a 3rd place in Australia and a 3rd at France. phew!!

Ferrari on the other hand are facing a dynamics in the team of a totally unfamiliar kind. Traditionally they would have a #1 driver (Michael Schumacher) and a #2 driver (Barrichello, Massa) and obvoiusly, the best strategies went to the #1 driver in order to maximize the chances of a Ferrari victory. This year however, Massa after having played the role of an underdog alongside Schumacher is now pitted equally against Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi with the responsibility if filling Michael's extra large sized shoes has yet to prove to the team that he and not Massa, is the man who's going to get them the title this year. Though his season started off perfectly with a win in Australia, he had slipped off in terms of performance in the following few races, Massa managed to outqualify Kimi and was also on pole more often than Kimi. Kimi's win in France should do his confidence a world of good.

What it has also done is that it has split the championship wide open again. It looked as if McLaren would run away with the 2007 WDC with Ferrari throwing in the towel in the first half of the season itself. With the scarlet cars back to winning ways, and Lewis still managing consistent performances, it looks like a close fight to the chequered flag at the end of the season awaits us.

With almost no testing between the French gp and the british gp (both gps are on consecutive weekends) the scarlet cars definitely seem to have the upper hand. A repeat of the results from France would see the championship close up even further.