Formula 1 Jam

Lewis Hamilton became the first ever rookie to win 2 back to back races in his rookie season with an inch perfect display at Indianapolis. The Briton was pushed to the finish by his two time world champion teammate, who crossed the chequered flag just 1.5s adrift.

The race was probably won and lost in Q3 in qualification. Hamilton’s perfect lap saw him displace Alonso from the top position and paved way for an all Mc Laren front row. The start saw the two drivers slug it out in corners 1,2 and 3 but Lewis kept his nose ahead and surged forward. Kimi in the Ferrari had a poor start probably something to do with his choice of starting with hard tyres. The choice would comeback to pay dividends later when he made up most in his third stint.

Heikki in the Renault used the opportunity to sneak past Kimi along with Nick Heidfeld. The Finn would drive a consistent race to finish in 5th. Nick on the other hand ran out of luck with a few laps to go.

McLaren chose to call in their drivers a few laps ahead of schedule fearing a safety car. The gap was enough for Lewis to drop in and out of the pits ahead of the Spaniard, a status quo that would stay till the end. There was one notable incident in lap 38 with Alonso lining up Lewis but the Briton held onto his nerves and got the job done.

In the back field, Fisichella spun early and was demoted to the back. The Italian fought hard driving a heavy car and still managed to produce some of the best overtaking at Indy. Liuzzi in the Torro Rosso was a chicane at #11 for most of the race until his retirement at lap 68.

In other retirements Ralf Schumacher ended his race at the first corner after outbreaking himself, Coulthard and Barrichello paid for the accident as it took them out of the race too. Sato spun himself into the kitty litter and beached his car out of the race, but not before he was investigated for overtaking under yellow flags. The Japanese driver will now lose 10 grid positions in France. Rosberg rounded up the unfortunate non finishers after his engine let go with just 4 laps remaining.

The ending part of the race beamed with a brilliant contest between the two Ferrari drivers. Massa held his position to finish ahead of Kimi who had a clear advantage thanks to the tyres. Unfortunately it was too close to the finish and Kimi later revealed that he did not want to stress both his and Massa’s engine before France with an unwarranted move.

Lewis now leads the World Championship with 10 points from his teammate. McLaren are a clear 35pts ahead of Ferrari. This season looks like its shaping up just right for a fight to the finish towards the end…

Race Results

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Lewis Hamilton made history by winning only his sixth Grand Prix race at the Canadian Grand Prix. The incident packed race saw 4 safety cars, 10 retirements, 6 accidents, one horrific crash, 2 black flags, 2 stop go penalties, one hilarious pitstop and loads of confusion.

Canadian Grand Prix made up for every boring race in the past 2 years simply based on the incidents that marred it. Right at the start Alonso dove into first corner alongside Lewis but right on the marbles giving him a free trip thru the grass costing him one place. The race was going downhill from there for the double world champ. Hiedfeld took advantage and was chasing Lewis to the flag.

Lewis had not much contention after the first corner. The Briton simply had to keep on track and do his pitstops fine to pick up a well deserved win. His only challenger was unfortunate to run out of fuel in the safety car period and pitted, costing him a 10 second stop go penalty. Robert Kubica was another casualty of the rule but his day was going to go from bad to worse as an airborne high impact crash left almost nothing remaining in the car.

The first safety car would have multiple casualties, this time it was Massa and Fisichella’s turn. Both entered the pits fighting for position when the pit lane was open but unfortuantely the exit was not open! Both received black flags for their negligence.

Lewis used the safety cars well to pull away at restarts without any problem. The Briton looked like a winner from the word go. Alonso in the other Mc Laren ran off as many as 4 times at corner 1… a rare sight from the flawless Spaniard. To add to his trouble he came out on 15th after the penalty… The next few laps showed some of the best overtaking from the Spaniard who rose to 8th overtaking cars right and left. He showed the true pace of his Mc Laren punching in the fastest lap on lap 46 and demolishing a 10+ sec deficit from Kimi Raikkonen in under 5 laps! But the effort was not going to be worth it another overtaking attempt pushed him onto the marbles and saw him lose places again. The champ finished the race in 7th.

Alex Wruz and Hiekki were the story of the day, starting from 19th and 22nd they fought amazing odds to pull off a one stop strategy and end up 3rd and 4th. The misfortune of the top drives helped them extremely but it was their controlled drive that clearly made them the drivers of the day.

Next big winner was Sato who did impossible overtaking both Alonso and Kimi in the very same race… A feat that will probably never be repeated. Interestingly both the maneuvers were when the top drivers were struggling for grip but none the less it was a moment for the Super Aguri driver to cherish.

