Fernando Alonso Wins 2007 European GP

Fernando Alonso won today’s European Grand Prix and closed to within two points of the World Championship lead.

A sudden–but not altogether unexpected–downpour on the first lap caused mayhem with cars on slick tyres sliding off the track. Before long the Safety Car was brought out to slow them down but zero visibility and torrents of water running across the track were still too dangerous and the race was red flagged until the storm passed.

Felipe Massa had to settle for second after Alonso barged past him with just five laps to go.

Lewis Hamilton’s streak of podium finishes came to an abrupt end after a faulty air-gun in yesterday’s final qualifying failed to completely tighten his front-right wheel nut. Something in his suspension seemed to break and rupture the wheel which immediately deflated the tyre and sent him spearing into a tyre barrier.

Thankfully unhurt, Hamilton had to start from tenth place on the grid and the sudden deluge on the first lap sent him–and several others–sliding into a gravel trap. Luckily he kept his engine running and he was allowed to continue after being lifted from the gravel. At this point he was a lap down in last place but for some reason he was waived by the safety car and allowed to make up his lap. He fought his way back to ninth place and was close to catching Kovalainen but he ran out of time and finished out of the points.

Pole-sitter Kimi Raikkonen dropped out of the race with an apparent hydraulic failure.

The most unusual event of the day came when Spyker’s mid-season replacement driver Markus Winkelhock–who had qualified in the final grid position–was called into the pits for intermediate tyres at the end of the parade lap. Starting dead last from pit lane he had soon passed everyone else as they struggled on their dry-weather slick tyres and had over a 30 second lead on the field when the race was temporarily halted. Although his lead over the field was erased and he was soon overtaken, he started first on the restart and became the only driver to have started last and then first in his maiden race.

Complete GP of Europe results.

Posted: Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

Kimi Raikkonen Wins 2007 British GP

Kimi Raikkonen won today’s British Grand Prix and started a mini-streak of his own having also won the previous round in France.

Fernando Alonso finished second and closed the gap on his teammate to 12 points.

Lewis Hamilton started from the pole but fell to third in his home Grand Prix. He did, however, keep his streak of podium finishes alive.

Felipe Massa stalled on the grid and had to start from pit lane. Despite this setback he had made his way back to fifth place by the end of the race.

The BMW and Renault teams finished in formation and collected the rest of the points.

Complete GP of Great Britain results.

Posted: Sunday, July 8th, 2007

Kimi Raikkonen Wins 2007 French GP

Kimi Raikkonen eclipsed his pole sitting Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa to win the last French Grand Prix to be held at Magny Cours… or anywhere else for the time being.

Lewis Hamilton started second and finished third which keeps his streak of podium finishes going but means that, for the first time in his Formula 1 career, he finished a race lower than he started it. He also extended his lead in the World Championship to 14 points going into his home Grand Prix and so I don’t suppose he is too upset about it.

Mechanical problems meant that Fernando Alonso failed to post a time in the final round of qualifying and so he had to start from a lowly–for him–tenth place on the grid. He finally finished seventh but was not a happy camper after his weekend in the French countryside.

BMW, on the other hand, had a great weekend with Kubica and Heidfeld finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Hard to believe but Jenson Button’s point was the first that Honda has scored all year.

Complete GP of France results.

Posted: Sunday, July 1st, 2007