Formula One news
Hamilton wins Indianapolis
17 June 2007 / Results / PhotosLewis Hamilton won his second succesive grand prix as he led Fernando Alonso to a dominant McLaren one-two at the American Grand Prix. The 22-year-old drove a faultless race as Alonso could do nothing to stop his team-mate from winning. Hamilton is now ten points clear of the Spaniard in the standings. Felipe Massa completed the podium trio.
Kimi Raikkonen was close behind his Ferrari team-mate in fourth as Heikki Kovalainen continued his run of good form with a strong fifth position. Jarno Trulli did well to get sixth for Toyota and Mark Webber scored his first points of the season in seventh. Robert Kubica's replacement at BMW Sebastian Vettel scored the first points of his career in eighth position and becomes the youngest driver to ever score any points in Formula One at 19-years-old. Giancarlo Fisichella was ninth for Renault after a mistake on the first lap cost him dear and Alex Wurz's Williams made up the top ten.
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Alonso got off the line quicker than pole-sitter Hamilton but tucked in behind to get the tow going into the first corner. Alonso took the outside line on the entrance to turn one but Hamilton had just enough coming up the inside to retain his position. Alonso then ducked and dived in Hamilton's mirrors but failed to put his team-mate off. Raikkonen lost two places to Heidfeld and Kovalainen whilst Ralf Schumacher locked up into David Coulthard on the entrance to turn one, ending both of their races. Rubens Barrichello's Honda also got caught up in the incident and retired with a damaged suspension. Sebastian Vettel went on a little excursion after turn two, dropping to 11th before Giancarlo Fisichella made a mistake at turn four, spinning off and dropping to the back of the pack. Going the other way was Adrian Sutil's Spyker, which had leapfrogged to 13th having started on the back row.
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Having been all over the back of Hamilton in the initial stages, Alonso started to fall behind and was 2.5 seconds adrift after 13 laps. Fisichella did battle with the bark-markers as he commenced his charge up the order, first taking Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri for 17th and then banging wheels around the infield section with Jenson Button for 16th. The Honda driver fought bravely but simply lacked the pace and had to yield to the faster Renault. The others to get bad starts were also involved in similar duels. Raikkonen hounded fellow Finn Kovalainen for fifth, whilst Vettel tried to find a way past Nico Rosberg for ninth. Takuma Sato, who had been under investigation for passing during a yellow flag (resulting in a ten-grid penalty for the next race), then spun out of the race at turn one on lap 14 after passing Sutil.
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Hamilton was amongst the first to pit on lap 21 having traded fastest times with Alonso in the laps just previous. Only a lap later Alonso pitted too and rejoined behind Hamilton. Then Alonso lost even more time to his team-mate on his outlap as he tried to find a way past former team-mate Jarno Trulli. Kovalainen took the lead for the first time in his career whilst his team-mate Fisichella entertained the crowd by pulling off some unlikely overtaking manoeuvres in the midfield. Finally on lap 30, Fisichella did what most were struggling to do and passed Vitantonio Liuzzi for 11th: the Toro Rosso's low-downforce set-up had made it hard for other drivers to get past.
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The outcome after the first round of pit-stops: the McLarens were 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field and Raikkonen had got back to fourth. Alonso was closing in on Hamilton too and had the gap down to just 0.6s. The pair then came up behind the Liuzzi train. The back-markers let the pair go by cleanly but Alonso had got within grasp of his team-mate. On lap 39, the McLaren garage held its breath as Alonso jibed with Hamilton all the way down the straight with Hamilton just managing to nail the inside line at turn one to retain the lead.
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Heidfeld led the second round of pit-stops on lap 49. This time Alonso was the first of the McLarens to pit on lap 50 but Hamilton pitted the following lap to rejoin ahead of his team-mate. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was flying in fourth having set the fastest lap on lap 49 with a 1:13.112s and was only 0.7s behind his team-mate Massa on lap 56, when fifth-destined Heidfeld was forced to retire with a hydraulics problem. Webber then pitted from fifth and rejoined to battle with Trulli for seventh. On lap 63 the Red Bull driver tried going up the inside on turn one but, carrying too much speed, had to run over the grass across turn two and give the place back to the Toyota driver to avoid receiving a penalty. Vettel, who was now on the brink of breaking into the points in ninth, watched the pair battle closely.
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With 8 laps to go the McLaren drivers seemed to have made a truce and were negotiating a two-second gap, whilst Raikkonen was refusing to let his team-mate get away and was scrapping with Massa for the last step on the podium. Rosberg retired with four laps remaining when his engine blew up on the main straight. The Williams driver looked to have made a one-stop strategy pay off and was running in sixth having started down in 14th. Rosberg's fury however was Vettel's delight as the 19-year-old slipped upto eighth to score his first ever point in Formula One.
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