Category: Motor Racing

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa beats the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the final moments of qualifying to take his fifth pole position of the season.

The Brazilian has a good record at the Istanbul Park race circuit. Massa scored his first pole position and race victory last year, so to repeat his qualifying performance this season is a fantastic achievement.

Initially, Lewis Hamilton had the advantage after making the switch to the white stripes Bridgestone tyres during his final run. The Formula One rookie set the benchmark with a time of one minute, 27.373 seconds. But as his McLaren team were celebrating, Felipe Massa had the faster momentum out of the tricky final sequences of corners to cross the line with a time of one minute, 27.329 seconds.

This edge out Hamilton down to second but both drivers out-performed their respective team-mates, who will line up behind in third and fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen blew his chance to take top spot when he made a slight error into the penultimate corner. His time of one minute, 27.546 seconds was sufficient enough to keep McLaren’s Fernando Alonso down in fourth with a lap time of one minute, 27.574 seconds.

The double world champion opted for the harder Bridgestone compound in his bid to set the quickest time, but this gamble didn’t work and will line up on row two.

Behind the Ferrari and McLaren pair, Robert Kubica drove a great lap to record one minute, 27.722 seconds to take fifth for BMW-Sauber. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld is directly behind with one minute, 28.037 seconds, while Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg in the Williams completed row four with one minute, 28.491 seconds and one minute, 28.501 seconds respectively.

Row five comprises Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on one minute, 28.740 seconds, and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault on one minute, 29.322 seconds.

Star performance of qualifying goes to Anthony Davidson. He beat his Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato by a long margin (Sato will start in P19), so to qualifying his Super Aguri just outside the top ten is a remarkable achievement for the British driver.

Looking at the times between the Ferraris and McLarens, Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix will be very tense for the four drivers as the championship moves into the final six races of the year. Felipe Massa is determined to turn his pole position with race victory, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen needs to strike back on else the Finn drops out of contention for the 2007 drivers’ title. As for Lewis Hamilton, he has track advantage over Fernando Alonso so another good result at Istanbul will be a huge benefit towards achieving his dream result of winning his first title in only his first season of Formula One racing. Alonso on the other hand, will want to close down the championship points gap by outracing both his team-mate and the Ferrari pair. It should be a thrilling race!

Starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:27.329
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:27.373
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:27.546
4. ALONSO McLaren 1:27.574
5. KUBICA BMW 1:27.722
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1:28.037
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:28.491
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:28.501
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:28.740
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1:29.322
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:28.002
12. WEBBER Red Bull 1:28.013
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:28.100
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:28.188
15. BUTTON Honda 1:28.220
16. WURZ Williams 1:28.390
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:28.798
18. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:28.809
19. SATO Super Aguri 1:28.953
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:29.408
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:29.861
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:31.479

Since 2002, only one driver remained unbeatable on the Rallye Deutschland. His name? Sébastien Loeb. His achievement? Winning the event for the sixth time, thereby closing the championship gap to rival Marcus Grönholm to eight points.

Loeb dominated the three-day event with ease and it was fitting that his main championship rival lost track position after losing control in his Ford Focus. Grönholm should have finished in second, but under extreme pressure by the flying Citroen of Francois Duval, the Finn went off in the final stage… Handing the position to Duval.

Grönholm managed to continue in his damaged car and was lucky to finish fourth, behind his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

After crossing the line, Frenchman Loeb expresses his gratitude to Duval for pressuring Grönholm into his error.

“I must say thank you to Francois Duval because he was pushing incredibly hard,” Loeb said.

Duval was equally thrilled with his second place. “I pushed a lot… I’m very happy – after eight months (away) it’s incredible.”

So a great drive by the two Citroen WRC drivers. The championship now heads to New Zealand in two weeks time. Can Sébastien Loeb reduce the points gap further?

After a two-month break, the World Rally Championship returns to the former 1000 Lakes venue and Marcus Grönholm scored his seventh career Rally Finland win.

In fact, it was a dominate performance by the Ford Rally Team as Grönholm and team-mate Mikko Hirvonen finished in first and second.

