Monday, July 09, 2007

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.

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