F1 2007 Season

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First Race:
Australian Grand Prix, 18th March

Starting Grid:
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Fernando Alonso - McLaren Mercedes
Nick Heidfield - BMW Sauber
 

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Australian Grand Prix

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen made a triumphant start to his Ferrari career with a pole-to-flag victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The 27-year-old, stepping into the seat vacated by the retired Michael Schumacher at the Italian Formula One team, punched the air with his fists as he crossed the line 7.2 seconds ahead of McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso.
It was the 10th victory of Raikkonen's career and made him the first driver to win on his Ferrari debut since Briton Nigel Mansell in Brazil in 1989.
McLaren's 22-year-old British rookie Lewis Hamilton completed a stunning weekend for the youngest man on the grid by overtaking Alonso at the start and leading his first grand prix for four laps before finishing third.


Provisional results:
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:25:28.770
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren +00:07.242
3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 00:18.595
4. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 00:38.763
5. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 01:06.469
6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 01:06.805
7. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1 lap
8. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 1 lap
9. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1 lap
10. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 1 lap
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1 lap
12. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1 lap
13. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap
14. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1 lap
15. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1 lap
16. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 2 laps
17. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker - Ferrari 2 laps
r. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams - Toyota 10 laps
r. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 10 laps
r. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 22 laps
r. Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 30 laps
r. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker - Ferrari 48 laps

- (rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)
Fastest Lap: Kimi Raikkonen, 1:25.235, lap 41.
 

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HAMILTON Takes Pole at Canadian GP :yj

Provisional starting grid:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
3. Nick Heidfeld (Germany [Images]) BMW Sauber
4. Kimi Raikkonen [Images] (Finland) Ferrari [Images]
5. Felipe Massa [Images] (Brazil [Images]) Ferrari
6. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull-Renault
7. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams-Toyota
8. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber
9. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy [Images]) Renault
10. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota
11. Takuma Sato (Japan [Images]) Super Aguri-Honda
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
13. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda
14. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull-Renault
15. Jenson Button [Images] (Britain) Honda
16. Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri-Honda
18. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota
19. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams-Toyota
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker-Ferrari
21. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker-Ferrari
22. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault
 

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Hamilton triumphant in Montreal 10 June 2007

Source: The Official Formula 1 Website
javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton duly delivered his first Grand Prix victory in Canada, in dramatic circumstances in a race notable also for a massive accident that befell BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, and no fewer than four safety-car interventions. It all went right for Hamilton and wrong for Fernando Alonso at the start, as the two McLaren drivers scrapped with one another while also making sure fast-starting Nick Heidfeld didn’t get the drop on them.

Hamilton thought he had things covered until Alonso went flying down the outside heading to the first corner, but the Spaniard ran wide, over the run-off area and across his team mate’s bows, and for the second time in three races they narrowly avoided a collision. As Hamilton resumed the lead, Heidfeld got the jump on Alonso, who just kept Felipe Massa at bay. The Brazilian had been assaulted lightly by team mate Kimi Raikkonen in the melee, and lost a place to Nico Rosberg.

As Hamilton sped on to a remarkably controlled victory, a disastrous afternoon unravelled for his main rivals. Alonso went off a further three times in Turn One in an up and down run, suffering braking problems, and right at the end suffered the indignity of being overtaken by Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato, who drove splendidly to exploit all of the various incidents that occurred to take sixth place.

The first safety-car deployment came when Spyker’s Adrian Sutil smacked a wall out the back of the circuit on lap 22, the lap on which Hamilton first refuelled. Alonso and Williams’ Nico Rosberg came in on lap 23, before the pit lane was officially opened, and would subsequently drop down the order after serving their resulting stop-and-go penalties.

Then, just after the track went clear again, Kubica had a horrible crash in the very quick left-hander prior to the hairpin on lap 27, his BMW Sauber hitting the outside wall and then rolling all the way down to the hairpin entry. As the safety car came out again the Pole was released from the wreckage, mercifully conscious and lucid, and was hospitalised with a suspected broken ankle.

This time the safety car stayed out until the 32nd lap, and again Hamilton rebuilt his lead over Heidfeld. He stopped again on lap 48, a lap later than Heidfeld, and this time retained the lead. Then the third safety-car deployment came when Christijan Albers went off in the back chicane and littered the track with his Spyker’s discarded front wing. The track went green again on lap 53, by which time Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella were being black flagged for exiting the pits on the red light.

