07 United States - Hamilton holds off Alonso for Indy victory
Lewis Hamilton secured his second straight Grand Prix win this afternoon at Indianapolis as he took the chequered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of McLaren Mercedes team-mate Fernando Alonso in what was a tight and tense 73-lap US Grand Prix.
Hamilton started the event from Pole Position and resisted a challenge from Alonso into turn one. Alonso shadowed Hamilton until the first round of pit stops aiming to get the jump but the order remained consistent with rarely over a second separating the two.
Coming up to lap Tonio Liuzzi at just over half distance, Alonso was able to get a great run on Hamilton down the long straight but Hamilton calmly moved to his right and held his line into turn one. Alonso was on a short middle stint at this time and did seem to have better pace than Hamilton, but simply could not find a way by.
Hamilton’s second victory moves him ten points clear of Alonso at the head of the drivers’ championship and to his credit, Alonso was not all doom and gloom on the podium.
Felipe Massa started third in his Ferrari and finished in the same position. The Brazilian held on to the back of the McLaren duo until the first round of pitstops, but lost ground in the second stint as he found himself stuck behind Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber who were running a very long first stint.
From a six second deficit to Hamilton to just over 12 seconds in a handful of laps, Massa’s charge was halted and he turned his attention to the recovering Kimi Raikkonen closing fast in his mirrors.
Raikkonen dropped behind both Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen at the start and having opted to start the race on the hard tyres – the only driver to do so – he was unable to make progress until after his first round of stops. Raikkonen, clearly the faster Ferrari driver in the closing stages, was unable to separate Massa from the final podium position as they took the chequered flag just a few second apart.
Heikki Kovalainen didn’t have the pace to challenge the leading two teams but he had a good run in his Renault as he withstood the pressure from Raikkonen early on and then drove an error free race to fifth position.
Jarno Trulli ran a very long first stint from his eighth position on the grid. The Toyota driver gained a position when Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber suffered some kind of hydraulic failure whilst running fifth. Race long Trulli had to keep an eye on Mark Webber in the Red Bull as they both ran together on track and both had adopted a similar strategy. Webber pushed hard in his Red Bull Renault but could not find a way ahead of Trulli.
With Nico Rosberg pulling off track with a Toyota engine failure three laps from home whilst running in the points, Sebastian Vettel gained a position in his debut Grand Prix and took the chequered flag in eighth position – and a championship point.
For Rosberg, the late race retirement was a shame as after a poor qualifying run yesterday, the German had opted for a one stop strategy and seemed set for two points.
Giancarlo Fisichella started the race with a heavy fuel load from tenth position but a spin early on at turn three saw him drop to the tail of the field. Fisichella put in a good recovery drive and was one of the few able to pass the Toro Rosso Ferrari on the straight as he worked his way up to ninth position at the end.
Alex Wurz spent much of the race staring at the rear wing of Liuzzi Toro Rosso. Time after time Wurz would try to make the move into turn one and it never came off. Liuzzi would later lose ground and then retire with a mechanical problem, but he and Wurz had probably the most entertaining battle in the Grand Prix. Wurz finished tenth.
Anthony Davidson finished 11th in his Super Aguri Honda while team-mate Takuma Sato was under investigation for passing under yellow flags at the start of the second lap when he spun off at the third turn and into retirement.
Jenson Button was in the train of cars stuck behind Liuzzi for much of the race but will be disappointed to finish 12th behind Davidson’s Honda powered machine. Scott Speed finished in 13th position ahead of Adrian Sutil. Christijan Albers was the final runner at the chequered flag some way behind his Spyker team-mate.
Nick Heidfeld was on course for a fifth position finish but hit mechanical problems while David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher were all eliminated at the first turn. Schumacher locked up his front wheels on the run to turn one and ran into the side of Coulthard’s RB3. Barrichello, running on the outside was also taken out in the incident.
The North American tour is now over as the teams head back to Europe to get ready for the French Grand Prix.