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Domination is probably a subtle word to describe the incidents at the Monaco Grand Prix for 2007. Alonso and Lewis finished a predictable one-two for Mc Laren but the way the did it was far from predictable. Alonso led the race from the start only challenged by his rookie team mate who for the first time finished lesser than first in a race at Monte Carlo. Massa drove home third in a race which he clearly had no chance of getting a better result. The Brazilian drove mostly a race of his own hardly ever bother by anyone.

Fisichella was my drive of the day. Giancarlo’s super drive saw Renault’s fight back and a hint that in the coming races they could clearly challenge the top two teams. Kubica and Heidfeld came in following the Italian, the German struggling in the earlier stage of the race with super soft tyres and holding up the pack for most of the stint.

Wruz and Kimi made up the last of the point scorers. The Finn having a tough race after the disappointing qualification and then being held up clearly by slower cars in a track that was impossible to overtake on. Still Ferrari and Kimi have to try and get their act together else the top 3 drivers will just run away at this pace.

The expected rain never arrived at the track and devoid the race of any possible action. Even the pitlane poker was pretty flat at the end of the day. Hopefully in Canada we will get to see a much more action packed race…

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Apologies for the pun but Massa literally did almost get burnt when his car caught fire. But more on that later.

The Spanish Grand Prix of 2007 was one of the best races in the past few years with incidents, excitement and disappointments all through the race and across the teams. Starting from a first corner contact between Massa and Alonso causing the latter to lose his second place, falling to fourth, there were incidents all through the race up and down the race track.

After that incident at the first corner, Massa takes a comfortable lead, pulling away from Hamilton who along with Kimi capitalized on the off track excursion by Alonso. Alonso tried to pass Kimi but was held off by the stronger Ferrari of Kimi who maintains his third place till lap 9 when the Ferrari engine cut out all power and Kimi barely manages to crawl downhill to the pits, his race sadly over for the day.

By lap 13, 4 cars had already retired – Wurz (involved in an accident), Webber (sadly continued hydraulics problem), Trulli (fuel pressure problem) and Kimi (Engine failure)

Massa pitted for his first stop on lap 18. As he tried to get away, some of the fuel vapors from the fuel pump leaked out and caught fire for a brief moment. As Massa sped up, the flames thankfully died down but it must have been a scary moment for him and the team. Thankfully the fire caused no lasting damage to his concentration or the car.

Soon after, Alonso and Hamilton pitted retaining their positions at third and second respectively.

On lap 22, Button makes his pit stop, exiting from which, he makes contact with his team mate, Barrichello, losing his front wing in the process. A couple of laps later, Heidfeld’s pit stop goes haywire as a wheel nut on his front right is not fixed in place and hence he has to return to the pits immediately. This causes him to drop to the back of the grid and eventually causes enough damage to his car making him retire from the race itself.

The second stint of the race is quite incident free with most drivers consolidating their positions in the front though the mid-runners did have some racing and overtaking moves. The second round of pit stops goes through around lap 42 to lap 48. Around lap 46, Ralf retired his Toyota ending the team’s race in Spain.

Felipe Massa easily won his second race in succession with Lewis Hamilton coming in second and Fernando Alonso third. They were followed by Robert Kubica in a fine fourth, David Coulthard, and to my joy, Nico Rosberg in sixth. And for the first time in their history, Super Aguri scored a championship point as Takuma Sato secured the eight and final championship point behind Heikke Kovalainen and ahead of a charging Fisichella and Rubens Barichello.

The rest of the finishers were Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Christian Albers in that order.

With the second place secured by Hamilton today, he has created history by being the first rookie to lead the formula 1 championship at 30 points followed by Alonso on 28 and Felipe Massa on 27. The formula 1 season for 2007 looks very exciting indeed.

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Mc Laren F1 team exorcised the race win demons that followed them in 2006 with a scintillatingly immaculate drive from two time world champion Fernando Alonso and Rookie Lewis Hamlinton. The duo took control of the race from the first corner and did not relent despite pressure from Massa initially and towards the end by Kimi.

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Warning: Race results and spoilers in this post.
A fantastic start to the Formula 1 Grand Prix season for 2007. With yesterday’s excellent qualification,Kimi Raikkonen continued his excellent form onto the race day.

Qualifying in the pole position, Kimi had an excellent start maintaining his position at the front of the pack. Running light on fuel, he quickly got down to business and pulled clear ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld both of whom beat Fernando Alonso to the first corner, pushing him down to fourth place. After the initial shuffle at the head of the pack, it was mostly formation running up till the pit stop window.