Just as it seemed things were settling down at last, Tonio Liuzzi hit the wall on the exit to the final corner, giving the FIA’s Bernd Maylander another five laps of work in the safety car. Yet again Hamilton opened up his lead again over Heidfeld, but the misfortunes of so many others, conbined with Alonso’s brake problems and a curiously dull performance from Raikkonen, had pushed single-stopping Alex Wurz into third place for Williams and the beleaguered Heikki Kovalainen into fourth for Renault. Raikkonen was fifth with Alonso thirsting after him, then came Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota and Sato. But Taku was flying and grabbed seventh from Ralf and then sixth from Alonso with two laps to run.

At one stage Mark Webber ran as high as second before falling back during the stops; he finished ninth on the super-soft Bridgestones, unable to resist Sato who was on the softs, which resisted graining better. Rosberg was another who should have had a shot at the final podium position, but for his pit-stop snafu. Later he and Jarno Trulli fell off in unison racing into the first corner, the German losing a lot of time before he got restarted.

Anthony Davidson’s strategy saw him rise as high as third in the second Super Aguri before a collision with a groundhog prompted a pit stop which caught his team by surprise, and a further stop put him way out of contention in 11th place ahead of Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who was third after the final safety car period but dropped way down after his final pit stop shortly afterwards.

Trulli crashed in Turn One after his final stop, David Coulthard’s Red Bull had yet further gearbox problems, Scott Speed retired after running into the rear of Wurz early on, and Jenson Button never even started after his Honda refused to fire up on the grid.

All in all it was a hectic, even chaotic race, but Hamilton’s finely judged victory - which he dedicated to father Anthony - put him back in the lead of the world championship, with eight points over Alonso, and 15 clear of the disgruntled Massa. In the constructors’, McLaren extended their lead over Ferrari to 28 points, 88 to 60.
 

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Hamilton makes it two poles in a row



16 June 2007 javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; javascript:; For the second consecutive race Lewis Hamilton edged out McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso to take pole position here at Indianapolis on Saturday afternoon. Alonso made the running in the first two sessions of qualifying, but Hamilton settled the issue with a lap of 1m 12.331s in the third, when Alonso’s best was 1m 12.500s. The Englishman’s car required an engine change last night due to an assembly problem but he will not receive a grid place penalty as Friday engines don't count. He described his two quickest laps in Q3 as ‘perfect’.

Having run the silver cars close all afternoon, the Ferraris line up on the second row with Felipe Massa third on 1m 12.703s and Kimi Raikkonen fourth with 1m 12.839s. As expected, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was their closest challenger, taking fifth place with 1m 12.847s.

Heikki Kovalainen signalled something of a resurgence for Renault by taking sixth fastest time, lapping his R27 in 1m 13.308s to edge out BMW Sauber rookie Sebastian Vettel, who has impressed many people with his smooth performance and a best lap of 1m 13.513s.

Jarno Trulli was the only Toyota driver to make Q3, placing his TF107 eighth with 1m 13.953s to head Mark Webber, who took his Red Bull round in 1m 13.871s, and Giancarlo Fisichella on 1m 13.953s in the second Renault.

David Coulthard just failed to make the Q3 cut in Q2 after lapping his Red Bull in 1m 12.873s, then came Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher (1m 12.920s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 12.998s), Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 13.060s), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 13.201s) and Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson (1m 13.259s).

As Coulthard survived a spin in Turn Eight, the two Red Bull drivers were separated by a 1000th of a second in Q1 (1m 13.424s to 1m 13.425s) as Q1 accounted for Alex Wurz (1m 13.441s) in the Williams, Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato (1m 13.477s), the two Toro Rossos (Tonio Liuzzi 1m 13.484s and Scott Speed 1m 13.712s), and the two Spykers (Adrian Sutil 1m 14.122s and Christijan Albers 1m 14.597s).
 

