why am i not surprised that you are praising lewis and that in another thread you are calling nelsinho a brat.

Its the way of the world isn't?

Objectivity: last seen on a BB in 1958 outside Bootle Municipal Pavillion next to photo of a black cat with white paws, named 'Mittens'.

The Launch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsGSrhY1fRM
Jp

Nice debut qualifying from Lewis there ;)

Looking forward to the race since back in GP2 his strength was more in racecraft particularly with regards to getting the most out of his race tyres rather than ability to nail a qualy lap.

Who's for FA and KR coming together at the first corner, LH taking the lead over the course of the first lap, and holding a steady gap of 10-15 seconds to NH, then LH easing it in to a 5 second win?

(In quali comments too - thought this a better place for finding it when it comes true!)

(edited half hour later on realising fm has 5 place penalty, removed him from prediction)

Top debut for young hotshoe hamilton.

Impressive to say the least and he looks so cool, calm and collected, yet bloody quick. Can't wait to see him tackle the race.

Man, everybody was talking about Kovalainen being the rookie to win the first race on debut, and where is he now?

Hamilton has a decent (not great) chance of winning it. Kimi's gearbox is suspect, and if something happens with Alonso, he will be there. A podium on his first race is more than likely, super cool!

He is still rough on the edges, too much steering input. He might be much faster by the end of the year, I think. Future WDC!

Frickin awesome performance.

Great start to his racing career, and there's still more to come, fantastic!

I don't have nationality chip on my shoulder, I just love to derail drivers with family names ending with syllable 'nen'. Häkkinen, Räikkönen, Kovalainen.....

Just for the record, because I've been critical of LH in the past: if he keeps this up, he definitely deserves his McLaren drive and is much better and more talented than I gave him credit for. This is all still conditional, though, not a final verdict or anything.

Good showing by LH.
It is now confirmed that he and FA don't give each other much.
Impressive

Hope that won't happen, for a reason of humanity. Because otherwise the whole British press will fall into a collective orgasm for a week to come, and James Allen's Hungarian screams will be remembered as a mouse squeaks compared to this They've already labeled Lewis after a Friday practice 'a young genius', I'm really afraid to imagine what's next.

But it would be fantastic.

You're easy. Can I buy you a drink?

I guess I will have to respond to that by saying that Kimi's qualifying was a masterpiece in controlled aggression and if he keeps that up he will win the title

That's exactly his point. The first qualifying session of the year is suddenly a great measuring stick because his driver ended up P1.

Ah the bias variance trade off...

LEWIS
His fastest lap in the 2nd session was great.

Kudos to Ronzo for making this hard decision.
Kudos to McLaren for raising one driver since his youth.

Lewis is a taylor made driver for McLaren at a fraction of the cost of a top driver.

For sure Lewis' performances will benefit Nelsinho.

No, that's not my point at all. I wish I had such an imagination though. My point really was that LH has been surprisingly fast and composed all weekend. When I wrote that post above I wasn't thinking about qualifying in particular.

If you have a good setup and car, the melb track is pretty basic, its just 3 chicanes, so not much room to make a gap and the lines are basic. Lets see how hamilton goes on real race tracks.

True. That's why I said "conditional." Nico impressed in Bahrain last year, for example.

from friday interview with kubica:


- lewis is the strongest rival i've ever met in my career, and we've been racing each other for a long time, since 1998 when we both started in gokarts. i was in renault formula in france, he in the same formula in england. sometimes he made guest apparences in the races i started in. the last timew e raced together was in macau in 2004, we were teammates. i came second, he dnf'ed. in the qualis i was first, he was second.
-i'm a fan of his cause F1 is gonna be more fun thanks to him

kubi also said it wasn't an odd thing at all for maclaren to sign lewis.

(sorry for the quality, it's a piiture of a picture)

You're pathetic. Just say he did bloody well on his first F1 qualifing session would ya?

It seems that Kubica is fighting Hamilton in the Kung Fu's and shouting... Kyaiiiii...

Take that Lewis, my Tiger Claw...

But I think they will crash each other in the race... Kids...

Save the rolleyes and the judgement until after the race perhaps?

Err sorry that was me

Log yourself out when you leave Kani!!

Haha, sowwy!

YEE HAA
The boy done good.
Jp

Almost
Kubica made an effort, but Hamilton didn't want to play.

Kubica has the hairline and nose of a 90 year old man. Pretty weird for a twenty something.