Massa who started the race at the back of the grid as a result of an engine change penalty had a brilliant overtaking 2 cars in the first lap and then picking his way through the back of the field to come up to 16th position by lap 4. At this point, his progress was impeded first by David Coulthard and then by the Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. The Hondas were the big disappointment of the day, severely under performing, especially compared to their performance last year. Massa managed to pass Button (who had earlier been passed by Barrichello) on lap 17 and starts chasing Rubinho once again.

In the meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen continued to put in some extremely fast laps to prepare for his first pit stop which was expected around lap 18-20. Lap 18 was the fasted of the race so far by Kimi who immediately pits in the next lap from the pole position, relinquishing it, in a historic moment, to debutant Lewis Hamilton who briefly led the race till his own pit stop on lap 23, one lap after Alonso’s pit stop. With that, Kimi reclaimed the lead. He continues to put in the fastest lap times to further increase the gap between himself and Hamilton.

Felipe Massa finally pits for his only pit stop on lap 30 for a new set of harder tyres and fuel worth 12 seconds, enough to take him to the chequered flag on the single stop. With the pit stops completing, Massa breaks into the top 10 after starting from the back end.

Next Kimi Raikkonen moves into the pit late for his second and final pit stop on lap 42 and comes out just behind the McLarens and regains the lead within four laps when both the McLarens pit. The order changes for them though with Alonso coming out in front of Hamilton after a super quick pit stop and a particularly slow outlap by Hamilton. This sets the order for the top 4 in the order Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld.

With the second round of pit stops finishing up, Felipe Massa moves upto the sixth position and starts hunting Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault for the fifth position. It was one of the best fights of the race with Massa constantly trying to overtake Fisichella but never being close enough.

In the end, Massa had to settle for the 6 place, a much better result than expected at the start of the race. And with that, the first race of the season was won by Kimi in his Ferrari debut at Melbourne Australia.

Complete Race Results:

Race timings courtesy Formula 1.

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Fernando Alonso and Renault are 2006 Formula One World Champions. The Spaniard did more than what was required and sealed the Championship coming in second. The drive of the race went to Michael who drove from 10th to 5th before a tyre failure caused by debries from a earlier accident and pushed him to 17th and last. He fought back superbly to 4th overtaking all the way.

Massa’s brilliant flawless driving saw him take victory in what he described as the “easiest race” of his life. The Brazilian’s victory was very emotional as it was the first time in 13 years that Brazil had a home race winner. The last one was won by the great Artyon Senna.

Button joined the group of amazing race preformers fighting back from 14th to 3rd and chasing Alonso right to the Flag. Kimi came in 5th after a promising start and will always be remembered as probably the last driver to fight with Michael Schumacher on Track. Giancarlo Fisichella showed maturity in his drive but threw it away driving wide at turn one once.

The Double World Championships makes Alonso the youngest driver to defend the Driver’s World Championship taking that record from Michael. The Constructors Crown taken by Renault by 5 points after a unrelentless performance of excellece by the French team. Michael and Ferrari will be remembered for a long time thanks to the best ever comeback in the history of F1 coming back from 25 pts behind.

This race marks the end of Michael Schumacher’s career in Formula One, which saw him become one of the most successful drivers in F1 history. The Seven time World Champion will be sorely missed in the Paddock, on the Track and On the Podium

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15 laps to the finish and possibly the single most important event that will decide the World Championships happened… Probably for the first time in years Micheal Schumacher’s Ferrari blew its engine and to add salt to the wounds, Renault’s Fernando Alonso emerged victorious in a weekend that looked disastrous for the French team.

Race started perfectly for Ferrari as Massa and Michael drove without trouble into the first corner. They looked good but the getaway everyone expected never happened… Massa let Michael thru a few laps later and Michael was clearly the fastest on the track but was being matched by the Renaults all the way. The Toyota of Trulli lost to Alonso into the 3rd corner and Ralf was closely being followed by Alonso right thru the first stint.

Nothing can be taken away from Fernando Alonso, he drove flawlessly in a Renault and stood up to fight the seemingly untouchable Ferraris. The Spaniard looked in absolute control as he went past Trulli and then fought past Ralf Schumacher when it looked like he could have simply waited till the end of the lap when Ralf was pitting. The World Champ did not give an inch away and overhauled Massa in the pits. He and Michael looked in a class of their own showing the world why they are currently the two best F1 drivers in the world. They traded fast laps and were consistently 1s faster than anyone else on track.

Going to the second pitstop Micheal led by 5.9s and looked good to take the victory. But right after the pitstop going into turn 7 the right side of Michael’s engine let go. As the oil plummeted out of Michael’s car and he steered the car to the side of the road Alonso drove by to take the lead of the race a lead he would not relinquish.