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Hamilton on pole for US Grand Prix
June 17, 2007 01:14 IST
Lewis Hamilton [Images] captured his second pole position in a row at the US Grand Prix on Saturday to put more pressure on McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso [Images].
The British rookie, who celebrated his first Formula One pole in Canada [Images] last weekend, pipped double world champion Alonso in final qualifying on another sizzling hot day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Sunday's race will be the third in a row with an all-McLaren front row. Championship leader Hamilton, the winner in Montreal, leads Alonso by eight points in the championship after six races.
After struggling in the last two races, Ferrari [Images] returned to form by sweeping the second row with Brazil's [Images] Felipe Massa [Images] clocking the third fastest effort followed by Finland's Kimi Raikkonen [Images].
German teenager Sebastian Vettel, who will make his Formula One race debut on Sunday in place of Robert Kubica after the Pole failed a fitness test following his big crash in Canada, will start a superb seventh for BMW Sauber.
Provisional starting grid for the US Grand Prix:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany [Images]) BMW Sauber
6. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault
7. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) BMW Sauber
8. Jarno Trulli (Italy [Images]) Toyota
9. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault
10. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault
11. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault
12. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota
13. Jenson Button [Images] (Britain) Honda
14. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota
15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda
16. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda
17. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams - Toyota
18. Takuma Sato (Japan [Images]) Super Aguri - Honda
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - Ferrari
20. Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso - Ferrari
21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker - Ferrari
22. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker - Ferrari
 

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Faultless win for Hamilton at Indy 18 June 2007

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In retrospect, his Canadian win came with relative ease. But in Indianapolis on Sunday Lewis Hamilton had to work every inch of the way for his second consecutive triumph as he beat McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso by just 1.5s after a gripping, race-long fight. Hamilton just got the drop on Alonso from pole, and as they sped away from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen were both able to leap ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second red car.

Further back, Ralf Schumacher lost control of his Toyota and collided with Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who was in the process of running into the back of David Coulthard’s Red Bull. Jenson Button in the second Honda and fellow Briton Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri were also delayed, while Schumacher, Barrichello and Coulthard became the first retirements.

In that first stint Hamilton did enough to eke out a lead that enabled him to pit on lap 21 and then stay ahead of Alonso once the Spaniard had followed suit a lap later. They went back to first and second as Kovalainen pitted from the lead on lap 27.

Now Alonso turned up the wick, however, as Hamilton’s front tyres grained when he really pushed hard. On lap 38 they went down to Turn One side by side, but Hamilton had the inside line and was able not just to defend against his partner’s attack, but to open a small gap again.

When the next stops came, Alonso came in first, on lap 50, and when Hamilton did so a lap later he retained his advantage. Over the final stint he was able to maintain a two-second gap, as the two silver arrows circulated 13 seconds clear of the battling Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen. They were on different fuel strategies, and with softer tyres in his final stint the Finn was able to close in as the Brazilian was using Bridgestone’s harder tyre. However, Massa did not leave him any openings and they crossed the line in the same positions, only feet apart, after the 73 laps.

Fifth place was sound reward for a gritty drive by Kovalainen, who was always a points contender, but the late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams (which had earlier been delayed slightly by a sticking fuel nozzle) made life a little easier for the Finn.

Rosberg’s sad demise was also a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who had a feisty scrap with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the closing stages as they took sixth and seventh. Right at the end, BMW Sauber rookie Sebastian Vettel closed in on them, and as the trio crossed the line a second apart, the young German scored a point on his debut.

That was a small reward for BMW Sauber, as Nick Heidfeld had been heading for a possible fourth until power steering and gearbox problems intervened to drop him to fifth, and then to prompt his retirement with hydraulics failure on lap 59.

Giancarlo Fisichella fought back strongly for Renault after spinning on the second lap, and his side by side dicing with the Toro Rossos and Alex Wurz’s Williams was a highlight of the race. He finished ninth, ahead of Wurz, while further back Davidson recovered to catch and pass his old kart sparring partner Button for 11th. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed was 13th after a fight with Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, who ran as high as 14th initially after the first corner incidents. Christijan Albers was 15th in the second Spyker, ahead of the non-finishing Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi, who kept his Toro Rosso ahead of Wurz for the first stint but later retired with water temperature problems.

The other retirement was Takuma Sato, who fell off in Turn Four immediately after diving past Sutil in the first corner on lap 14. By then Sato had already picked up a ten-place grid penalty for the next round after passing Button under yellow flags, a charge the Japanese driver subsequently denied.

Hamilton’s second North American triumph increases his lead in the drivers’ championship to 10 points over Alonso, while McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.
 