World champion Sébastien Loeb could only manage third. The Frenchman is now 13 points adrift of the Finn in the championship standings.

Grönholm is the first driver in the modern era of the WRC to win an event seven times.

“When I was a young driver in the 1990s I could never have thought that I would ever win here, but seven times looks very good,” said Grönholm.

“I’m very happy, and it’s nice to get the 10 points here before we head to Germany.”

The epic Loeb versus Grönholm title battle continues on the Rallye Deutschland on August 17th.

Lewis Hamilton has scored his third Grand Prix victory of the season with a dominant lights-to-flag win at the Hungaroring. Kimi Raikkonen finished in second with Nick Heidfeld in third.

As for Fernando Alonso, who was relegated to sixth after his professional foul during qualifying, recovered to finish in fourth but the spectre of McLaren’s appeal in the constructors’ championship and the fall-out from the qualifying drama will hang over the sport for the rest of the season.

It wasn’t an easy race for Hamilton, as he had to withstand constant pressure from his Ferrari rival. In addition, the British rookie was struggling with a problem with his steering in his McLaren MP4-22 so to stay ahead is still a pretty impressive achievement.

Robert Kubica finished in fifth for BMW-Sauber ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher – who was leading the frustrated Alonso for most of the 70-lap race.

Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) finished in the remaining points places.

As for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian finished in a frustrating P13, no thanks to a rare error from Ferrari – who forgotten to put fuel in the car in qualifying!

And what a difference a year makes for Jenson Button in the Honda. Winner of the crazy wet-dry race, the British driver struggled with a lack of competitive pace in his ‘earth’ car and was forced to retire with engine failure. As for Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian finished dead last and two laps down on the leaders…

It wasn’t a thrilling race at the Hungaroring, especially when you consider the last 24 hours of events. The on-going rivalry between the double world champion and his young British rookie is getting out of hand and even McLaren are having difficulty on keeping tabs on the growing tense situation.

The only positive for Ron Dennis – team principal at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – is that Lewis Hamilton still leads the drivers’ standings. He holds a seven-points advantage over Fernando Alonso as Formula One takes a three-week break. This has come at the right time when you consider the recent ‘spy’ scandal and the controversy surrounding the two drivers during qualifying. Formula One needs to focus its attention on the track rather than off-track politics, as this year’s championship has been the most competitive for some time. Hopefully the tense atmosphere will be cleared once racing gets under way in Turkey in late August.

Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h35m52.991s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +0.7s
3. HEIDFELD BMW +43.1s
4. ALONSO McLaren +44.8s
5. KUBICA BMW +47.6s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota +50.6s
7. ROSBERG Williams +59.1s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m08.1s
9. WEBBER Red Bull +1m16.3s
10. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
13. MASSA Ferrari +1 lap
14. WURZ Williams +1 lap
15. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
18. BARRICHELLO Honda +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +28 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +29 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +35 laps
R. YAMAMOTO Spyker +66 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.047s (lap 70)

Double world champion Fernando Alonso took a controversial pole position for this Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix by holding up his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the pits.

The British rookie had dominated the first two sessions of qualifying, setting the quickest time in his MP4-22. But come session three – the top ten shootout for pole position – Hamilton was denied the opportunity by his team-mate Alonso.

The Spaniard was the first car to be serviced by his team, fitting new Bridgestone tyres and fuel for the final lap run. Although he was waved out by his McLaren pit crew Alonso remained stationery for several seconds – holding up Hamilton, who was waiting directly behind… By the time the team serviced the second driver, the current championship leader had insufficient time to complete an out lap before the chequered flag.

As for Alonso, he managed to cross the start/finish line with four seconds to spare and recorded his fastest time (1 min. 19.674 secs) to take pole position. It wasn’t sporting but nevertheless, the Spaniard has the track advantage going into the race. The Hungaroring is notorious known as a difficult race circuit to overtake on, due to long corners and lack of straights…

Behind the leading two McLarens is Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber. The German took advantage by tactical errors from Ferrari, but it remains unclear whether the team is running Heidfeld’s car light on fuel for track position or has genuine pace to challenge the leaders.

