At Sepang, Lewis Hamilton demonstrated he was a combative race driver, in Montreal, he won his first grand prix and, at the Brickyard, the rookie became the favourite to win the championship. Although last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, in which Hamilton claimed his maiden F1 victory, was a topsy-turvy affair and full of drama, the United States Grand Prix was a race for the F1 connoisseur. Can you remember when last the lead of a grand prix was contested by cars running next to one another, at full bore, down the pit straight, and, in the middle of a race? Hamilton didn’t have to do much to win in Montreal, but at Indianapolis, he avenged his defeat at the hands of team-mate Fernando Alonso at Monaco. In Monte Carlo, Hamilton set the pace in the lead-up to the grand prix, but then his Spanish team-mate snatched pole position late in the qualifying session and won the race.
At the Brickyard, the exact opposite happened. But there’s one major difference – despite suggestions by Hamilton to the contrary, Alonso methodically subdued his team-mate at Monaco and his lead was never under serious threat. At Indianapolis, Hamilton had to fight hard for his victory. The British rookie could have cracked under sustained pressure from Alonso – he might have made a driving error and spun out, or outbraked himself at the end of the pit straight when Alonso’s McLaren was parallel with Hamilton’s.
But he didn’t. Don’t be fooled by Hamilton’s boyish charms and bashful off-track demeanour… It’s not that I think he’s an arrogant jerk, far from it, but young Lewis is a precocious talent who’ll by now have realised that if he gains a psychological edge over his two-time champion team-mate, the driver’s title is as good as his. Barring an (almost) miraculous return to form, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa will play catch-up for a while to come and, Alonso’s uncharacteristic swerve towards the pit wall in the aftermath of his failed passing manoeuvre on Hamilton (was there a shred of blue flag in his path?), indicated that the Spaniard is a frustrated and perplexed young man.
A lead of 10 points in the driver’s championship standings may not sound like much, especially if one considers that the season is not even at its half-way point. But, Lewis’ dogged determination not to succumb to Alonso’s pressure at Indianapolis was proof that the rookie has nothing to lose. And, by virtue of the fact that Hamilton leads the standings, the Spaniard – in similar machinery – will need to take risks to regain the upper hand. Fernando delivered his best performance at Indianapolis on Sunday, but compared with the past two years, he won’t win his third championship title through consistency and pure pluck; he’ll have to fight his way back to the front of the pack.
What an exciting prospect! We may not see a four-way battle for the championship title (as many had expected), but there is bound to be sparks between Hamilton and Alonso before season’s end. No pair of closely-matched F1 team-mates can remain chummy for too long (the manner in which Lewis and Fernando emerged on the podium arm in arm seemed ever-so-slightly staged), and especially so when they’re protagonists in (what seems likely to be an exclusively two-way) championship battle. Roll on Magny Cours!
