Lewis Hamilton got an early psychological edge over Kimmi Raikkonen, winning pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix while the world champion will start near the back of the grid. McLaren’s Hamilton had the fastest times in the second and third runs of the three-phase qualifying session.
Ferrari are back on top, Lewis Hamilton is a title contender and two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso is back with Renault. Add night racing to all that and one of F1’s most exciting seasons in 2007 is set for a worthy follow-up in 2008.
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/ 18 February 2008
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday described abuse of Lewis Hamilton in Spain as an ”isolated incident” and said the sport did not need an anti-racism campaign. ”What it does, all of these things, it gives attention to the people that want attention,” the Briton added.
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/ 4 February 2008
Spain could lose both of its Formula One races following the racist taunting of driver Lewis Hamilton by spectators over the weekend. Governing body the FIA said on Monday that the racial abuse aimed at Hamilton, Formula One’s first black driver, during testing at the Barcelona circuit could result in sanctions.
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/ 1 February 2008
Former world champion Fernando Alonso has shrugged off his brief and disappointing flirtation with McLaren, confident that his return to Renault will restore his title credentials. The Spaniard has been welcomed back by the French team, with whom he won back-to-back Formula One world championships in 2005 and 2006, after a disastrous time with McLaren.
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/ 11 January 2008
There could be few more satisfactory presents for a racing driver’s birthday than a new grand prix car, and Lewis Hamilton beamed with delight as the new McLarenÂÂMercedes for the 2008 grand prix season made its entrance this week. ”We’ve gone to a lot of trouble,” Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, said before the unveiling.
Lewis Hamilton insists last year’s spying scandal and the heavy hand of McLaren team politics have been consigned to history as he takes aim at the 2008 Formula One world title. The British driver enjoyed a storming start to his career in 2007 and was on course to clinch the title before he was pipped to the crown by just one point by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
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/ 27 December 2007
Lewis Hamilton believes the traumatic experiences of his debut season in Formula One can help him emerge as a team leader for McLaren. Hamilton spent most of the campaign embroiled in an increasingly bitter feud with teammate Fernando Alonso, while his team were caught up in the spygate controversy.
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/ 18 December 2007
The 2007 Formula One season went down as one of the most thrilling to date, with a three-way race for the title that ended with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen edging McLaren teammates Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the tightest race for the drivers’ championship in 21 years.
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/ 7 December 2007
Renault on Thursday escaped punishment in the latest spying row to rock Formula One. The sport’s governing body, the FIA, found the French team to be in breach of regulations when they were accused of being in possession of technical data of rivals McLaren.
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/ 8 November 2007
Formula One’s spying scandal took a new twist on Thursday when Renault was accused by the sport’s governing body of possessing confidential information belonging to rival team McLaren. FIA summoned Renault officials to a hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on December 6.
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/ 2 November 2007
Fernando Alonso’s stormy year with McLaren came to a shuddering halt on Friday with the announcement that the Spaniard was leaving the team just one year into a three-year contract. The deposed world champion will quit the British team immediately even though his current contract had two years to run until the end of the 2009 season.
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/ 23 October 2007
It was a fitting climax to a dramatic season. The Brazilian Grand Prix followed form with an upset finish — Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari taking the final race of the season to vault past McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso for the title.
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/ 21 October 2007
Kimi Raikkonen seized his first Formula One title by a single point after a stirring victory in Brazil that shattered Lewis Hamilton’s dreams. The Finn’s unexpected title triumph, leading Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa in a one-two finish, ended Briton Hamilton’s bid to become the youngest champion in his debut season.
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/ 18 October 2007
World championship leader Lewis Hamilton this week rested at his hotel ahead of the weekend’s Formula One world title showdown, knowing he will need all his energy and focus to emerge triumphant from a three-way battle for glory. As the sprawling city of São Paulo buzzed with anticipation, the 22-year-old Briton and his main rival, Fernando Alonso, kept a low profile.
