Lewis, Spa and Kobayashi

Lewis crashes

A fun packed weekend showing off DRS and Kers ended by the 14th lap for Lewis Hamilton.

I watched on in horror as Lewis flew through the advertising barrier and then cruised into the tyre wall. He was still for a moment and I was so worried for his safety but this was just him 'winded' according to the BBC.

After the Maldonado incident (read post below), I thought Lewis would have digged himself out of the trouble ditch and gone on to challenge for a podium finish. But I was wrong and it seems Lewis' season is just plagued with bad luck and all we can do as fans is to get behind him.

Kobe Strikes

Although I respect Lewis for coming out and blaming himself for the crash I dont share his views on who was to blame. I believe Kobayashi WAS at fault, why?, because as Martin Whitmarsh explained to Eddie Jordan, Kobayashi clearly hit his back tyre and used excessive force at the same time.

Anyway thats my opinion, anyone agree?.

Good luck Lewis at Monza from LHamilton Blog

Lewis Qualifies Second at Spa Belgian GP

Always In Contention

After a close shave with Pastor Maldonado in Q2, Lewis put in a brave performance in Q3.

Hamilton put in a 1m48.730s but was just 4 tenths (and a bit) off Vettel 1m48.298s. He did this time on his last attempt in Q3 and secured him a great position for tomorrows clash at Spa. His car showed war wounds but this wasn't enough to stop our Lewis. He also locked up on his last lap which shows he could have matched Vettels pace and gives us a great race on hand for tomorrows GP.

Great fun to watch live on tele as Mark, Lewis and Vettel were all lined up respectively throughout the session. This gave us the viewers a great perspective to see instantly which of the three was setting the pace.

Congrats to Lewis and good luck from us @LHamiltonBlog

Maldonado Clips Hamilton In Qualifying at Spa

Maldonado 'Swipe'

As Lewis Hamilton brushed past Pastor Maldonado to clich his place in Q3. He made the Williams driver tick and Lewis was entitled to pass Maldonado but this trigger an angry move from Pastor.

As Lewis slowed down, Pastor quickly gained on him and cut across Lewis' path and ripped Hamiltons front wing off and always ended his chance of racing in Q3.

Whitmarsh was surprised and described the incidicent between his driver and the Williams : "Suddenly Maldonado chopped across him and he could easily have taken Lewis out of qualifying. We were lucky to be able to get Lewis back out there. We changed the front wing but I don't think we should be saying he would have been on pole. It was an inconvenient incident."

 

Lewis' car luckily was repaired thanks to the swift action from the Mclaren engineers. Huge scrages across Hamiltons bodywork were visible and may have cost him pole position for tomorrows F1 GP at Spa.

Did Lewis lose pole because of Maldonado?

Tell us your thoughts.

Fighting For Title

LEWIS HAMILTON can still win the driver’s world championship, according to McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

Whitmarsh is of the opinion that as the Formula One campaign enters it’s crucial second phase, that Hamilton and team mate Jenson Button have a chance to overhaul championship leader Sebastien Vettel of Red Bull.

Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix on August 28, the Red Bull driver is 88 points ahead of Hamilton and 100 ahead of Button.

But Whitmarsh believes Hamilton is fired up sufficiently to seriously challenge Vettel now that the Briton has a winning car following a season full of ups and downs.



Whitmarsh said of Hamilton: "I think the positive is that his head's now in a great place, because he suddenly believes he can win, and there's lap-time in that.”



"I think Lewis desperately wants to win. I think he's tough on himself. He still takes too much to heart what's said in the media. He has a little bit too much sensitivity about that. But he will learn.



“At the same time he is a young man, he gets a lot more attention, a lot more pressure, a lot more expectation.

"We are trying to help, we are trying to work with the media. I'm probably a bit more cynical than Lewis, but at the same time I probably don't get quite the battering that Lewis usually gets."





Hamilton cool on Ferrari switch

Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali had earlier revealed that the team could look to sign the Briton despite having Spain’s Fernando Alonso locked into a long-term deal, which ends in 2016, while Felipe Massa’s contract runs till the end of 2012.

Lewis had this to say when asked about joing Ferrari.

“At the moment I don’t have any such plans, it’s not something I feel that I have to do,” he said. “But we’re talking about a fantastic team and you never know what could happen in the future.”
The former world champion also credited Alonso for helping him become a better driver during his time at McLaren.

“Alonso is a fast pilot, with talent and incredible speed. I learned a lot and improved my driving thanks to him.”

Great to see Lewis pay tribute to Alonso even though Fernando has caused Lewis a few headaches.