Kimi Raikkonen will start in fourth, several places ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian suffered a nightmare qualifying session. First the team didn’t put enough fuel into his F2007 and then, drove a pretty poor lap in session two. Massa will start the race way down in 14th position.

Nico Rosberg benefited from this strategic error by the Italian team to qualifying fifth in his Williams ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher.

Robert Kubica will start the race in seventh, with Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber rounding up the final ten places.

As for the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button, the Honda driver struggled with a lack of downforce and will start in a disappointing 17th.

So the stage is set for another Fernando versus Lewis battle. With Hamilton unimpressed by the supposedly deliberate hold up in the pits, can he seek revenge by beating his team-mate with race victory? Or will Alonso continue his winning performance following his superb Nurburgring race win two weeks ago? What about Raikkonen? Can the Ice-Man stop the silver cars? As for Massa, he needs to avoid any incidents as he recovers from a low grid position.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring

1. ALONSO McLaren 1m19.674s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m19.781s
3. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.259s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.410s
5. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.632s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m21.714s
7. KUBICA BMW 1m21.876s
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1m23.079s
9. TRULLI Toyota 1m21.206s
10. WEBBER Red Bull 1m21.256s
11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m20.718s
12. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m20.779s
13. WURZ Williams 1m20.865s
14. MASSA Ferrari 1m21.021s
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m21.127s
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m21.993s
17. BUTTON Honda 1m21.737s
18. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m21.877s
19. SATO Super Aguri 1m22.143s
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m22.177s
21. SUTIL Spyker 1m22.737s
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m23.774s

UPDATE: The Hungarian Grand Prix stewards are reviewing the incident involving Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton during Saturday’s qualifying.

Alonso took a controversial pole position from team-mate Hamilton after the rookie was unable to complete his final flying lap due to the Spaniard delaying his exit from the pitlane.

The two-time champion was waved to get going by his mechanics, but he stood still for some 10 seconds while Hamilton waited behind him. The delay meant Hamilton was unable to complete his final run in time.

After qualifying, the FIA decided to investigate the incident, and team boss Ron Dennis was called by the stewards.

The stewards also asked to review the radio communications related to that pitstop.

Source: Autosport.com

Well, well. It seems actions might be taken on Alonso. Will he be disqualified or have his qualifying times deleted? One thing for sure, it wasn’t sporting to hold up your team-mate who is causing you so much stress in Formula One this year. Clearly, this is getting personal for the Spaniard as he seeks to gain any advantage over Hamilton…

LATEST: World Champion Fernando Alonso has lost his pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix and will start tomorrow’s race in sixth place.

The race stewards at the Hungaroring have decided to demote the McLaren driver after reviewing evidence from today’s qualifying session, where the Spaniard held up teammate Lewis Hamilton in the pits, causing the Briton to miss out on a final flying lap and possible pole.

Alonso was adamant that he remained stationary for ten seconds because his engineers had told him to, while team boss Ron Dennis told reporters after the session that the incident was a result of Hamilton himself ignoring team orders earlier on in the session, therefore leaving the two drivers out of sequence.

The stewards talked to representatives of the team and reviewed recordings of the car radio transmissions before making their decision, over eight hours after qualifying ended.

The stewards of the Hungarian Grand Prix have also penalised the McLaren team, saying the outfit will not be awarded any constructors points in tomorrow’s race.

This comes along with a five-place demotion for Fernando Alonso, who has lost his pole position and will start tomorrow’s race in sixth place.

The stewards said they did not accept the team’s explanations nor Alonso’s for the incident in today’s qualifying, which saw the Spaniard hold up his teammate Lewis Hamilton, causing the Briton to lose the opportunity to run another flying lap.

McLaren have the right to appeal the stewards’ decision.

Source: Autosport.com

Wow! Not only Alonso loses his pole position but the team won’t be allowed to score championship points in the race… It hasn’t been a good couple of days for Formula One and McLaren – especially with the recent ‘spy’ scandal.

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