Now almost four months since he stood beneath the Union Jack at the Australian Grand Prix to much acclaim, five more podiums later and Hamilton is leading the championship by a comfortable eight point margin – the largest it has been all season. A remarkable situation to be in at this stage in his
F1 career, Hamilton will know that victory is the minimum that is now expected of him…
While the motorsport world hails the new pretender, the ‘older’ guard endured a forgettable weekend in Canada, not least
Fernando Alonso, who has shown the first cracks in his steely demeanour by admitting to the media that he is not yet comfortable in
McLaren, a situation being made no easier by the attention surrounding his upstart team-mate.
His erratic performance in Canada was testament to that and now the focus is on how he will respond at Indianapolis. The focus will also be on
Ferrari, who were once again humbled by McLaren in Canada with a lacklustre performance from
Felipe Massa and especially
Kimi Raikkonen.
Although Raikkonen’s fifth place did go some way to making up for Massa’s disqualification, the Ferrari driver was once again looking out of sorts in Montreal and instead of challenging for the title, he is having to fend off the attentions of the in-form
Nick Heidfeld who is just a point behind now.
Indeed, Heidfeld continued BMW’s marvellous form this season, the German’s second place giving weight to their claim to challenging Ferrari for the status of ‘second-best team’. However, despite his achievements, most of the focus was instead on team-mate
Robert Kubica, who defied his horrific smash during the race to leave hospital the next day with nothing more than a sprained ankle and light concussion.
Although the short gap between races suggests that
BMW reserve drivers
Timo Glock or
Sebastian Vettel will be in-line for his seat at Indianapolis, the Pole insists he is fit to race. A decision is due on Thursday.
NEWS FROM THE TEAMS:
McLaren – Fernando Alonso (#1), Lewis Hamilton (#2):
Just when
Formula 1 was in search of another superstar following the retirement of
Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton has arrived to make motorsport headline news again around the world, and especially in Great Britain.
