Japanese F1 are bewildered. Once they had three Formula One teams, two grand prix tracks and several drivers but there is little left to cheer.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton battled to a masterful Monaco Grand Prix victory on Sunday despite hitting the barriers on an afternoon of mayhem on the principality’s slippery streets. ”This has got to be the highlight of my career, and it will be the highlight for the rest of my life,” declared the ecstatic Briton.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in a row on Sunday after tyre concerns slowed Lewis Hamilton’s challenge. The Brazilian took the chequered flag 3,7 seconds ahead of the 23-year-old McLaren driver, who ran most of the race on the harder tyres and had to make three pit stops compared with his rival’s two.
Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen stretched his Formula One lead to nine points with a dominant win from pole position in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. Brazilian Felipe Massa sealed Ferrari’s second successive one-two finish, and third win in a row, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton taking third place to revive his title challenge after a disappointing last race in Bahrain.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton avoided the mayhem around him to open the Formula One season with a pole-to-flag victory in a crash-strewn Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The 23-year-old Briton, last year’s rookie sensation, finished 5,4 seconds ahead of Germany’s Nick Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber.
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 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.