LEWIS ON ROAD TO TITLE!
The season has certainlty passed it's halfway point now which means that after Britain comes the German Grand Prix. In fact it's been a couple of years since the German Grand Prix was last on the calender due to the Hockenheim circuit holding the copyright to the term on the only Grand Prix held in Germany last year was at the Nurburgring! Michael Schumacher won the '06 German Grand Prix but despite Lewis only being in GP2 that year, Lewis did enter F1 with a good record at Hockenhein in the lower formulae. And off the back of that classic Silverstone win Lewis came to Germany as the guy to beat and McLaren as the team to beat. Only question was, could the Ferraris do anything about it?
All three Brits made it through to Q1 for the first time in a while though it was touch and go for Jenson, Barrichello wasn't so lucky and was the biggest name to get eliminated. Q2 well Jeson didn't do too badly early on but his early times didn't look so competitive at the end of the session and he would up starting P14. That left both Lewis and DC still in Q3. It was Trulli who set the first time but that was never going to be the fastest and first Raikonen then Massa beat him and then Lewis after a bad first attempt managed to pull his third pole of the season out of the bag! DC never got going in the session, was almost certainly fuelled heavy and settled for P10!
Well Jenson didn't do that badly at the start and made it up to 13th before having to deal with a fast-moving DC. Jenson made it up to 12th before getting mugged by both the Scottish veteran and Rosberg. That was the last time the Honda man earned himself much attention as he wasn't even able to take advantage of the safety cars during the race. At least Ross Brawn has admitted that the car needs improvement but that still leaves Jenson enduring another dodgy season. He may have finished the race this time out but in 17th and a lap down? That can't have been what he had in mind. Jenson may be commited to the team but already he must be looking forward to 2009.
DC had an abolsutely appalling start, sliding from 10th to 15th, unheard of in the early stages of his career. However he recovered and made it past Jenson to take 12th, only to slide back to 13th when Rosberg came through. Like Jenson though, the spotlight left DC soon afterwards and this won't go down as a memorable race for the Scot. He finished 13th and though it's a finish he'll certainly be looking for a better performance before the end of his career. He really should have made more of his qualifying performance - points were up for grabs here. However, it's races like this that have summed up his Red Bull career, they're definately a team that are looking more to the long term.
Lewis though well what can I say. No one was able to stop him at the start of the race and he soon surged away from the field. Of course anything can happen during the pit stops but he pulled out enough of a gap that no one was able to catch him at that point. There was nothing that could stop him winnning the race, except possibly a safety car, compunded by a McLaren tactical call to leave him out till later on. The call was understandable, Lewis would have had to use the soft tyres on his final stint and he does not have a good record on them. Still, he came out from his final stint in 5th. On unfavourable tyres. Not a problem. Kovalainen decided it wasn't worth getting in his way and then Heidfeld pitted which put Lewis back into the podium positions! The problem was always going to be Massa, and yet Lewis's Brazilian rival somehow ran way too wide. Still, Lewis had to deal with Piquet who had somehow found himself in the lead after starting was down. The Brazilian rookie wasn't going to risk the first podium of his F1 career though(credit to him for that). Four drivers overtaken in fifteen laps. That's how to win your second Grand Prix in a row!
That's also how to get some breathing space in the title race. Lewis now has 58 points, leading the championship by four points. Further down though, DCs fallen to 14th on 6 points(and a 3rd place in Canada)and even further down, Jenson's fallen to 17th on 3 points.
Can Lewis be stopped? If he wins in Hungary, the competition might have serious problems.
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