Lewis Hamilton took his second consecutive Grand Prix victory at Indianapolis after a race-long duel with his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton’s second win follows last weekend’s fantastic performance in which the young rookie scored his dream result after only six races.
Lewis led from pole position and despite constant pressure from Fernando in the 73-lap race; the championship leader drove a commending race from the front.
The only situation for Lewis came on lap 38, in which the Toro Rosso of Vitantonio Liuzzi held him up. The backmarker heading into the pits, but the lost of momentum gave Alonso the slipstream as they headed onto the pit straight. The two silver cars were wheel-to-wheel but Lewis held his line into the first corner – defended his track position – and that frustrated Alonso.
In the end, McLaren achieved another perfect one-two result that pleases Ron Dennis, the team’s manager. The Vodafone-sponsored team are on a roll after dominating the Monaco Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa finished in a lonely third, ahead of his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen – who recovered after losing two places at the start. The Finn spent his opening stint trapped behind the BMW-Sauber of Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault. Kimi eventually went passed both after switching to the soft Bridgestone tyres at his first stop, which gave him the opportunity to set the fastest lap as he gained on his team-mate near the final stages of the race.
Kovalainen followed up with his recent performance in Canada with a strong fifth place finish, having led for several laps thanks to his long opening stint. The late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams, made life a little easier for the Finn.
Rosberg’s sad demise was a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who finished in sixth after fighting off the challenge of Mark Webber in the Red Bull. As for Sebastian Vettel, the 19-year-old driving for BMW-Sauber, scored a point on his debut with eighth.
But that was a small reward for the team 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.
As ever Lewis Hamilton was the star of the weekend and after winning his first Formula One race in Montreal a week ago, the Briton is overwhelmed with emotion in how well it has gone so far.
“What a dream,” said a delighted Hamilton. “To come into two circuits that I didn’t know, first time, to really come out with such pace and see the team moving forward and being competitive.
“They have done a fantastic job. This wouldn’t have been possible without them, and the guys here did a fantastic job.
“It is a perfect team and I am glad I put the icing on the cake.
“Really I am just extremely pleased and proud of the team. I never thought in a million years I would be here against these drivers here. It is a great leap in my career and my life, I am thankful to my family and the guardians of the team.”
Hamilton admitted it was tough to keep Alonso behind him, especially during the second stint, when Alonso was right behind.
“The first couple of laps were close and then I managed to pull a slight gap and maintain it, and in the middle stint my tyres started to grain so Fernando was right up my tail,” Hamilton added.
“It was extremely difficult, he was in my slipstream, it was very tough but he fought very well, very professional but in the end I was able to pull a gap, maintain it and win the race.”
Hamilton has now scored 58 points in seven races, ten more than Alonso and 19 more than Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. In the constructors’ standings McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.
The Formula One circus heads back into Europe in July with another back-to-back racing weekend in France and Britain. Can Lewis continue his winning form and scored that home victory in Silverstone? Or will Alonso strike back in his bid to defend his title?
US Grand Prix result – 73 laps
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h39:09.065
2. ALONSO McLaren +1.5s
3. MASSA Ferrari +12.8s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +15.4s
5. KOVALAINEN Renault +41.4s
6. TRULLI Toyota +66.7s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +67.3s
8. VETTEL BMW +67.7s
9. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
10. WURZ Williams +1 lap
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
13. SPEED Toro Rosso +2 laps
14. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
15. ALBERS Spyker +3 laps
16. ROSBERG Williams +5 laps
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +5 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW +18 laps
R. SATO Super Aguri +60 laps
R. COULTHARD Red Bull +73 laps
R. BARRICHELLO Honda +73 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +73 laps
Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN – lap 49 1min. 13.117secs.
Credit where credit is due, Hamilton is an amazing driver. Yeh he has the car and team underneath him. But to hold Alonso off like that he’s a pretty mature driver, just shows how much it means to him.
I heard on the news too, he’s picking up quite a fanbase with Americans and even Germans cheering him on at races : )