Sunday, September 12, 2010

Lewis Hamiltons flat tire leaves Mark Webber with the theatre to himself

Kevin Eason, Motor racing correspondent, Barcelona & ,}

It could so simply have been a fiesta for Lewis Hamilton in front of the Spanish fans who have taunted and jeered him via his Formula One career.

Instead the steer of the front left tyre of the 25-year-old Englishmans McLaren bursting usually dual mins from the finish of the Spanish Grand Prix blew his hopes of fasten Jenson Button, his team-mate, at the tip of the World Championship and lifted the greatest hearten of the day from the pumped-up fans of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton and the Ferrari motorist Hamilton and Spain have history, dating back to Alonsos vehement deteriorate at McLaren when the Spaniard was broke by a rookie. The majority viewable taunts, such as the silly black faces that greeted Hamilton at one exam here at the Circuit de Catalunya, have thankfully been driven out.

But traces of sarcasm sojourn and the steer of Hamilton peering inquisitively at the disadvantage of his front left cessation and shredded tyre, whilst Alonso cruised by to get his second place, was a means for an coming out of wild flag-waving and entertaining in in between the 98,000 spectators.

It was an additional what competence have been day for Hamilton, who emerged as the only motorist with any picturesque possibility of inserted to forestall the Red Bulls of Mark Webber, yesterdays considerable victor, and Sebastian Vettel taking a hold on this grand prix.

Webber had bloody to his second stick on all sides of the season, his team-mate alongside him at the front of the grid. That is five races and five Red Bull poles. Their cars are so fast that it seemed this competition was set to be small more than a lifeless ritual on a high-speed lane that suits each in. of their swooping, aerodynamic bodies.

We should have well known improved in this deteriorate of funny shenanigans, for at the behind of the leader came the common mayhem.

Webber did the job: simply point and press and slip home with twenty-four seconds in hand at the checkered dwindle over the advantageous Alonso. Webber has outlayed majority of this deteriorate in the shade of his younger team-mate, but this was a big psychological feat for a motorist who has put down a pen in this World Championship. The Australian will go to Monaco this week desiring that he is the man to kick at the majority prestigious grand prix of them all.

But these Red Bulls not usually have wings, they assumingly have an Achilles heel, too. Just ask Vettel, who limped home in third place, a plant again of the infirmity of his car.

Vettel had sealed out Hamilton and Alonso at the start, as they charged from the second row of the grid, and it looked as though we were in for an additional bore, a approach from gun to fasten until the pitstops got underneath way.

Button was behind by a cryptic purchase at his stop and emerged to find himself jumped at the initial dilemma by a regenerated Michael Schumacher, behind to his feistiest mood in a Mercedes effectively repackaged to fit him. Button crawled all over the behind of Schumachers car for ten laps but could not outwit the old master, who delved in to his big bag of tricks to keep the world hold up at bay.

Things were worse for Vettel. His pitstop felt similar to an perpetuity as he waited for cars to pass prior to he could be released. By the time he came around to the array true after his out lap, Hamilton was on his approach out of the pits and dynamic to take the 22-year-old Germans second place.

In the way, though, was the rolling roadblock that was Lucas di Grassis Virgin Racing car. The dejected Brazilian had outlayed the afternoon removing out of the approach of the leaders and right afar blinked as he found himself with dual of them temperament down on him.

Hamilton took shy action, effectively shoving Vettel far-reaching and asserted himself as the English beef sandwiched in in between the dual Red Bulls. It was another imperishable strife in in between Formula Ones dual immature titans, usually as in China when they gathering side by side along the pitlane. This time Hamilton was determined to have his point.

If Vettel was dejected at losing his second place, that was nothing. On path 55, he pulpy his stop pedal and found his car racing true towards the gravel.

He dashed to the pits, losing third place to Alonso, but, from afterwards on, he was nursing his car to the finish as his array organisation released notice after notice for him to be clever as his brakes deteriorated.

Hamilton could inhale a whine of service that his pursuer had gone, but it was short-lived. With the dwindle roughly in sight, the tough work finished and intensity elevation to second place in the World Championship in sight, it all went suddenly and horribly wrong.

At the third dilemma of the penultimate lap, something snapped on the front left cessation of Hamiltons McLaren and, in a split-second, his tyre had burst and his competition was over.

I am positively blown afar that something happened on the last dual laps of the race, he said. But thats engine racing. You usually have to keep your chin up and see forward. Those eighteen points and I would have been right behind in the championship conflict and it would have been undiluted for the group in terms of constructors and drivers championships.

But Formula One is so frequency perfect. For Webber, it unequivocally was perfection, but for Hamilton and Vettel, the poke goes on to Monaco on Sunday.

Results

Final positions (66 laps) 1, M Webber (Aus, Red Bull) 1hr 35min 44.101sec 2, F Alonso (Sp, Ferrari) 1:36:08.166 3, S Vettel (Ger, Red Bull) 1:36:35.439 4, M Schumacher (Ger, Mercedes) 1:36:46.296 5, J Button (GB, McLaren) 1:36:47.829 6, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1:36:49.868; 7, A Sutil (Ger, Force India) 1:36:57.042; 8, R Kubica (Pol, Renault) 1:36:57.778; 9, R Barrichello (Br, Williams) 1:36:57.778; 10, J Alguersuari (Sp, Toro Rosso) at 1 path behind; 11, V Petrov (Russ, Renault) 1; 12, K Kobayashi (Japan, BMW Sauber) 1; 13, N Rosberg (Ger, Mercedes) 1; 14, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren) 2; 15, V Liuzzi (It, Force India) 2; 16, N Hülkenberg (Ger, Williams) 2; 17, J Trulli (It, Lotus) 3; 18, T Glock (Ger, Virgin) 3; 19, L di Grassi (Br, Virgin) 4. Not classified: 20, S Buemi (Switz, Toro Rosso) 42 laps completed; 21, K Chandhok (India, HRT) 27; 22, P de la Rosa (Sp, BMW Sauber) 18; 23, B Senna (Br, HRT) 0; 24, H Kovalainen (Fin, Lotus) did not start.

Drivers Championship 1, Button 70pts 2, Alonso 67 3, Vettel 60 4, Webber 53 5, Rosberg 50 6, Hamilton 49 7, Massa 49; 8 Kubica 44; 9, Schumacher 22; 10, Sutil 16; 11, Liuzzi 8; 12, Barrichello 7; 13, Petrov 6; 14, Alguersuari 3; 15, Hülkenberg 1; 16, Buemi 0; 17, De la Rosa 0; 18, Kobayashi 0; 19, Kovalainen 0; 20, Chandhok 0; Di Grassi 0; 22, Senna 0; 23, Trulli 0; 24, Glock 0.

Manufacturers Championship: 1, McLaren 119pts; 2, Ferrari 116; 3, Red Bull 113; 4, Mercedes 72; 5, Renault 50; 6, Force India 24; 7, Williams 8; 8, Toro Rosso 3; 9, BMW Sauber 0; 10, Lotus 0; 11, HRT 0; 12, Virgin 0.

Grands Prix to come: May 16: Monaco. May 30: Turkish. Jun 13: Canadian. Jun 27: European (in Valencia). Jul 11: British (at Silverstone). Jul 25: German. Aug 1: Hungarian. Aug 29: Belgian. Sept 12: Italian. Sept 26: Singapore. October 10: Japanese. October 24: South Korean. November 7: Brazilian. November 14: Abu Dhabi.

No comments:

Post a Comment