The other big gainers in the race were Fisichella who drove very well to a well deserved podium. The week has been emotional for the Italian who lost his best friend on thursday. Kimi Raikkonen fought thru the field in spectacular style to finish in 5th place. The biggest losers being Toyotas, they finished 6th and 7th after a great start.

Massa’s drive to 2nd was very consistent and had Micheal finished the overall result for Ferrari would have been perfect. In all counts the Brazillian did the job that was required of him this weekend and looks good to hold on to the 3rd spot in the Driver’s Championship.

Two Incidents were very emotional to watch, Alonso after the victory was one. Despite all the rumors and speculations surrounding Alonso’s alleged comments about the team, Team-Spirit looked obvious after the race. Renault have denied any internal friction within the team and it looked very true as Renault celebrated their much awaited victory(since Hungary). The team looks set to seal both the World Championships in 2 weeks time.

On the otherside of the scale, it was heart warming to watch Michael walk and shake hands with every member of his team. Ferrari have always been a bit shy of in front of cameras (team members have hardly been caught on camera that often) but this small insight into the Red team shows what all teams are really about behind closed doors. Michael spent some time sitting in front to the times and chatting with Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. I think this race has truly let the feeling of Micheal leaving sunk into the team.

In two weeks time the World Championships will be decided. The requirements for Michael and Ferrari are clear… win at all costs and hope to get lucky with a Alonso retirement. This next race will also be the last for Michael and like his career he would like to finish it on a high. Kimi and Alonso will be looking for victory as a goodbye gift to their respective teams. And lets not forget the World Constructor Championship. There is too much at stake and for Michael nothing to lose.

Like the old saying goes “Lookout for the one who has nothing to lose… for he is the one who has everything to gain”.

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Michael Schumacher produced one of the most brilliant pieces of driving combined with smooth strategy to win the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso came in second after leading for almost half the race untill a flawed decision to change his front intermidetes in his first pitstop. Giancarlo Fisichella came in 3rd to put Renault ahead of Ferrari in the constructors race.

The race started on a wet track which dried right thru the session throwing up more than a few surprises. The start was perfect for Alonso as by lap 15 he was leading way ahead in the distance followed by Giancarlo and Kimi. Micheal made a great start as well and the Bridgestones looked like they had got the intermidiates right.

Kimi looked really threatening as he stormed up to 3rd within the first 3 corners. Giancarlo felt the brunt of the challenge fending from side to side against a lighter Mc Laren. Kimi’s race came to an abrupt halt after the first pitstop with mechanical problems.

The Bridgstones by now were working perfectly and Michael was slowly reeling in Fisichella. Alonso on the head was still defiant and was the fastest man on the track. But all that was about to change. Alonso pitted after Michael and chose to swap his front tyres for new ones. This was his undoing as he lost over 3s a lap for 10 laps after that. The intermidiates needed to be worked over before they could perform and what normally took 3-5 laps took 10 laps and saw the champion’s lead squashed.

Fisichella and Michael did short work of Alonso and resumed thier battle on the head. Alonso decided to pit in to swap the inters for dry weather tyres and for a few laps again suffered firstly coz a wheel nut fell and cost almost 10 more seconds and the track was still too wet for dry tyres. Michael in the mean time was all over Giancarlo’s back. The next pitstop proved cruital as Michael pitted couple of laps before Giancarlo and ambushed him as he tried to negotiate corner 1.

Michael then ran away into the distance but Alonso’s fight back was only starting. Alonso resumed in 6th place and produced the best string of fastest laps(almost 3s faster than anyone else) to come back to 2nd. He was reeling in Schumi to only realize that the time was running out and ended only 3s shy of the german.

The only question running on each and every member of the Renault F1 team will be “How did we lose this one?”. They were the fastest at all times and yet they could not manage to get the maximum. Michael later descibed this victory as a ‘miracle’, well that was modesty from the multiple World Champ… The gesture later repayed back by Alonso saying:

The winner is Michael and he deserves the victory because he finished in front of the other drivers and that’s it.

Everything said and done that statement is what is important at the end of any race… finishing ahead of everyone. Renault managed to get there almost except that Michael took victory. With 2 races to go and the top two locked, the only way the championship can be decided in Japan is if Michael wins and Alonso finishes out of the points. In any other case we will have to wait till Brazil…

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Schumacher produced an inspiring drive in front of the Tifosi to win the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen kept close to Schumi for the entire race coming in second. Kubica’s superb drive saw him take the his first podium and the first podium for a Pole. Alonso’s fight back from tenth was halted after his engine blew giving him a DNF in the race.

Race Results

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