after france, kimi takes england

[ ferrari, silverstone, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

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

lewis and his american dream

[ mclaren, indianapolis, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

it was an action-packed american gp, with plenty of teammate rivalries and decent overtaking moves. best of all, no safety car.

back-to-back
although ron dennis said lewis won the canadian gp "fair and square", alonso said that lewis was lucky to win as it was a lottery race. well, nothing can be said about lewis' win at america, and it was truly "fair and square". having the clean start and holding strong through the first few corners, lewis made it extremely difficult for alonso to take the win from him. not even a near overtaking move by a two-times world champion could intimidate the cool, calm, and collected lewis. brilliant!

alonso frustrated to play second fiddle?
everyone saw that crazy swerve down the pit straight by alonso. he said it was to cool his car down, but i'd like to think it had something to do with his frustration - and he was sending some signals to his crew. what made the move more suspicious was that it came right after alonso's failed attempt to overtake lewis. i'll just leave it as that.

kimi to play second fiddle, as well
i'm sure some people were excited to see kimi chasing massa's tail till the chequered flag. it may look like "kimi has returned to form", or that "kimi is back"; however, these people choose to ignore the reality that kimi was on the preferred tyres for the race, while massa wasn't. and the fact of the matter is, kimi was slow in his qualifying, then he screwed up his start by dropping two places, and throughout the race he was behind massa. he looked like a number 2 driver to me (but drawing too huge a salary for that kind of performance). like my dad says, "he should be sacked after one season." wise man, i must say.

testing to bring fortune for ferrari
it was quite an embarassing performance, and ferrari just wasn't prepared for monaco, montreal, and indianapolis. while last year montreal and indianapolis were the tracks that saw a ferrari resurgence, this year they were the tracks that mclaren utterly dominated. jean todt was clearly glad they are moving to testing at silverstone next week. apparently, he was hoping the new developments would bring their performance back to pre-monaco days. for inter-team competition's sake, let's hope he's right.

bmw making headlines
not with heidfeld, who retired due to hydraulic leak. but with vettel, a 19 year old 'boy', scoring a point on his debut. he became the youngest driver in f1 history to score a point, which brings up the issue of whether formula 1 is getting too easy. i think there may be a point, but let's not take away credits from vettel. i can't remember what i was doing when i was 19, but i definitely wasn't scoring f1 points for bmw.

winner of the race
fisichella had a gallant run, and made numerous impressive overtaking moves. his moves on wurz and liuzzi were particularily sweet, revealing a pretty efficient spot on the circuit to overtake. prior to this, his attempt to pass button was pretty good as well, driving side by side through numerous corners. for a mr. nice, he didn't look very nice at all. briatore must have been proud, but unfortunately, no point for that run.

loser of the race
ferrari for losing their winning streak at indianapolis. 3rd and 4th may be a result mediocre teams celebrate, but ferrari isn't supposed to be a mediocre team. more importantly, ferrari is moving further away from the championship, and is miles behind mclaren in terms of speed judging by this race. another year without championships? very likely.



previous posts:
sato's awesome pass on alonso
lewis triumphed, alonso slaughtered
lewis hamilton grabs another headline
monaco recap
wonderful video by shell

sato's awesome pass on alonso

[ super aguri, montreal, takuma sato, formula 1 ]

for those who missed it, here's the video on sato's awesome pass on alonso at the penultimate lap of canada gp. the video is in japanese, and it's very funny how excited the commentators got. ;)


yes, we know alonso's car wasn't perfect, but still, i thought it was a fantastic move nonetheless. prior to alonso, he overtook ralf in a pretty decent move as well. and at the first half of the race, he passed kimi when kimi ran wide on the first corner. i guess sato did manage to learn how to drive.

good for him. good for super aguri.



previous posts:
lewis triumphed, alonso slaughtered
lewis hamilton grabs another headline
monaco recap
wonderful video by shell
lewis crash! boom! bang!

lewis triumphed, alonso slaughtered

[ mclaren, montreal, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

yup, there were mclaren fireworks alright, but it only lasted till the first/second corner. alonso attempted a do-or-die move on lewis, but failed miserably. not only did he lose the lead, he lost his position to heidfeld and he lost his car. a stop-go penalty didn't help either.

sato shamed alonso
alonso's day went from bad to worse when he wasn't competitive enough to hold back takuma sato in a super aguri. with just two laps to go, sato went on the outside of the straight to overtake alonso before the final chicane. it was a fantastic move, and the crowds loved it. granted, alonso was probably more concerned of the championship to ensure he didn't lose all his points.

lewis' maiden win, with many more wins to come
lewis on the other hand, rampaged on from the lead and never looked back. not even four safety cars could create a dent on his charge. for a rookie to handle the safety car periods with ease was nothing short of superb. he really did put the more seasoned drivers out there to shame. lewis is definitely a driver full of confidence, and if he continues to stay hungry and humble, there's just no stopping him. 6 races and a first win, that's pretty good.

damage limitation
lewis' win gave mclaren a very comfortable lead. it really looks like a year for mclaren. although alonso's race was totally wrecked, it was actually damage limitation for team mclaren. alonso benefited from massa and fisichella's black-flag incident, kubica's horrid crash, and four safety car periods to keep in touch with the rival and to score a couple of points. for modern f1, every point counts.

one safety car too many
circuit gilles villeneuve always delivers grand prix excitement. the races were never boring, year after year, promising plenty of actions. this year was no difference. however, i just think there were too many safety cars and too little racing. the walls of champions continued to punish drivers, claiming a handful of drivers. the worst hit driver was kubica, his car damaged beyond recognition. thanks to the strong fia crash-test regulations, kubica was lucky to walk off with just a broken leg (bmw statement).


winner of the race
who else? lewis... who now leads the world championship by 8 points.

loser of the race
backmarkers, except sato, for continuing to show a lack of class under challenging circuits such as the circuit gilles villeneuve.



previous posts:
lewis hamilton grabs another headline
monaco recap
wonderful video by shell
lewis crash! boom! bang!
are you ready for monaco?

lewis hamilton grabs another headline

[ mclaren, montreal, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

yeah, another post on lewis hamilton. this guy is really taking the formula 1 circus by storm. it was just a matter of time before he grabbed his first pole, and he did it at montreal - the circuit of the 'wall of champions'. it is also a matter of time before his first win sinks.

what makes this pole more amazing is the fact that lewis has never been to circuit gilles villeneuve. so basically he came, he saw, and he conquered. of course it wasn't really that simple. the montreal track is one that is very demanding on brakes and suspensions; thus car balance has to be perfect.

alonso is definitely pressured now, and he shouldn't deny it. alonso was seen chasing for pole position on the last lap, but couldn't as he made an uncharacteristic mistake at the hairpin (could be the point they radioed in on lewis' pole) and then at the penultimate corner. uncharacteristic is definitely a sign of a person under pressure.

this is an alien situation for alonso right now. having a teammate fast enough to beat him at any given day, or perhaps even having a faster teammate (period), must be a fact difficult for him to swallow. there are so much attentions on lewis, alonso surely feels that his thunder has been stolen. without the media to continuously inflate his ego, he has to work harder to earn it. he cannot afford to mess up, because if he does, his star teammate will be there to benefit from it. lewis hamilton must be alonso's least favourite name in the world.

alonso was asked if he would give lewis advice on starting his first pole, here's how he answered it (rather funny):

Q: (Randy Phillips – The Gazette) Fernando, do you have any advice for your team-mate starting for the first time from pole position?
FA: We will see tomorrow, I think today has been a good qualifying for the team again, a good job by everybody – first and second. The team should be very happy today.

Q: (Randy Phillips – The Gazette) But do you have any particular advice for Lewis?
FA: No advice. Don’t be too aggressive in the first corner and let me go through. (Laughter)

NH: The same for me please.

anyways, p1 and p2 are definitely great results for mclaren. the cars looked fast and flawless during qualifying, with superb downforce that made the cars stick. you wouldn't expect anything lower. many (especially ferrari) were caught surprised by mclaren's pace, as it was believed that mclaren's monaco speed was a one-off. not so it seems, and mclaren is definitely pulling away from the field.

so who is there to stop mclaren? ferrari? i don't think they can. the ferrari magic has disappeared ever since michael's departure. when michael was around, you'd ask yourself, "the situation is bad, but could he pull out a rabbit from his helmet?" you couldn't really doubt him. now you have massa and kimi, but no magic. how about bmw? impressive but not there yet. maybe quick nick has learned some card tricks of his own.

although a mclaren 1-2 is very likely for tomorrow's race, but watch out for some fireworks. a mclaren fireworks.



previous posts:
monaco recap
wonderful video by shell
lewis crash! boom! bang!
are you ready for monaco?
f1 circuit chief sacked for corruption