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Massa puts Ferrari on pole as Alonso hits trouble
source: The Official Formula 1 Website
Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start Sunday's French Grand Prix from pole position, with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton alongside him and team mate Kimi Raikkonen right behind.

World champion Fernando Alonso, however, is only tenth on the provisional grid after his car was struck down with gearbox problems early in the final phase of qualifying, preventing him from setting a time.
With the Spaniard out of the running, what looked set to be an epic climax to the fight between silver and red ultimately failed to materialise - Massa, Hamilton and Raikkonen were all unable to improve their positions after their first Q3 runs.

Thus Massa retained pole, with a lap of 1m 15.034s, while Hamilton shaved down from 1m 15.185s to 1m 15.104s, which was not sufficient to affect his front row position after he lost a little momentum in Turn 15, and Raikkonen remained third on 1m 15.257s.

Behind them, Giancarlo Fisichella bumped Robert Kubica from fourth with a lap of 1m 15.674s for Renault, only to have the BMW Sauber driver retake the position with 1m 15.493s in the two teams’ war over third place in the constructors’ championship.

Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen once again backed team mate Fisichella strongly with sixth place on 1m 15.826s, pipping Nick Heidfeld who was sufficiently recovered from Friday’s back problems to lap his BMW Sauber in 1m 15.900s. Jarno Trulli was Toyota’s only runner to make Q3, and will start eighth on 1m 15.935s, and Nico Rosberg once again got his Williams through for ninth place and 1m 16.328s.

Ralf Schumacher celebrated his birthday with 11th place on 1m 15.534s, albeit as the first not to get through to Q3, and will have former BMW Williams team mate Jenson Button for company on row six, the Englishman lapping his Honda in 1m 15.584s. Button’s team mate Rubens Barrichello was 13th on 1m 15.761s, ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber on 1m 15.806s. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed (1m 16.049s) and David Coulthard (no time, after not running in Q2 due to gearbox problems) were 15th and 16th.

Tonio Liuzzi was the first faller in Q1, lapping his Toro Rosso in 1m 16.142s to lose out to Barrichello by two-thousands of a second. Alex Wurz was 18th for Williams on 1m 16.241s, followed by Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson for Super Aguri (1m 16.244s and 1m 16.366s respectively) and the Spykers of Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil (1m 17.826s and 1m 17.915s before his car rolled to a halt in Turn 9).
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/sutton/2007/d07fra1002.jpg http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/sutton/2007/d07fra941.jpg http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/sutton/2007/d07fra929.jpg http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/sutton/2007/d07fra961.jpg http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/sutton/2007/d07fra958.jpg
 

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Update is this: Kimi Raikkonen pipped Massa to win the French Grand Prix. Mclaren's Hamilton occupied the final podium place.
Stay tuned for the full report. :nerd
 

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Raikkonen and Ferrari firmly back in the title hunt

Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Ferrari routed McLaren in Magny-Cours in Sunday’s French Grand Prix, finishing more than half a minute ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren.

The red cars opted for a two-stop strategy, Hamilton for three, but once the Englishman lagged off the dirty side of the grid at the start it was all over. Massa out-dragged him to the first corner, and so did Raikkonen.
The Brazilian then led until his second stop, but a heavier fuel load allowed his Finnish team mate to run crucially longer and he emerged from his own stop three laps later with a lead he preserved to the end. It was his second victory of the season.

Further back Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld grabbed another nine points for BMW Sauber with fourth and fifth places, the latter having some gripping duels with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The world champion, who started tenth after his qualifying woes, was out of luck, finishing seventh (after a long second stop) behind Giancarlo Fisichella’s hard-driven Renault, so his two points leave him now 14 adrift of Hamilton, who moved up to 64. Massa’s second place leaves him third in the world championship on 47, but Raikkonen jumps closer with 42. In the constructors’ fight, McLaren have 114 points to Ferrari’s 89.

The final point went to Jenson Button and Honda, who turned in a solid performance that confirmed that the RA107 has improved. It was the first point of the season for both.

Behind them, Nico Rosberg had a pointless run to ninth for Williams, ahead of a lapped Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and David Coulthard, Alex Wurz in the Williams, Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri and Adrian Sutil, who started from the pit lane after problems with his Spyker on the grid.

