Euro Sports Events

Yesterday’s German Grand Prix isn’t going to be forgotten easily by Timo Glock following the spectacular smash that resulted from a suspension failure. The immediate result was that his car whipped round, shunting into the barrier at 150 mph in reverse, before ricocheting across the track and coming to a rest. After being removed from his car he looked to be uninjured although heavily winded, and a stay in hospital confirmed that he was uninjured. However, Toyota is unhappy in the way that he was removed from his car as F1 regulations stipulate that the driver should be removed while still strapped to his seat.

Before this incident Lewis Hamilton was leading the race by a big margin and from his point of view the safety car was the last thing he needed. This was compounded with a poor decision by McLaren not to bring him in to the pit for his final tyre change - almost all other drivers came in once the pit lane was reopened, leaving Hamilton to come in under normal race conditions and claw his way back into the lead.

And that he certainly did, with a beautiful display of driving that shows why he really is world class.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won his home Grand Prix today in a race hampered by the English summer conditions.

Although not raining torrentially, conditions were certainly challenging for all drivers, and bad pit decisions for both Raikkonen and Alonso which saw them both pit with no tyre change gave each driver extra work to keep up the pace. The Ferrari’s didn’t have a good weekend at all, with Felipe Massa spinning his car on five separate occasions. And David Coulthard, who has just announced his retirement, made an early exit after going off on the first lap after colliding with Sebastian Vettel, who also retired.

Other drivers who failed to finish include Robert Kubicca, who is in the running for the Championship after BMW’s improved performance this season; and Jenson Button, who showed again that if he concentrated more on his Grand Prix driving and less on activities such as triathlon that clearly distract him.

Lewis made a bold move from the start, where he started in forth place. Leaping ahead of both Raikkonen and Webber before the first bend, he came straight being teammate Heikki Kovalainen. After sitting behind him in the spray he eventually passed him too, and from that point on lead the race, finishing ahead of Nick Heidfeld by more than a minute.

Driver Championship after British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton became the first British driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Graham Hill’s victory in 1969. The rain caused plenty of excitement and although Hamilton himself suffered a tyre failure due to a collision with the wall early in the race, he managed to keep the pace.

A total of six drivers failed to finish the race, all with the exception of Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella due to accidents. The unluckiest man of the day must have been the other Force India driver, Adrian Sutil, whose car was damaged by a rear shunt from Kimi Räikkönen who uncharacteristically lost control of his car briefly.

Hamilton’s win will be a boost to both him and McLaren, and they’ll be looking for him to perform similarly in Canada in June.

Results from Monaco

Driver table

This weekend’s Barcelona sees the launch of an anti-racism campaign at the circuit at Montmelo in response to the incidents that took place during practice in February.

While the scenes of several pro-Alonso supporters blacked up to represent the “Hamilton Familly” certainly looks racist at first glance, it should also be remembered that it was carnival time in Barcelona where dressing like that is considered acceptable; and if it had been the case that Alosno was black it is likely that there would have been more dressed similarly.

Just because the taunts may not have been maliciously racist in nature there should be no room for complacency as serious racism does exist in Spanish sport. Unfortunately it is often not seen as being a problem, perhaps because such casual racism exists in Spanish society.

After Sunday’s poor start to the Bahrain GP by Lewis Hamilton, which he afterwards admitted was his fault for having failed to put the car into start mode, McLaren are looking at their race start procedures to see what can be improved to remove this kind of doubt in future.

It also appears that Hamilton may have hit another car before running into the back of Fernando Alono due to the fact that his nose wing was broken before the impact. While McLaren haven’t ruled out the chance that the wing broke of its own accord, this possibility was downplayed by McLaren COO Martin Whitmarsh as it has not happened before.

With three weeks until the next Grand Prix at Barcelona, Hamilton and McLaren have some time to play with; however, with BMW Sauber looking stronger than ever before, this season is going to be much more than a 2 team competition and if Renault are able to deliver their promised performance improvements in time for Barcelona Hamilton cannot afford to drop too many more points.

Lewis Hamilton crashed during Friday practice today in Bahrain with just under 10 minutes remaining. Uninjured by the incident, he lost control of the McLaren racing car on the seventh bend, and although he did regain control, ran out of space and smashed into a tyre wall.

The car was craned back to the McLaren pit for major repairs, while Hamilton said “There is no impact on the weekend. There are no bruises to report from me and we completed most of the session, making some good steps forward.”

Ferrarri came out on top of the session, but all eyes will be on the qualifiers tomorrow afternoon.

Tecnorati tags: Lewis Hamilton McLaren Bahrain Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton has been upping his fitness level to help him in the heat of Bahrain. On an island hopping trip to Thailand with his trainer and Force Indian driver Adrian Sutil he has been participating in various sports, such as swimming and tennis to improve his fitness ahead of the Bahrain GP.

Meanwhile the sex scandal involving Max Mosley refuses to die down. After being asked by Bernie Ecclestone to stay away from Bahrain and being told he was persona non grata and not welcome ruling Prince, it seems that Lewis has come out against him too, backing the line of BMW, McLaren-Mercedes, Toyota and Honda and saying “I think it’s key to set a good example”.

Mind you, there can be little love lost between McLaren box Ron Dennis and Mosley after their public spats during the Ferrarri scandal that blighted last season.

Click here to view the results of Friday’s first practice session