MASSA OPENS EUROPE WITH SECOND WIN BUT HAMILTON LEADS CHAMPIONSHIP
(Image taken from Yahoo)
After the exotic starters from the Pacific region, the F1 show once again headed for Europe and this time out, the show opened in Spain, San Marino being off the menu for '07! Spain means the Curcuit de Catalunya in Barcelona and unlike the 90s, a sellout due to this new breed called the "Spanish F1 fan" or rather "the Spanish Fernando Alonso fan". As for this year, well three races, three winners and a month since the last of those. The circuit has been changed slightly this year, Honda was supposed to have made 'some' improvements and Red Bull even more.
Well the weekend started well when the Brits put up their best combined qualifying performance of the season! All four made it into round 2 with Mark Webber being the biggest name to get knocked out in Q1! Jenson in particular showed improved promise in that first session but not so much in Q2 and he started 14th! However DC got his car into final qualifying to make it two Brits in Q3 for the first time this year! Alonso put in the first serious time but Hamilton had been on fire throughout the session and took provisional pole only for the crowd to explode when Alonso retook P1! It was Massa who took pole though, Alonso second, Raikonen 3rd Hamilton 4th, DC 9th.
In the race itself, well Jenson didn't do that badly. OK, he didn't do that badly if you take into account that he needed a nose change after a clash with Barrichello of all people! The fact that he was running 8th at that point says a lot more about the improvements Honda have made. Nosechanges always take ages but Button still made his way up from the back of the grid, helped partly by retirements admittedly but he still got as far as 12th before the chequered flag.
DC immediately made it up to 7th place at the start and after that was rarely out of the points. Raikonen's demise due to electrical issues put him in 6th. During the first round of pit stops the Scotsman was able to get past Rosberg and into fifth and it was grins all the way from there, and that was despite a gearbox glitch in the last few laps that allowed Rosberg to put him under pressure till DC found one last burst of speed to take him to his first points finish of the year!
Lewis just continued his awesomeness! He made it up to second and the start and from there on in just blew everyone else behind him away, making Alonso wonder what exactly has hit him this season! The answer, an absolute miracle! The rookie got a few more laps leading a Grand Prix and from here on in there can only be one certainty. This guy will win at least one Grand Prix this year and I'm willing to bet that he'll be Britain's first multiple World Champion since Jackie Stewart!
This race was not really Lewis's race though, because Lewis wasn't the guy in the red car that was scorching everyone else from a great distance. Felipe Massa picked up pole, race win and fastest lap. For the second race in a row. Now I'd picked him as a championship contender preseason but he's still on less money than Raikonen yet he's the first guy on the entire grid to win two races this season? Now Barrichello was meant to be Ayrton Senna's replacement as Brazilian hero pretty much since Imola '94 but he spent too much of his career licking a certain German's boots! Not so with Massa and he's in the strongest position to win the title right now!
For the time being though, how does this sound? Lewis Hamilton, World Championship leader! For the first time since DC right at the start of the '03 season, a Brit is leading the F1 World Championship! For the first time I can remember though, that guy is not only a rookie but he hasn't even won a race in his career yet. Still, the numbers don't lie, Lewis leads on 30 points, Alonso down to second on 28, Massa up to third on 27! DC opens his account by slotting in 9th with 4 points(and a top five finish), edging him ahead of Trulli in 10th who's also on 4 points(but has no top five finishes). Jenson's still yet to score.
One last bit of info. Lewis Hamilton has never lost a race in Monaco. Guess where we're headed next?
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