Came in at 3rd pace today. Did anyone go? Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen shattered Lewis Hamilton's dreams of a debut British Grand Prix victory with a copybook second victory in a row. The Finn drove a superb race to beat Hamilton's McLaren's team-mate Fernando Alonso, with Hamilton a distant fourth. The Englishman was unable to convert his pole position ? he lost the lead at the first stops and was never really in contention again. Alonso cut his lead in the standings to a still-substantial 12 points. Raikkonen's victory moves him into third place one point ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa but still 18 points adrift of Hamilton. Massa finished fifth following an impressive fightback after he stalled on the grid and was forced to start from the pit lane. Hamilton led away at the start, aggressively defending his lead from Raikkonen on the run down to the first corner, with Alonso slotting into third place. But Hamilton was unable to break clear of Raikkonen, whose looming presence in the 22-year-old's mirrors made it clear he had a faster car. Hamilton was the first of the leading trio to make a pit stop on lap 16, suggesting he had won pole position by virtue of a lighter car. And sure enough, when Raikkonen emerged from his own first stop two laps later, he was ahead of Hamilton. But Alonso was still out on the track, and he leapfrogged ahead of both of them after his first stop two laps later. The race soon distilled down to a battle between Alonso and Raikkonen, as Hamilton dropped further and further back with an as-yet-unknown problem. The Spaniard and the Finn were very evenly-matched ? Alonso had rejoined with a lead of just under four seconds. The gap ebbed and flowed with traffic, but averaged around 4.5secs throughout the second stint. Alonso eked out another second on lap 35 as Raikkonen encountered traffic, but then the world champion himself ran into slower cars on lap 37, when he came in for his final stop. Had Raikkonen had only a couple of laps' extra fuel, Alonso might have hung on, but the Finn continued until lap 43, and emerged from the pits with a 3.2-second lead. Underlining the impression that Raikkonen and Ferrari have been the strongest combination all weekend, he edged further ahead as the race wound to a conclusion. Hamilton dropped further and further behind his team-mate, but was under no threat whatsoever from BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica in fourth place. The Pole was far more concerned with fending off Massa's Ferrari in the closing laps, which he successfully managed to do. Nick Heidfeld finished sixth in the second BMW Sauber, ahead of the Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella. The Hondas ran reliably but slowly, with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button completing the top 10, ahead of Red Bull's David Coulthard.
I hope we don't start seeing comments in the press/public knocking Hamilton for JUST coming 3rd and still being 1st in the World Championship?
Well that's what Alonso did! He won as handful of races then came in second and third for the rest of the season. IMO if Hamilton can win one or two more races and stay on the podium all season he can win the championship.
