Fun F1

Well he did it. After winning his first Formula One Grand Prix race in Canada a week earlier, Lewis Hamilton managed to score his 2nd victory on the trot. This time, it wasn’t as easy however. Teammate Fernando Alonso clearly had more pace, but just couldn’t do anything with it. The points:

Passing – I don’t know why, but all drivers decided you can pass in Formula One during the US Grand Prix. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen so much passing and so many magnificent battles! People like Giancarlo Fisichella, Alexander Wurz and Jenson Button were really getting into it! Great to watch. And the best part is it was completely professional and fair. 

Lewis Hamilton – Perfect drive… just. He didn’t seem to handle the traffic as well as Alonso though, raising the question – what will happen when Lewis doesn’t start from pole? Thankfully for Lewis he’s doing a bl**dy good job in getting the job done in qualifying.

Fernando Alonso – Great drive. Yes, he came 2nd but clearly had the fastest car in the race. He just stuffed up qualifying. It’s clear that if McLaren continue to have such an advantage over the other teams then this years championship will be decided on Saturdays, not on Sundays.

Felipe Massa – Good damage control for Ferrari. I think his cap fit properly this time but didn’t check..!?

Kimi Raikkonen – More good damage control, despite another bad start.

Heikki Kovalainen – Driver of the day if you ask me. Great to see Heikki showing some of his potential, especially when you think back to the Australian GP where he couldn’t put a foot right.

Sebastian Vettel – Fantastic qualifying but an average race.

BMW – Quite disappointing this round. Expected them to be faster than Ferrari at least.

Honda – What an embarrassment. And I’m not just talking about their paint job.

Lewis Hamilton proved that he’s the man by taking his maiden victory in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. The safety cars didn’t make it easy for him, but he remained faultless and dominant. As for the other drivers…

Robert Kubica – Thank God he’s ok! I said a lot in the previous post about Kubica’s crash, but we all just wish him a speedy recovery!

Fernando Alonso – What a silly drive. The penalty for pitting while the pits were closed was unavoidable as he was almost out of fuel, but the many off-track excursions were ridiculous. This is his worst drive in years. Bahrain was bad, but at least he did the best he could with a car that wasn’t to his liking.. But today he stuffed up in a car in which he could go very fast in on the hard tyre.

Takuma Sato – Wow   In many ways Takuma’s drive was even more impressive than Lewis’, but we don’t want to take away too much from Lewis’ great victory

Alex Wurz – A very lucky man with his one stop strategy, but fortune favours the brave doesn’t it?  Well done to him and Williams!

Kimi Raikkonen – Slow and steady doesn’t win the race.. but did well to keep Fernando behind him at several points in the race.

Felipe Massa – Tough day at the Ferrari office. That penalty was too harsh though. I know it’s a fundamental rule but it felt wrong when they gave Juan Pablo Montoya the same penalty a few years ago and it feels just as wrong today. Why does this only seem to happen in Canada?? I think the rules need to be made more simple – why not just leave the pits open all the time?

Giancarlo Fisichella – Also hard-done by the pit / safety car rules   Otherwise a good drive for Renault.

Heikki Kovalainen – Nice to see Heikki get some points, especially after his difficult Saturday.

Nick Heidfeld – Another strong performance. Wish he’s shave that beard off though

Watching Robert Kubica’s crash in the Canadian Grand Prix made me sick to the stomach. The way his hands suddenly dropped lifelessly as his BMW Sauber shell came to a halt reminded me of the final moments of Ayrton Senna.

Then there was the safety truck that moved strategically into position to block the camera’s view of the rescue efforts – always a bad sign.

Thankfully, despite all this, Robert survived with only a broken leg. Early reports that he was ’stable’ weren’t very comforting, but news that he was talking to his manager and that he was ok was uplifting.

We often forget how dangerous Formula One racing can be as safety levels are extremely high. But no matter what precautions are taken there will always be risk when racing at such fast speeds.

It’s moments like these that can really ground us. We might feel upset at the end of a grand prix when our favourite driver doesn’t win, but days like today prove it doesn’t really matter who wins as long as everyone comes home safely.

I only noticed it during the Monaco Grand Prix, but has anyone else noticed how tight Felipe Massa has to make his caps to fit his small head? Seems it wasn’t just at Monaco he has his cap ridiculously tight!

To be fair though, I think the Bridgestone caps have a part where you feed the adjustment back in neatly. Just seems Felipe can’t be bothered..

Would love to hear your captions for the following picture:

Here’s a few quick ones:

• Limbo anyone?
• He shoots, he scores!
• Who left that banana there!?