Month: July 2007

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso won a thrilling European Grand Prix after beating Felipe Massa in a chaotic, rain-interrupted and dramatic race at the Nurburgring.

It all started with a sudden heavy deluge, which flooded the track during the opening lap. Many cars simply struggled in the extreme wet conditions and aquaplaned right off the circuit! At the first corner alone, six cars went into the gravel trap and these include the two Toro Rossos (Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi), Jenson Button in the Honda, Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren!

Luckily for Hamilton, he managed to keep his car off the tyre wall and got back on track. He was a lap down, but under the 2007 Formula One regulations, the championship leader was allowed to unlapped himself under the Safety Car laps that were run as the race restarted after a 20-minute halt.

Hamilton had earlier suffered a tyre puncture when he was involved in a silly BMW-Sauber crash involving the team-mates of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld on the run-down to the first corner…

With so many incidents on the track, the race was wisely red flagged on the fourth lap. Incredibly, Formula One rookie Markus Winkelhock – making his Grand Prix debut in the Spyker – was leading the field, thanks to the team’s great strategy call to place him on full wets after the parade lap.

The race restarted a short while later under the Safety Car. Immediately, Markus Winkelhock’s Spyker dropped backwards as the team took the gamble to fit extreme wet tyres in the hope of another sudden downpour. It didn’t and the race resumed with Massa leading ahead of Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen had earlier led the original start to the race but when the heavens opened, the Finn tried to head into the pits but unfortunately understeered off! At the second restart, Kimi gained some extra places by pitting a lap sooner than the others for dry Bridgestone tyres (as the track was drying out). He then gained rapidly on the leading pair, only to retire on lap 34 when his Ferrari started cutting out…

As for Alonso, he was losing touch on Massa – as much as eight seconds – until the clouds darkened again in the last 10 laps… The entire field had to pit yet again to go back on to intermediates, and Alonso proved substantially faster than Massa on the wet track.

The Spaniard was all over the back of the Brazilian’s Ferrari, and although Massa managed to resist him for two laps, the McLaren swept around on the outside of Turn 5 – with a touch of wheel-banging – on lap 55, then proceeded to pull away and claim an extremely important race victory.

Later the Brazilian complained of a set of tyres that vibrated badly and he wasn’t pleased by the double world champion’s overtaking move. Still, he managed to finish the crazy race in second.

Finishing in third was Red Bull’s Mark Webber. The Australian drove a fantastic race in the mixed weather conditions to earn his first podium finish since Monaco 2005. He had risen to third during the early chaos, then regained the place when Raikkonen retired.

Alex Wurz was close behind in the Williams and came within 0.2 seconds of stealing third from Webber as the two cars crossed the finishing line. But in the end, Wurz settled with fourth.

David Coulthard completed a great weekend for Red Bull Racing with fifth ahead of the BMW-Sauber pair (Heidfeld and Kubica respectively), who had recovered from their early tangle in the original race start.

And finishing in the last remaining points position was Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn took a gamble to make a premature switch to intermediates as the rain approached at the end of the race. Heikki was originally in fifth but took the risk to change the tyres a bit too soon.

As for Lewis Hamilton, the world championship leader suffered a nightmare weekend with a non-points finish in ninth. Despite that, Hamilton drove a determined race and was unlucky to be caught-out in the wet/dry/wet conditions.

Fernando Alonso’s victory at the Nurburgring means he has reduce the points gap to team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two points as Formula One heads to Hungary in two weeks time.

European Grand Prix, 60 laps

1. ALONSO McLaren 2h06m26.388s
2. MASSA Ferrari +8.1s
3. WEBBER Red Bull +1m05.6s
4. WURZ Williams +1m05.9s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m13.6s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +1m20.2s
7. KUBICA BMW +1m22.4s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
9. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
10. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
12. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +26 laps
R. SATO Super Aguri +41 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +42 laps
R. WINKELHOCK Spyker +47 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +58 laps
R. SUTIL Spyker +58 laps
R. ROSBERG Williams +58 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +58 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +58 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1m32.853s (lap 34)

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took pole position for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, in a session interrupted by an accident that befell the championship leader of Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren driver had just set the fastest section time when he suffered a front-right wheel failure on the approach to the fast Schumacher S. The silver car slew straight on, bounced over the gravel trap before crashing hard into the tyre wall.

After impacting the wall, Hamilton was seen moving his legs in the cockpit. The British rookie attempted to extricate himself from the cockpit but was clearly in some discomfort and stopped to await medical assistance.

The qualifying session was immediately red-flagged while the doctors attended to Hamilton, who waved to the crowd while being stretchered away to the medical centre.

McLaren subsequently confirmed that Hamilton sustained no serious injuries, broken bones or bruising, and that he did not lose consciousness during the crash. The Englishman was taken to Koblenz Bundeswehr Hospital for a precautionary CT scan, which proved to be entirely normal. As is normal, Hamilton will require a final sign-off by FIA Medical Delegate Gary Hartstein on Sunday morning before he is allowed to race. The team expect the outcome of this to be positive.