...and guys were going " " when I wrote that I think Hamilton will and should be around two to three tenths off Alonso in his rookie-season, on average.
Now he could still end up averaging one second off the pace, but that doesn't look very likely.
He's seriously quick, and no-one should doubt that now.
Not even arrow.

They build tough these Macs nowadays...

Again, what a great drive...If only I could get a single lap on this McLaren and get a feel of this jump...hehe...he must be having a bowl now.

Where there's a will there's a way...

It was an extremely impressive race by Lewis. Actually there is absolute proof that he did a fantastic job: Heikki Kovaleinen.

We'll see if Hamilton's showing lights a fire under Alonso the way early-season wins by Fisichella seemed to the past two years....

He will feel the wrath of Alonso very soon no doubt. Luckily for him they have a 3 day test at sepang before the race which will help.

Wow, that was an adept piece of defense.

http://blog.estadao.com.br/blog/livio/

Some information from this journalist that follows F1 all around the world...

Lewis is the grandson of Africans that migrated to Granada (Caribean Islands).
Anthony (his dad) married an english white woman, Carmen Lockhart, but they soon separated after having Lewis.

At 6, Lewis won the National Video Game Championship, promoted by BBC's Blue Peter show.

At 8, Lewis first tried a go kart, but experience was scary bcs he crashed, broke his nose and the bleed terrified him.

At 10, Lewis became the youngest drive rto win the Cadete (Kadett) go kart championship.
He met Ron dennis in the podium ceremony, asked for an authograph, his phone nr. and said someday he would drive for him.
His dad worked for British railways and had 3 jobs to support Lewis career.
They used to travel in his car and sleep in it at night.

At 13, Ron called Lewis inviting him to be the first driver of McLaren Junior Drivers Scheme.

The rest we know...

Lewis signed a 3 year deal and will provide him USD 300K this year or 1% of Alonso's wages.

Wooohooo

If there wasnt Kimi, Lewis would dominate the sport starting first race 08.

I mean, he won video game championship and all. Cant beat that kind of career building.

You should research driving simulators I used to UK champion in one of them. You would find it very enlightening as to how competitive these things get, how hard people work at them, how much skill you need to win at the top level. Just like any other sport! Best do your 5hrs a day testing, setting up your car, working down the telemetry Its a whole new world out there mate.

P.S Sorry if you werent being sarcastic YR:) Just I get very bored with the usual responce to these things and automatically go on the attack Sorry.

I know I worked f'ing hard for my status!

So I get that this is from the Brazilian press (.br), who knows something about F1, I think. I would not be surprised if the consensus around the world is that the young guy was the man of the race.

Well, I think that, if there ever was a time for the Bristish press to be justified into hype somebody, this is it! Be prepared for the British Press machine at full speed!!

heh.

It was remote controlled cars, not video games.

I was just joking there, I do believe what you are saying.

And I was serious about Hamilton, he has very good pre F1 career behind him and he had absolutely great first race in F1. He will most certainly have a bright future in this sport.

Well after his first 3 races the co-leader of the championship has certainly exceeded my own expectations beating Alonso fair and square for the first time in Bahrain

Since Ferrari were expected to have more of an advantage in Bahrain, McLaren may be more on the pace in Barcelona. Would be interesting to see an Alonso-Hamilton duel for the win in front of Alonso's home crowd, though Raikkonen is also pretty hot round Barcelona with a point to prove. The race will also be proof of whether Massa has the required consistency.

What a pitty, I thought Lewis was a modest guy, with a lot of maturity but I'm very disappointed with his comments during last month.

I think this season, Alonso is being more self-restrained than his teammate.

So the Belgians said that the English said that Lewis said this?

The Belgians said that the English said that Lewis thought this, I think?

Classy sports journalism.

And what about he said in Malaysia post race press conference:



Sounds a bit pedant for a Rockie

Well... Alonso suffers the same problem than Kimi atm. They still drive like they were on Michelin tyres, and that is handicaping them in Qualy.

Both Hamilton and Massa have already driven BS last season, so they get the best out of the tyres now, but when Alonso and Kimi get to know the tyres better, they will wipe the floor with their team mates for sure...

I think that Alonso is better out of the two current McLaren driver in the end of the season... But hopefully not the champion tough

Now outright WDC leader heading into one ofhis favourite tracks, Monaco. If he gets pole he'll have a great chance. Certainly surpassing all my expectations so far