The British Grand Prix

The British Grand Prix held from 6-8th of July, was expected by many, to be won by Lewis Hamilton. For those who don't know, Lewis Hamilton is Formula One's first ever Black racer and also the very first racer to be leading the World Championship in his "rookie" year. (I say rookie in quotes because it is not normally expected for a newcomer to be winning races and leading the Championship, especially when you have a double World Champion and the God of Whiners, Fernando Alonso as your teammate. ;)) Being from Britain, obviously, there was a lot of hype surrounding him and of course, with the existence of the British GP being threatened, people thought that if Lewis ended up winning his home GP, it would most certainly secure the race for a long time to come.

The race, unfortunately, was not to be won by Mr. World Championship Leader, but by a back-in-form, Kimi Matias Räikkönen, (commonly called as the Iceman for more reasons than one!) successor to the departed seven-time World Champion and my favorite, Michael Schumacher. No matter, Lewis did well enough to qualify on pole, which he did only because he had a very lightly fuelled McLaren Vodafone during his final qualifying lap. Räikkönen qualified 2nd on the grid. It was only the second time he had qualified on the front row since his first win for Ferrari in the first race at Australia. Even when he won the French Grand Prix a week before this race, he had qualified 3rd.


Well, anyways, back to the race. The cars went on their customary formation lap. For the uninitiated, a formation lap is a slow lap all the cars do once around the circuit, basically to get a better knowledge of the track to see if everything is alright on the track, in case the conditions have changed (like if it has rained the previous night or something like that) and more importantly, to the heat in their tyres. Getting heat into their tyres is of utmost importance as the tyres will operate properly, providing optimal levels of the superb grip the cars need on the road only when they have reached a particular temperature. Failing to do so on the formation lap will result in you starting the race on cold tyres and if they're cold enough, it could even lead to loss of a couple of places. Well, anyway, they got back alright and waited on the grid, when.... there was more drama and Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen's teammate at Ferrari, stalled his car!! This meant that the all the cars, except the scarlet one of Massa, went for another formation lap, while Massa's car was taken into the pits for starting it and consequently begin the race from there. Behind him, in the pits was Super Aguri's Takuma Sato, who had elected to start from the pit rather than on the grid.

The cars came back, the five red lights illuminated and went out to start the British Grand Prix. It was good start by Hamilton, Räikkönen and Alonso, who didn't lose or gain any positions. Massa and Sato started only after all the other (20) cars had crossed the white line that runs for a while after the pit lane exit. And for the next 14 laps, Massa and Räikkönen were the ones to watch. Massa for steadily picking his way from 21st all the way to 9th in 12 laps and Räikkönen because he was closing in on Hamilton, after a certain gap had opened up after about 7 laps. Hamilton, who had done his qualifying run on the harder compound of tyres, was quickly losing time to Räikkönen, and lots of it, too. Besides, having done a very, very quick qualifying lap, Hamilton had to pit before anyone else did. One lap after Räikkönen almost overtook him, Hamilton pitted and made his very first major F1 mistake. (For those who don't know how a pitstop works, here's a small and crude guide: The car comes in, the lollipop man turns his lollipop such that "Brake" faces the racer. This is while the pit crew, who fuel the car to a pre-determined amount, change all tyres and clean the car, removing any dirt, do their work. Once each part of the crew finishes their part, they raise their hand indicating that their job is over. At this point, the lollipop man turns the lollipop around to show "Gear". This is because fuelling is not as fast as the tyre change and roughly a second or two after he shows "Gear", he lifts it and the car is clear to go.) Hamilton came in, stood still and when the lollipop man turned the lollipop (only turn, not lift, mind you), he started to move. But he realised his mistake and stopped again. Fortunately, he had moved very little and the fuelling rig was still attached and fuelling his car. He lost precious time there. Whatever little chance he had of winning the race vanished right there. I say little because Räikkönen was driving the wheels off his car (which, by the way, is the only way he knows to drive his car) and setting consistent fastest laps. Two laps later, Räikkönen pitted for his pit stop. During his stop, Alonso took the lead and Räikkönen rejoined in 2nd place although way behind Alonso. Alonso then went for his pit stop and came out again in the lead simply because he had a very short pit stop. Massa meanwhile, picked up a few more places to come up to 7th.

Now because Alonso had won in the first round of "pit stop poker" and come out ahead of Räikkönen and Hamilton, it probably would have meant that he would end up winning the race. It would have been so had Alonso opened up a healthy 20 plus second gap over Räikkönen. That, unfortunately, was not to be, as he was bogged with traffic by the backmarkers. (Backmarkers are those who are lagging so far behind that you end up lapping them.) Since both Alonso and Räikkönen were having the same problem, Alonso couldn't open up too much of a lead and Räikkönen couldn't close it too much either. Hamilton, meanwhile, was having a terrible time and was way, way behind these two. Alonso, having opted for a very short first pit stop (6.8 seconds), had to pit earlier than Räikkönen. Which he did. And Räikkönen struck the iron while it was hot and opened up a nice, big gap. Alonso came back in 2nd but was about 20+ seconds behind Räikkönen. Räikkönen pitted six laps later than Alonso, but not before pulling away from Alonso at roughly a second a lap. Having opened up a large enough lead, Räikkönen pitted for the final time and came out ahead of Alonso by about 2.5 seconds. From then on, it was pretty much a settled race. Hamilton too made his pit stop and came out back in 3rd. Massa, on the other hand, came up to 5th and was challenging for 4th.

Ultimately, it ended up in Kimi Räikkönen winning for the second race in a row for Ferrari with McLaren finishing 2-3. Too bad for the British press that Hamilton didn't win. Too bad for the bookies too who had very high stakes on Hamilton becoming the first rookie driver to win his home race at obviously, his first attempt. Robert Kubica of BMW finished 4th and Massa, 5th. All in all, it showed just how determined Räikkönen was to put off his detractors who were writing him off and also showed that after losing to McLaren for three races in a row in Monaco, America and Canada, they (Ferrari) were back and faster than their rivals by more than half a second. Massa was in inspired form. Never believed he had that kind of fire in him. It was a good race all around for Ferrari. Too bad they didn't close the gap to McLaren. The 2-3 prevented that. Anyways, that was a really good and entertaining race, especially from Massa. Next up is the European Grand Prix at Nürburgring, Germany on 22nd July. They're renaming a corner, Audi S, to Schumacher S. No, its not in tribute to Ralf Schumacher, but to Michael Schumacher. Apparently, he will be driving around the circuit once before the race starts to officially inaugurate it. Race starts at 1730 hrs (IST) on Sunday on Star Sports. Watch it!! Till the next race then...