Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the British Grand Prix yesterday to
wreck championship leader Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a home
celebration.
The Finn, who led a Ferrari one-two in France last weekend, took
the chequered flag 2.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's double world
champion Fernando Alonso thanks to an astute pitstop strategy.
"This is the perfect result and if we can repeat this we are
going to be ahead of everybody," said Raikkonen, who is now third
overall and 18 points adrift of Hamilton with plenty to play
for.
Hamilton, the 22-year-old who attracted record crowds to
Silverstone - including England midfielder David Beckham and his
wife Victoria - for his British debut after an extraordinary run of
success, had his lead over teammate Alonso trimmed to 12 points
after finishing third.
He led for the first 15 laps only but crossed the line to a roar
of sound from the packed grandstands, with banners hailing Formula
One's 'New Kid on the Block' and future world champion, after
starting on pole position.
Yet while the Briton celebrated his ninth podium finish in nine
starts, an unprecedented feat for a rookie driver in Formula One,
he recognized that he had paid the price for costly errors.
But for Ferrari's Felipe Massa stalling on the grid, and
starting from the pit lane, he would surely have finished
fourth.
One mistake came in the first pitstop, when Hamilton moved off
too early and lost a couple of seconds, and the other was the
fundamental set-up of the car.
"I think I made a wrong decision with the set-up. I chose a
different rear end to Fernando and I think it really caused me
problems during the race," he said.
"Even in qualifying we didn't really have the pace we should
have had but it was too late by then to change the car. So it was a
good lesson.
"But we've come away with a ninth podium position and I have to
be happy with that and hope to do better in the next race," added
the Briton.
Alonso, who led for the middle stint of the race, knew he was
beaten after Raikkonen emerged from his second pitstop ahead of
him.
"I think the Ferraris were a little bit too quick today," said
the Spaniard, who shook his fist at American Scott Speed when the
Toro Rosso driver failed to move over swiftly enough when being
lapped.
"This result will not change too much and second place was the
maximum today."
Raikkonen's win was his third of the season, more than any other
driver in a fierce title battle between Ferrari and McLaren, and
12th of his career.
Teammate Massa slipped to fourth place overall, one point behind
Raikkonen, after finishing fifth. Poland's Robert Kubica was fourth
for BMW Sauber.
Massa also lit up the early stages of the race, while Raikkonen
and Hamilton battled it out at the front, with a stirring charge
back through the field to 10th place after just eight laps.
(China Daily via Agencies July 9, 2007)