The cause of the shunt was a problem with the right-front wheel airgun during the previous pit stop in which Hamilton’s McLaren was fitted with its last set of Bridgestone tyres before his all-out qualifying run. The wheelnut could not be fitted properly, and a second airgun was needed to cure the problem. However, back on track the wheel was still able to move enough to generate sufficient damage to cause it to fail.

The session was red flagged for 30 minutes as the damaged car was recovered, and repairs were made to the conveyor belt round the tyre wall. When the session resumed, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa lapped in one minute, 31.778 secs to set provisional pole. But this was immediately beaten by team-mate Raikkonen with a time of one minute, 31.450 secs.

As for the double world champion, Fernando Alonso was actually faster than the Finn in the first section but he then had a major oversteer moment in the middle of his fast lap and as he crossed the start/finish line, the Spaniard could only record the second fastest time with one minute, 31.741 secs.

This was Raikkonen’s first pole position since the season’s opening Grand Prix at Melbourne and judging by his previous two race performances, the Finn is looking great for a hat-trick of wins.

Behind the leading three came the BMW-Sauber pair of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica – fourth and fifth respectively. Mark Webber did a splendid job to qualifying his Red Bull in sixth (14 places ahead of his team-mate David Coulthard, who was eliminated at the first knock-out stage).

Heikki Kovalainen was the only Renault in the top ten with P7. As for Giancarlo Fisichella, the Italian struggled and could only managed 13th position.

The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will line up in eighth and ninth on the grid – despite Trulli spinning at the final chicane at the end of the third session.

And starting behind them all will be Lewis Hamilton. The championship leader will start the race carrying the same fuel load as when he competed in qualifying.

Sunday’s European Grand Prix will be a fascinating contest as the three championship contenders’ battle for the overall win. Will Raikkonen go for his hat-trick of race victories? Can Alonso reduce the points gap to Lewis with a better grid position? What about Massa, can the Brazilian challenge his Ferrari team-mate and take the win himself? But I suspect all the focus will be on Hamilton. The British driver will start in his lowest grid position this season and it will be interesting how well he will race against Heidfeld, Kubica, Webber, Kovalainen, Trulli and Schumacher in his comeback to score valuable championship points. It should be highly entertaining at the Nurburgring!

European Grand Prix starting grid

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:31.450
2. ALONSO McLaren 1:31.741
3. MASSA Ferrari 1:31.778
4. HEIDFELD BMW 1:31.840
5. KUBICA BMW 1:32.123
6. WEBBER Red Bull 1:32.476
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:32.478
8. TRULLI Toyota 1:32.501
9. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:32.570
10. HAMILTON McLaren 1:33.833
11. ROSBERG Williams 1:31.978
12. WURZ Williams 1:31.996
13. FISICHELLA Renault 1:32.010
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:32.221
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:32.451
16. SATO Super Aguri 1:32.838
17. BUTTON Honda 1:32.983
18. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:33.038
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:33.148
20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:33.151
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:34.500
22. WINKELHOCK Spyker 1:35.940

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen takes his second consecutive Grand Prix victory by beating the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second and third respectively.

The Finn’s latest victory at Silverstone means he is now just 18 points behind the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, as we go into the second half of this exciting Formula One season.

Lewis Hamilton, the star of the qualifying session with his sensational pole position, could only finish in third. He seemed to be struggling with the balance in his MP4-22 and was disappointed not to take the race win in front of thousands of his home fans. Still, he should be satisfied that his finishing record of nine podiums in nine races is truly remarkable. He still leads the title race by 12 points ahead of McLaren team-mate Alonso.

The Spaniard started the race in third and despite leading the middle stint of the 59-lap race, the double world champion had to settle for second behind the race-winning Ferrari of Raikkonen.

How did the Iceman get in front of the McLarens? Kimi revealed that it was all down to running a longer middle stint and setting those crucial fast laps to jump ahead of the silver cars.

“We had a good car all day, all weekend actually, in the race I just tried to save some fuel and look after the tyres on my car and once Lewis pitted I tried to push and gained some time on him,” Raikkonen said.

“Then Fernando did a very short stop, so we knew that we were going to run longer in the second stop [stint], so we just tried to push as hard as he can and obviously he came in and it was enough. After that it was pretty easy.”

The Finn’s back-to-back victories means he is now a likely candidate to challenge Hamilton for the championship title and Kimi admits that he is becoming more confident in the F2007 as the season goes on.

“It is going to be a long season still,” he said. “We seem to have a good speed right now, I think it depends also on the circuit conditions and the [different] places where we go, but I am really happy now with the car.

“All weekend it has been good and yesterday I just had a mistake, which made our life a lot more difficult than it should have been in the race, but we came out with a win and that’s the main thing.”

