Alonso wins, while Lewis fends off Kimi
By Sam Cooper
April 8 2007
At long last, the McLaren formula one team have spectacualy won in Sepang, finishing first and second with Alonso and Lewis, both drivers winning the Ferraris, dispite possibly having a slower car.
Any doubts about whether McLaren can win again have been smashed, as Fernando Alonso tremendously winning over Lewis Hamilton, who put in a unbelievable drive, first holding off the Ferrari’s allowing team mate Alonso get a twenty second lead over the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen.
Lewis kept his cool going through the first stint, marvellously holding of Felipe Massa, pulling some incredible moves on Massa, waiting until the Brazilian went off the track, one Ferrari down, one more to go.
Lewis then in the second stint of the race began to close down on his more experienced team mate, setting the fastest lap and being one second a lap faster than anyone.
Meanwhile Fernando maintained keeping his lead over the rest of the field, disregarding a communication problem with the team and focusing on the job in hand, beating the faster Ferraris. Fernando managed to do this brilliantly, and began to settle into the race and try and beat, the ever increasing heat.
For Lewis’s final pit stop, he pitted first, slipping on a fresh set of hard tyres for the final eighteen laps of the race. Kimi and Alonso followed suit a few laps later and pitted, now the race was really on.
Then came the pressure for Lewis, with Fernando looking certain to regain the drivers championship lead, Lewis’s pace was suffering with fifteen laps to go he began to lose up to a second a lap, with just 10 seconds ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis had to find some pace, and fast!
Lewis began to react, dampening the effect of Kimi’s charge, only losing 6-8 tenths of a second a lap. With the heat getting to Lewis as he ran out of water to drink in the searing heat, he was undoubtedly on his back foot.
With less than ten laps to go, his lead over Kimi was rapidly going, he found some more speed and then began to lost just 0.2-0.4 seconds a lap to the Flying fin, people watching this first class action, I was undoubtedly on the edge of my seat, hoping that Lewis can fend off the charging Kimi.
With just one lap to go Lewis was no more than 0.8 seconds ahead of Kimi, the young Hamilton was running out of time fast, as Alonso crossed the finish line in style, we were lest in despair, in suspense, wanting to see the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes of Lewis, crossing the line ahead of Kimi. A moment or two later, we see a car emerging from the heat haze, it’s a McLaren, we’ve got a 1-2 at last!.
With the best race of 2007 over, we can only look forward to Bahrain, where im sure, McLaren will be hunting down a pole position, and that all important win, and we’ll be well on our way to both the constructors championship and the drivers championship.
The complete race results will be shown below
|
Pos. |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
|
|
1 |
F.
Alonso |
McLaren |
1:32:14.930 |
|
|
2 |
L. Hamilton |
McLaren |
+ 17.557 |
|
|
3 |
K. Räikkönen |
Ferrari |
+ 18.319 |
|
|
4 |
N. Heidfeld |
BMW |
+ 33.777 |
|
|
5 |
F. Massa |
Ferrari |
+ 36.705 |
|
|
6 |
G. Fisichella |
Renault |
+ 1:05.638 |
|
|
7 |
J. Trulli |
|
+ 1:10.132 |
|
|
8 |
H. Kovalainen |
Renault |
+ 1:12.015 |
|
|
9 |
A. Wurz |
Williams |
+ 1:28.924 |
|
|
10 |
M. Webber |
Red Bull |
+ 1:33.556 |
|
|
11 |
R. Barrichello |
Honda |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
12 |
J. Button |
Honda |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
13 |
T. Sato |
Super Aguri |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
14 |
S. Speed |
Scuderia Toro Rosso |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
15 |
R. Schumacher |
|
+ 1 laps |
|
|
16 |
A. Davidson |
Super Aguri |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
17 |
V. Liuzzi |
Scuderia Toro Rosso |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
18 |
R. Kubica |
BMW |
+ 1 laps |
|
|
19 |
N. Rosberg |
Williams |
DNF |
|
|
20 |
D. Coulthard |
Red Bull |
DNF |
|
|
21 |
C. Albers |
Spyker F1 |
DNF |
|
|
22 |
A. Sutil |
Spyker F1 |
DNF |
|