Raikkonen delivers a reality check
Something about home races is bad. Countless are the times when a driver has attempted a home race and had his hopes cruelly shattered by the fickle finger of fate. Usually the weight of expectation is such that a driver simply bottles out. To have every single grandstand filled to the rafters with people shouting "Go Lewis!" can turn a man's innards to water and his legs to jelly. We saw it in Spain this year when world champion, Fernando Alonso, simply couldn't handle the pressure. Never in the history of the British Grand Prix has there been as much support for a single driver as there was for Lewis Hamilton this weekend gone. It is a mark of the steel constitution of the young man that he did not allow himself to lose focus. Rather than be terrified by the responsibility placed upon him by his fans, Hamilton was positively buoyed by it.
When Hamilton snatched pole position in the last second of Saturday qualifying, I knew in my heart of hearts that this would be his ultimate glory moment at Silverstone in 2007. He reached deep within himself and found some nanoseconds of speed to be squeezed out of a McLaren which was clearly inferior to the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. The crowd at Silverstone to a man rose to their feet in a massive outpouring of genuine emotion. I have never seen anything like that at Silverstone. Grown men - stiff upper-lipped Englishman at that - had their faces wet with tears. Come Sunday it was always going to be a damage limitation exercise for the young McLaren driver but he had done enough forever to seal his place in the hearts of his massive fan base all over the world.
When Hamilton had to fight off Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the race yesterday it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the vastly superior Ferrari overhauled the McLaren. Hamilton fought valiantly to hold Raikkonen off but by the time he came in for his first stop it was obvious that the game was up. A lot has been made of a mistake Hamilton made during his pit stop - he began to move before the lollipop man gave him the all clear but stopped before causing any serious damage - when he lost a precious few seconds but I am unconvinced that this made much difference in the end. Both Raikkonen and Alonso were able to get ahead of Hamilton principally because of his inexperience. He got his car set-up wrong - a mistake which the more experienced Alonso did not make - and made the wrong tyre choices at crucial moments. Finishing a whole forty seconds behind second placed man, Alonso, showed he simply did not have the speed or the handling to match the men in front - pit-stop error notwithstanding.
One may feel emotional that the fairy tale ending did not occur but there is another way of looking at things. Hamilton would not even have finished on the podium had Massa not stalled his Ferrari at the start and been forced to start from the back of the pack. Massa did a Schumacher and sliced his way through traffic but was finally stopped by the superbly defensive driving of Robert Kubica in the BMW-Sauber who would not let him get past to take fourth place. I think this is good for Hamilton. A win at his first home Grand Prix could easily have given him the feeling of invincibility. "Come to Silverstone, nail pole and win the race, why, surely I must be able to walk on water!" A reality check is always a good thing. It is good also that Alonso was able to beat his team-mate at last. The Hamilton hysteria is detracting the world from just how exceptionally talented the little Spaniard really is. Alonso needed a boost to his ego and beating his team-mate at Silverstone must surely have delivered it; especially because he did so as a consequence of the latter's mistakes. This sets things up nicely for the remainder of the championship.
We are at the halfway point now. Lewis Hamilton is twelve points clear in the lead with 70 points (remarkable when you think about it) and Raikkonen has now taken over third place with 52 points - one point ahead of his team-mate. That gap may prove crucial as the pressure mounts. Hamilton enjoys the luxury of being able to fail to finish one race with no adverse consequences to his championship pursuit, which is more than can be said for the other three contenders. We go to the Nuburgring in Germany in a fortnight's time. With the resurgence of Ferrari and the laying by Alonso of the demons which were haunting him, it is all looking jolly exciting.
Gitau
09 July 2007
When Hamilton snatched pole position in the last second of Saturday qualifying, I knew in my heart of hearts that this would be his ultimate glory moment at Silverstone in 2007. He reached deep within himself and found some nanoseconds of speed to be squeezed out of a McLaren which was clearly inferior to the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. The crowd at Silverstone to a man rose to their feet in a massive outpouring of genuine emotion. I have never seen anything like that at Silverstone. Grown men - stiff upper-lipped Englishman at that - had their faces wet with tears. Come Sunday it was always going to be a damage limitation exercise for the young McLaren driver but he had done enough forever to seal his place in the hearts of his massive fan base all over the world.
When Hamilton had to fight off Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the race yesterday it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the vastly superior Ferrari overhauled the McLaren. Hamilton fought valiantly to hold Raikkonen off but by the time he came in for his first stop it was obvious that the game was up. A lot has been made of a mistake Hamilton made during his pit stop - he began to move before the lollipop man gave him the all clear but stopped before causing any serious damage - when he lost a precious few seconds but I am unconvinced that this made much difference in the end. Both Raikkonen and Alonso were able to get ahead of Hamilton principally because of his inexperience. He got his car set-up wrong - a mistake which the more experienced Alonso did not make - and made the wrong tyre choices at crucial moments. Finishing a whole forty seconds behind second placed man, Alonso, showed he simply did not have the speed or the handling to match the men in front - pit-stop error notwithstanding.
One may feel emotional that the fairy tale ending did not occur but there is another way of looking at things. Hamilton would not even have finished on the podium had Massa not stalled his Ferrari at the start and been forced to start from the back of the pack. Massa did a Schumacher and sliced his way through traffic but was finally stopped by the superbly defensive driving of Robert Kubica in the BMW-Sauber who would not let him get past to take fourth place. I think this is good for Hamilton. A win at his first home Grand Prix could easily have given him the feeling of invincibility. "Come to Silverstone, nail pole and win the race, why, surely I must be able to walk on water!" A reality check is always a good thing. It is good also that Alonso was able to beat his team-mate at last. The Hamilton hysteria is detracting the world from just how exceptionally talented the little Spaniard really is. Alonso needed a boost to his ego and beating his team-mate at Silverstone must surely have delivered it; especially because he did so as a consequence of the latter's mistakes. This sets things up nicely for the remainder of the championship.
We are at the halfway point now. Lewis Hamilton is twelve points clear in the lead with 70 points (remarkable when you think about it) and Raikkonen has now taken over third place with 52 points - one point ahead of his team-mate. That gap may prove crucial as the pressure mounts. Hamilton enjoys the luxury of being able to fail to finish one race with no adverse consequences to his championship pursuit, which is more than can be said for the other three contenders. We go to the Nuburgring in Germany in a fortnight's time. With the resurgence of Ferrari and the laying by Alonso of the demons which were haunting him, it is all looking jolly exciting.
Gitau
09 July 2007
posted by Gitau at 4:22 pm
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