Indeed, the Ferraris were the fastest cars at Silverstone and this victory for Kimi Raikkonen means the 2007 world championship will be a fascinating contest between four of the quickest drivers in the sport.

Finishing in fourth was Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber, who drove a great race despite a late challenge from Felipe Massa, who stalled his Ferrari on the starting grid. The Brazilian was puzzled why his engine cut out on the parade lap and was forced to start the race in the pits. Running a lighter fuel load and using the grippy ‘white stripes’ Bridgestone, Massa was flying in the early stages of the British Grand Prix. He managed to pass several cars and to finish in fifth was an impressive recovery drive. But if Felipe didn’t have that problem, he could have been a contender for the race win…

Nick Heidfeld finished in sixth, thanks to running a longer stint after originally qualifying in ninth. The German was the last remaining driver to be on the lead lap. Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen managed to pass his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the final pit stop for seventh position.

As for the other British drivers racing in their home race, Jenson Button managed to use a one-stop strategy to his benefit with P10. Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard was a place behind, but poor old Anthony Davidson. After going off in qualifying to warm up his Bridgestones, the Super Aguri driver was forced to retire after ‘extreme’ handling problems that could not be solved.

It may not have been a classic race after a thrilling qualifying, but you can never discount Ferrari and the Italian team seem to have the advantage as we reach the season’s midpoint.

Hamilton still leads the standings with 70 points from Alonso on 58, Raikkonen now up to 52 thanks to his two recent wins, with team-mate Massa on 51. In the constructors’ championship, McLaren still leads the way but by 25 points over Ferrari.

British Grand Prix result after 59 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1hm21m43.074s
2. ALONSO McLaren +2.4s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +39.3s
4. KUBICA BMW +53.3s
5. MASSA Ferrari +54.0s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +56.3s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
8. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
9. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
10. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
13. WURZ Williams +1 lap
14. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
15. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +6 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +16 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +24 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +30 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +37 laps
R SUTIL Spyker +43 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +51 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.638s

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will start his home race on pole position after beating Kimi Raikkonen in the final moments during an exciting hour of qualifying at the British Grand Prix.

Initially, Hamilton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso set the quickest lap around the former RAF airfield with a time of one minute, 20.147 seconds. The Spaniard set the benchmark with the harder Bridgestone tyres.

Then French Grand Prix winner Raikkonen came speeding out of Luffield, only to run wide at Woodcote… This little mistake costs the Finn the forward momentum in his Ferrari, but his efforts was still good enough to beat Alonso’s time with one minute, 20.099 seconds. At least the Iceman was ahead of his team-mate, Felipe Massa, who lines up in fourth with one minute, 20.265 seconds.

It all looked over, but Lewis was only halfway around his final qualifying lap and in the second split, was even quicker than Kimi! As the 22-year-old crossed the start/finish line in front of tens of hundreds of his home crowd, the world championship leader pulled a remarkable save with a sensational pole position.

His time of one minute, 19.997 seconds means Lewis has an advantage going into first-ever British Grand Prix. Behind the tense Ferrari versus McLaren battle came the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica with a surprising Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota (fifth and sixth respectively).

Lining up on the fourth row are the Renault drivers, with Heikki Kovalainen out-qualifying his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella by five hundredths of a second.

And rounding up the top ten is BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, and Schumacher’s team-mate Jarno Trulli.

What about the other British drivers – how did David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson fared in today’s qualifying session?

Well, DC was happy enough to sign a new contract with Red Bull Racing for 2008 and the popular Scot will line up in twelve, one place behind his team-mate Mark Webber.

As for Jenson Button, he had a disastrous qualifying session for his home Grand Prix. Jenson only managed 18th on the grid after encountering traffic and yellow flags. In fact this was caused by his Honda B-team colleague Anthony Davidson, who strangely lost control of his Super Aguri between Brooklands and Luffield and ending up in the gravel…

Right, the stage is set for an exciting British Grand Prix of recent times. Any of the top four drivers has a strong chance of victory, but all of the crowd’s expectation resting firmly on Hamilton’s young shoulders. Every time that he has started from pole this year, he has won. So the signs are looking positive and providing he doesn’t make any mistakes during a frantic 60-lap Grand Prix, Lewis could extend his lead in the drivers’ standings and edge closer to winning that ultimate prize, the 2007 title.

Starting grid for the 2007 British Grand Prix:

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1:19.997
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:20.099
3. ALONSO McLaren 1:20.147
4. MASSA Ferrari 1:20.265
5. KUBICA BMW 1:20.401
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:20.516
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:20.721
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1:20.775
9. HEIDFELD BMW 1:20.894
10. TRULLI Toyota 1:21.240
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1:20.235
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:20.329
13. WURZ Williams 1:20.350
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:20.364
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:20.515
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:20.823
17. ROSBERG Williams 1:21.219
18. BUTTON Honda 1:21.335
19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:21.448
20. SUTIL Spyker 1:22.019
21. SATO Super Aguri 1:22.045
22. ALBERS Spyker 1:22.589