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/ 14 October 2007
Although Lewis Hamilton couldn’t wrap up the Formula One title in the Chinese Grand Prix, he is still in a position to make history as the circuit’s youngest champion. Since the Englishman was nine years old he has nurtured a dream of following in the steps of former champions Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen turned the Formula One title battle into a three-way fight to the last race in Brazil on Sunday with victory in China after championship leader Lewis Hamilton skidded out. Hamilton’s double world champion teammate and closest title rival Fernando Alonso finished second with Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa third.
McLaren’s championship leader Lewis Hamilton took pole position on Saturday for a Chinese Grand Prix that could make him Formula One’s first rookie champion. The 22-year-old Briton will line up alongside Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen on the front row for Sunday’s race.
Lewis Hamilton’s bid to become Formula One’s first rookie world champion remained on track on Friday after stewards cleared him of blame for a collision in Japan last weekend. ”No penalty is imposed upon him,” they said in a statement. The 22-year-old McLaren driver met stewards at the Chinese Grand Prix to review video footage of a collision during the rain-soaked Fuji race.
Has there ever been a face quite as misleading as Lewis Hamilton’s? With the sweetest of smiles, pencil-thin sideburns and an almost hairless face, he looks like a cherub in leathers. But don’t be fooled. Hamilton is one of the toughest men in sport.
Formula One stewards are investigating Lewis Hamilton’s Japanese Grand Prix victory after complaints about the championship leader’s erratic driving behind the safety car last weekend. ”New evidence has emerged and the stewards are looking into it,” a spokesperson for the International Automobile Federation said.
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/ 30 September 2007
Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday to take a huge step towards becoming the first rookie to win the Formula One championship. While the 22-year-old Briton celebrated his fourth victory of an extraordinary debut season, his closest rival Fernando Alonso crashed out of an action-packed, rainswept race.
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/ 22 September 2007
Formula One team McLaren-Mercedes will not appeal against the -million fine and exclusion from the 2007 constructors’ championship over the Ferrari spying charges, Mercedes said on Friday. McLaren had until 3pm GMT on Friday to lodge an appeal over the decision by the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body.
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/ 19 September 2007
McLaren boss Ron Dennis has not been on speaking terms with Formula One champion Fernando Alonso since last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, it emerged on Wednesday. In a transcript of a ‘spy hearing’ that last Thursday, Dennis revealed the extent of the rift with a driver he described as a ”remarkable recluse”.
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/ 17 September 2007
McLaren chief Ron Dennis has moved to diffuse the latest row between his world-championship-chasing drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren pair were involved in a thrilling battle at the first corner of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix that ended with Alonso forcing a charging Hamilton to take evasive action.
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/ 16 September 2007
Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian Grand Prix for the third time in a row on Sunday, leading a Ferrari one-two to revive his title challenge. Brazilian Felipe Massa finished second, 4,6 seconds behind the Finn, with McLaren’s double world champion Fernando Alonso third to cut teammate Lewis Hamilton’s overall lead to two points.
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/ 15 September 2007
The rivalry between McLaren Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso reached such a pitch that the Spanish world champion threatened to reveal damaging data obtained illegally from Ferrari to the sport’s governing body unless he was made the team’s official number one driver, it was alleged on Friday.
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/ 14 September 2007
Formula One’s governing body published emails between McLaren drivers on Friday that it said proved the team had made use of information leaked from title rivals Ferrari. McLaren were stripped of their 2007 constructors’ points on Thursday and fined a record -million after a hearing into a spying controversy.
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/ 13 September 2007
Formula One leaders McLaren have been stripped of all their 2007 constructors’ points and fined -million in a spying controversy involving Ferrari information. However, the governing FIA ruled that Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso could keep their points in the drivers’ contest.
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/ 13 September 2007
Formula One returns to the Spa Francorchamps circuit on Sunday for the Belgian Grand Prix, with McLaren looking to emulate the 1-2 victory in Monza last weekend.
After a year’s absence due to construction and improvement works, the longest track of the season returns for the last grand prix in Europe.
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/ 9 September 2007
Double world champion Fernando Alonso led a McLaren one-two in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday to cut team mate Lewis Hamilton’s lead to three points with four races remaining. Hamilton (22) had another highly impressive afternoon but the British rookie was doomed to follow in the Spaniard’s slipstream.