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Sunday, July 08, 2007

after france, kimi takes england


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apologies for missing the french gp as i have been extremely busy with work. but what an exciting gp, with kimi winning a lucky race. a good ferrari 1-2 nonetheless, and now ferrari may well be back into championship contention.

the atmosphere at silverstone must have been awesome. celebrities of any sort and motorsport fans from all corners of the world created such sights and sounds for the historic circuit. i can imagine the place packed with enthusiasm, all excited about the possibility of their star winning the home gp. however, it was not meant to be for lewis.

soft vs hard
ferrari started on the soft tyres, while mclaren were on the harder tyres. interesting to see how the tyres significantly affected the outcome of this race. although ferrari was definitely quicker on the first two stints, but they weren't able to utilise the speed as much as they should have. having to change into the hard tyres at the last stint was definitely risky, but kimi was able to get the job done. lewis, on the other hand, had the tyre strategy all wrong as he ran most of the race on the harder tyres, and was left far behind by kimi and alonso in third. the soft tyres at the end just wasn't enough.

a nervous lewis hamilton
mclaren may have compromised lewis' race strategy by putting him on pole, in order to create a hype for raceday. the low fuel hard tyre strategy that hamilton was on was not a competitive as kimi's low fuel soft tyre strategy. as a result, lewis needed to defend aggresively against kimi at his tail. he was making mistakes and locking up pretty often, and eventually the pressure must have gotten to him, and it was evident when a pitstop fumble revealed a jittery lewis. could this silverstone mistake be the beginning of the lewis fall?

superb overtaking skill
having to start from the pitlane after a computer glitch, massa stormed from last up to 9th in just 12 laps. overtaking at silverstone is difficult, due to the fast corners nature of the circuit, but massa managed to show how it should be done. due to his amazing recovery, he managed to come out 7th after his first stop. brilliant. damage limitation from massa by finishing 5th at the end of the race. could have been another 1-2 for ferrari though.

podium streak
lewis grabbed his 9th consecutive podiums, as he managed to be on the podium in every race so far this season, which is pretty amazing, especially for a rookie. alonso must have been glad he's on a higher step than lewis, and to do so at lewis' home gp. but i'm sure lewis wouldn't care; besides, he's still leading the championship with only eight more races to go. perhaps podium is the way to go.

sss
should have been zzz, but sss = sleeping scott speed. like all other backmarkers, speed ignored blue flag while chasing for track positions. after being passed and rudely waved off by alonso, speed was distracted by alonso and didn't manage to see wurz passing him on the inside. speed closed the door, and ended up breaking his own suspension, ending his race. goodbye speed, it was nice having you.

star sports sucks
enough said.

winner of the race
kimi won this race fair and square. he raced hard in order to keep close with lewis, had a brilliant pitstop strategy, grabbed the fastest lap, and then come away with the win. a second successive win for kimi, and the driver with the most wins (three) this season. is he now comfortable and ready to take over the number one spot at ferrari?

loser of the race
a suspension failure ruined ralf schumacher's race. after beating his teammate jarno trulli in qualifying for the first time this season, ralf didn't get any luck and ended the race with nothing to shout about. very unfortunate.



previous posts:
lewis and his american dream
sato's awesome pass on alonso
lewis triumphed, alonso slaughtered
lewis hamilton grabs another headline
monaco recap

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