Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - Rookie Lewis Hamilton dominated
Sunday's United States Grand Prix at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The No.2 McLaren Mercedes driver crossed the finish line 1.5 seconds ahead of
Fernando Alonso.
"I can't tell you how special this is to me," said an excited Hamilton after
the race. "How thrilled I am and how much pressure I feel."
The victory was Hamilton's second consecutive win. He won last week's Canadian
Grand Prix to become the first rookie to win a Formula One race since 2001
when Juan Montoya won in Italy.
For the third consecutive race the McLaren Mercedes made up the front row.
Rookie Hamilton, who won his first F1 race in Canada last week, led the 22-car
field to the green flag. Starting alongside the 22-year-old was teammate
Fernando Alonso.
The No.2 McLaren Mercedes drove side-by-side with Alonso as most of the field
cleared the first-corner. Hamilton won the battle and held onto the top-spot.
The first-corner proved to be a disaster for a few drivers though. Ralf
Schumacher understeered wide and in the process crashed. David Coulthard and
Rubens Barrichello were also involved in the accident. All three drivers took
their cars to the garage in frustration.
Behind the leaders some early passing occurred. Felipe Massa maintained his
third spot as Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen moved up to the fourth and
fifth positions, respectively. Kimi Raikkonen who started the race in fourth
dropped to sixth.
The No.1 McLaren Mercedes of Alonso stayed close to the rookie. After 10 laps
of racing the rookie had a margin of 2.2 seconds.
The top-five remained the same as Hamilton started to increase his lead. The
No.2 McLaren Mercedes was still the leader when the first round of pit stops
approached.
On lap 21 Hamilton and Massa came down pit lane for service. Alonso took his
stop on the next lap. The rest of the leaders eventually all made their first
round of pit stops.
When the majority of the stops were complete Hamilton was back in the first
spot with his McLaren Mercedes teammate following behind in second. Massa,
Nico Rosberg and Raikkonen completed the top-five. Rosberg was on a one-stop
strategy so he didn't stop when the leaders did.
The race became a battle between the rookie and the two-time F1 World
Champion.
The two-time F1 World Champion started to test the young rookie. The gap
between the two went from two-seconds to half-a-second.
On lap 39 Alonso ducked to the outside and battled side-by-side for the first
spot on the frontstretch. But the rookie didn't back down as he won the battle
to hold onto the top-spot.
Rosberg made his only pit stop of the afternoon on lap 41.
The margin for Hamilton increased to over two seconds when Alonso made a small
error on lap 48. Alonso went wide running over the grass in the process. The
rookie took advantage of the mistake.
On lap 49 the second and final round of pits stops took place for the leaders
when Heidfeld came down pit lane. Alonso made his way down pit road on lap 50
for his last stop. And on the next lap the leader came down pit lane for his
final pit stop.
Would Hamilton, coming out of the pits, be able to beat Alonso to the first
turn?
The rookie did it and started to pull away from the two-time World Champion.
The No.2 McLaren Mercedes driver was able to maintain around a two-second
lead.
Meanwhile, Massa followed in the third spot. Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Rosberg
rounded-out the top-five as the laps dwindled.
Hamilton just had to finish the race in flawless fashion and he would find
his way to victory. With 10 laps left to go the gap between Hamilton and
Alonso was 2.2 seconds. Alonso was starting to cut into the lead but it was
too late.
The No.2 McLaren Mercedes had another perfect race and crossed the finish line
comfortably ahead of Alonso, who had finally settled for second place.
Massa, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel
completed the top-eight.
Hamilton extended his championship lead to 10 points over Alonso (58-48).
The next race in the F1 series is set for Sunday, July 1st at the Circuit De
Nevers in France.