The race went wrong for Vitantonio Liuzzi and Anthony Davidson in the second corner when the English Super Aguri driver savaged the Italian’s Toro Rosso, while further round the lap Toyota’s Jarno Trulli ruined his and Kovalainen’s races by hitting the back of the Renault. Like Liuzzi and Davidson, he was a retirement. Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso failed on him - a suspected problem with the team’s new seamless-shift transmission - and Christijan Albers retired his Spyker after dramatically taking the refuelling rig with him when he left the pits after his second stop. The mechanic he dragged over in the process mercifully escaped serious injury.

The result shows that the championship fight is far from over between Ferrari and McLaren, and after the red cars’ speed in testing last week at Silverstone, Hamilton heads home with slightly less bright prospects of becoming the first rookie to win his national Grand Prix.
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Hamilton on pole for British GP

Provisional starting grid for the British Grand Prix:
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren
2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari
3. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
4. Felipe Massa (Brazil [Images]) Ferrari
5. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber
6. Ralf Schumacher (Germany [Images]) Toyota
7. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault
8. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy [Images]) Renault
9. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber
10. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota
11. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault
12. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault
13. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams - Toyota
14. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda
15. Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso - Ferrari
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso - Ferrari
17. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota
18. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda
19. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda
20. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker - Ferrari
21. Takuma Sato (Japan [Images]) Super Aguri - Honda
22. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker - Ferrari
 

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Raikkonen and Ferrari unstoppable at Silverstone

source: Raikkonen and Ferrari unstoppable at Silverstone

For a while McLaren looked good, as first polesitter Lewis Hamilton and then world champion Fernando Alonso had spells in the lead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix, but when Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen ran longer than Alonso in the second stint it was all over bar the shouting.

By the time the Finn refuelled for the second and last time, on lap 43, he was able to retain the lead with ease and head Alonso home by 2.4 seconds after backing off in the final lap.

It was not a great day for Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren, who struggled throughout to match his main rivals’ pace, and had Felipe Massa not had to start from the pit lane after his Ferrari stalled on the grid in the original start, he would arguably not have been able to maintain his record of finishing on the podium in every Grand Prix he has driven.

As it was the Englishman maintained his championship lead by taking a distant third place, and his aspirations were helped a little when Massa, after a strong recovery drive, was unable to wrest fourth place from BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.

The result leaves Hamilton first on 70 points from Alonso on 58, Raikkonen now up to 52, and Massa on 51.

In a reasonable day for BMW Sauber, Nick Heidfeld brought his F1.07 home sixth ahead of the outpaced Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella, which took the final points.

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button had single-stop runs to ninth and 10th places for Honda, the Englishman working very hard in the final third of the race to keep David Coulthard’s Red Bull at bay. Like Massa behind Kubica, they were less than a second apart at the finish.

Nico Rosberg should have been a points contender for Williams but lost a lot of time in his first stop and spent the rest of the race fighting back, while team mate Alex Wurz finished 13th after a brush with Scott Speed, which eliminated the American’s Toro Rosso with front-left suspension damage. The final finishers were Takuma Sato, who started from the pit lane in the spare Super Aguri, and Christijan Albers in the Spyker.

The other retirements were Mark Webber with hydraulic problems on his Red Bull, the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher, Tonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso, Anthony Davidson’s Super Aguri and Adrian Sutil, whose Spyker’s engine blew up.

It may not have been a classic race, but it proved again that the advantage remains with Ferrari as the season reached its midpoint.
 

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Provisional driver and constructor standings:

Drivers
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 70 points
2. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 58
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 52
4. Felipe Massa (Brazil ) Ferrari 51
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 33
6. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 22
7. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy ) Renault 17
8. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Renault 14
9. Alexander Wurz (Austria) Williams 8
10. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 7
11. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 5
12. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 4
13. Takuma Sato (Japan ) Super Aguri 4
14. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 2
15. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 2
16. Jenson Button [ (Britain) Honda 1
17. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) BMW Sauber 1
18. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 0
19. Scott Speed (U.S.) Toro Rosso 0
20. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri 0
21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Spyker 0
22. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) Spyker 0
23. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso 0
Constructors
1. McLaren - Mercedes 128 points
2. Ferrari 103
3. BMW Sauber 56
4. Renault 31
5. Williams - Toyota 13
6. Toyota 9
7. RedBull - Renault 6
8. Super Aguri - Honda 4
9. Honda 1
10. Toro Rosso - Ferrari 0
 
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