Delighted Briton Lewis Hamilton realised a childhood dream on Sunday when he won the Monaco Grand Prix and took over as leader in this year’s Formula One drivers’ world championship.
As a boy, Hamilton, now 23, grew up watching his hero Brazilian Ayrton Senna win the famous race around the streets of the Mediterranean principality six times for McLaren.
In this year’s 66th running of the classic event, he did it himself, winning for McLaren in memorable fashion in a race twice interrupted by Safety Car interventions, littered with incidents and accidents and finally shortened by two laps from the usual 78 to 76 to finish within the two mandated two hour time limit.
Hamilton emerged from the carnage, rain, puddles and chaos ahead of all his rivals to claim the first victory by an Englishman in Monaco since Graham Hill’s 1969 triumph.
But he needed to ride his luck after an early crash, after six laps, into the barriers at Tabac where he almost wrecked his right rear wheel.
This enabled him to revise his strategy and this gave him great assistance as the race unfolded in his favour.
At the finish, after leaping from his car, he slipped between the security guards on the track to hug and dance with his father Anthony and the McLaren team. It was an emotional moment.
The win was Hamilton’s second this year and sixth of his career.
“That was such a long race, I thought it was never going to end,” said Hamilton afterwards.
“It is just a dream for me to win here. It is unreal for me and to be on top of the championship again is all too much.
“I said it would be an eventful race, but I didn’t expect this! Had it not been for the early puncture at Tabac and the brilliant work by the team to get me back out there I would not be here now as the winner.”
Hamilton’s win has reignited the scrap for this year’s drivers’ world championship.
He now has 38 points with defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari second, after failing to score, on 35 and Brazilian Felipe Massa, who started from pole and finished second, now third on 34.
Hamilton came home three seconds clear of his friend Pole Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber with Brazilian Felipe Massa third for Ferrari after starting from pole position.
Kubica said: “I am just so glad to have finished, it is just a difficult, difficult race. Anything can happen and I am glad to be here at the end.
“I am happy with third in a race like this because anything can happen,” said Massa.
“It was amazing to just finish and so much happened. We made some mistakes in our strategy at the end because the team expected there to be more rain.”
Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull was fourth, German Sebastian Vettel fifth for Toro Rosso and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello sixth for Honda. Japanese Kazuki Nakajima was seventh for Williams and Finn Heikki Kovalainen eighth in the second McLaren after starting from the pit lane.
Defending drivers world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Finland and Ferrari endured a wild race of accidents and incidents and finished ninth, failing to score a point.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil lost what would have been a superb fourth when Kimi Raikkonen cannoned into the back of the German exiting the tunnel on lap 68, forcing his retirement.
Technorati Tags: Mark Webber, BMW Sauber, Formula One, Adrian Sutil, Robert Kubica, Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren, Kazuki Nakajima, F1 Rage!
Tags: Adrian Sutil, BMW Sauber, F1 Rage, Formula One, Kazuki Nakajima, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Mclaren, Robert Kubica
peterg wrote,
Not to take anything away from his victory, a win is a win, he was still incredibly lucky however. First his clouting of the barrier only resulted in a puncture instead of race ending suspension damage. And second, this forced pit stop unwittingly required his next stop to be at the best time to swap for dry tyres.
IMHO, the two drivers of the day were Kubica & Heikki, the Pole ran a solid race whilst all the other front runners were having offs or collisions. Heikki was robbed of his second row starting position - he may well have won the race - & then proceeded to carve through the rear of the field, with him & Webber placing several of the fastest laps in the mixed conditions.
As for Sutil, everybody forgets (or doesn’t see because of the car he has under him) that he was Hamilton’s greatest protagonist for the Euro F3 title, before going off to win the Japanese F3 championship.Poor kid, Kimi lost it under braking & just whacked the Force India car, what a strangely scrappy race for the normally robotic-like Finn.Vettel’s one stop afternoon was another example of a an unsung performance in the treacherous mid field, & what of Fischella? A whole race without first & second gear! Getting out of the pits in third on a wet surface must have been a nightmare. Webber was the other driver to keep it all on track throughout the entire race & was rewarded for it.
Without doubt the craziest move of the race was Alonso’s brain fade at the Lowe’s hair pin, a half-hearted stab in a move that was never going to come off. It’s hard enough to voluntarily let a car pass you at that corner, where both cars are at their slowest & on full steering lock! Hardly the move of a double world champion who may well have been able to haul the recalcitrant Renault near to, or on, the podium.
Nelson Piquet was struggling all weekend, but when they put him on to dry tyres on the still wet track my first thought was, he’s going to bin it.You can forgive a driver for a error in those conditions, but Piquet’s season up until now has been lackluster in the extreme. If this keeps up he may not see out the season, & it’s not as if Renault does not have a stable of junior drivers, Di Grasi & Grosjean, who is French!
As usual, wet weather has improved the racing, the twitchiness of the cars under acceleration & braking had the drivers really earning their pay & emphasized the removal of TC & engine braking.
Link | May 26th, 2008 at 6:53 am