(Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
Welcome to the first part of the "My Classic GP" series. The aim of this set of articles is to outline a classic example of each Grand Prix left on the calendar, from my own experience of watching F1 since about 1997.
The races I choose may not always be the most spectacular, but each is memorable to me in some particular way. To begin, therefore, My Classic European Grand Prix is the race that took place at the Nurburgring, in 2007.
Lewis Hamilton came into the race, the 10th of 17 that year, with a 12-point lead in the world championship over McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso. However, Kimi Raikkonen had won the previous two races in France and Britain, and Ferrari were confident that the Nurburgring would suit the characteristics of their car better than that of the McLaren.
In qualifying Ferrari duly delivered, with Raikkonen qualifying on pole ahead of Alonso and the Finn's teammate Felipe Massa. Hamilton was down in 10th place, a wheel failure putting him into the barriers in the third part of qualifying.
As the race began on Sunday, rain threatened. The Ferraris took the lead into the first corner, Massa barging Alonso down to third. Hamilton made a spectacular start to move up into sixth by Turn One.
However, carnage ensued as Robert Kubica clipped his BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld in the second corner, forcing Hamilton to dive off the track to avoid collecting the German cars. When he regained the road, it became apparent that he had suffered a puncture.
At around the same time, rain began to fall on part of the track; when the field reached the wet segment of the lap several drivers fell off the road. As the rain spread to other parts of the track it became apparent that this would not be a light shower; the teams made the decision to bring in their cars at the end of the first lap, changing to wet-weather tyres.
Race leader Raikkonen, however, made a mistake at the slippery pit entrance, missing the pit lane entirely and forcing him to complete another lap on dry tyres. Massa and Alonso, therefore, led the field into the pit lane, followed by most of the other drivers. A few stayed out, though this gamble would fail to pay off for them.
One team who had gambled correctly were Spyker; Markus Winkelhock, starting his first (and to date only) Grand Prix, had been called into the pits at the end of the formation lap by technical director Mike Gascoyne. Winkelhock was changed to wet tyres, giving him a huge advantage as the rest of the field struggled around the slippery first lap.
After a lap and a half Winkelhock had caught and passed Raikkonen, who slid off the road at the hairpin. By the end of the second lap he was leading Massa and Alonso by 19 seconds.
In fourth place was Jenson Button, who took advantage of the confusion and a well-timed tyre stop to rise up the field in his underpowered Honda. But on the first corner of the third lap, he aquaplaned off into the gravel.
He was not the only one; Adrian Sutil hit the barrier in roughly the same place a few moments later. The pair were then joined by Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi, the latter almost collecting the safety car—which had been scrambled in the meantime—as he spun off the road.
Conditions at the first corner were clearly treacherous, with what has been described as a "river" flowing across the circuit.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete