Looking into the distance

Felipe Massa and Ferrari might have won the European GP, but there were still smiles in the McLaren camp afterwards. Second place and eight points for Lewis Hamilton was a useful reward at the end of a weekend that many had regarded in advance as something of a lottery. And despite being beaten by the Brazilian, Hamilton actually extended his lead in the championship.

The only thing is that his closest pursuer is now Massa and not Kimi Raikkonen, a graphic illustration of the complex juggling act that the Scuderia faces as they try to balance the interests of two drivers in the coming weeks.

But the real story was that Hamilton had got that result after a weekend when his physical condition had, if only for a few hours, put his participation in the race in doubt. The fact that, with the team's help, he overcame that hurdle and took second place - just as he bounced back from the Hungarian puncture to claim four priceless points for fifth - suggests that he has the sort of momentum that can carry him to the title.

Friday didn't tell us an awful lot about how the two top teams stacked up, and there were a few curve balls near the top of the times. In the morning Lewis was third, just 0.168s behind Massa, and in the afternoon he was fifth, 0.201s off pacesetter Raikkonen and only 0.034s shy of Felipe. There was certainly nothing to suggest that the red cars had a clear advantage.

It was in the early hours of Saturday morning that Lewis had a scare, waking up at 5am to find he had a problem with his neck.

"We were a little concerned yesterday morning," said Ron Dennis after the race. "Because he had a neck spasm in the night. It gave him a very bad headache. Our physios and our doctor did a really fantastic job.

Lewis Hamilton prepares in the McLaren garage © LAT

"At the beginning he was really struggling, it was painful, it was pretty much locked up. But racing drivers build phenomenal neck muscles, and whenever they get some sort of spasm, it's not like you or I. It's such a powerful muscle that it undoubtedly puts pressure on one side of the spine."

The third practice session didn't start until 11am, so the team had a reasonable amount of time to try to get him into shape. Even then he didn't go out until well into the session, in order to give him as much chance as possible to get into shape.

Pedro de la Rosa was alerted at an early stage. In theory the Spaniard could have taken over for qualifying if Lewis's problem had proved insurmountable. It would have been a huge ask to do any kind of competitive time even in the few laps available in Q1, but Pedro had at least learned the track in the factory simulator. But Lewis felt comfortable enough in the morning session, and there was no question of him not driving in the afternoon.

"It was a bit iffy at first, but the guys did a good job and Lewis handled it very well," said Dennis. "We initially cut down the programme on Saturday morning, but after a couple of laps he said he was fine so we put the full programme back in place."

Drivers are such finely tuned machines that any disruption to their preparations cannot be helpful, and even if they are 99 per cent up to speed physically (and mentally), the demands of qualifying are so high that his performance must have been compromised to some degree, if only by a few fractions of a second.

In the end, he managed second place just 0.210s off Massa. Afterwards he seemed unusually upbeat, given that he'd been beaten to pole. We didn't know at the time about his problems, but in retrospect it's clear that he was more than happy to have secured that result.

"What wasn't wrong is the question," admitted Lewis after the race. "Basically, I've had a bad fever most of the week and I had a pretty bad case of a muscle that went into spasm yesterday, which caused migraine, so I had to have acupuncture and injections in my neck. So during qualifying yesterday it was tough."

Lewis obviously got more attention through Saturday and into Sunday morning, so come the race the camp must have been pretty confident that all was OK. From the less favourable side of the grid, he was nearly beaten into Turn 2 by Robert Kubica, but the Pole thought better of it and backed off. Massa was already 1.4s ahead at the end of the long first lap and after that Lewis drifted inexorably back.

He was some 4.8s behind on lap 14, and at the end of the following lap, Massa came in. It was earlier than McLaren had expected. Lewis came in two laps later, revealing that he'd been carrying a two-lap disadvantage over the stint - a not insignificant amount at a track with a long lap and where consumption was high.

That really put the spotlight on how, through the remaining races, fuel load choice on Saturday could determine where the title goes. A lot of bluffing and double bluffing could take place.

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton in the press conference © LAT

"We lost the race yesterday in qualifying," said Dennis. "Two laps less fuel in Lewis's car and he would have outqualified Massa. And this is a race that you had to win from the front.

"It was very clear that even if we'd caught him, it would have been very hard to get past. Although we tried very hard to get on his tail. We felt we were running at least one lap longer, but we didn't think we were two laps longer. So maybe if we'd tried a bit harder."

Lewis was a little bit closer after the stops, but again he was carrying that sort of fuel disadvantage, and again the gap slowly drifted out.

"I always think at every stage you can catch him," said Hamilton, "so I was pushing and pushing, even though the gap was increasing. I think I was always heavier. It's difficult to say whether he was much quicker than me, but they were stronger. Maybe we even lost it in the second stint. Being two laps heavier was not an advantage, it was a disadvantage."

The margin went out to over 10s before Felipe came in for a second time on lap 37. Hamilton followed him in two laps later as McLaren responded to the Ferrari stop, and minimised the risks inherent in a possible safety car intervention.

Of course, with all the stops of the leading contenders you can never been quite sure what they reveal, because those risks encourage the leaders (those with most to lose) to pit with some sort of safety margin. Dennis insisted that Hamilton still had some mileage left in the tank, but it can only have been a lap or two.

"We did go longer [in the first stop]," said Ron. "But then we covered Massa for the safety car. We could have gone quite a bit further. In the end we didn't care about the safety car giving the race to anybody else, but we couldn't risk the safety car giving the race to Massa. So the moment he stopped, we covered him."

In fact, Massa lost time relative to Lewis on both his in and out laps, and at least some of that was to do with the necessity to brake and follow Adrian Sutil out of the pits. Hamilton gained almost 4s, bringing the gap down to 5.9s.

It looked pretty interesting for a while, but despite Ferrari having obvious concerns about Massa's engine (although the team knew that it contained parts from a different batch to that which led to the two recent failures), Felipe actually began to extend his lead again.

In fact, for the duration the gap was pegged at 7-8s, only coming down to 5.6s as Massa cruised across the line. Remember, he had an engine that will now have to last for the Spa weekend, whereas Hamilton's was coming to the end of its life, so it's perhaps surprising that that McLaren didn't push a little harder.

It was immediately after the second stops of course that Kimi Raikkonen retired, making a significant difference to the championship situation.

"We pretty much elected to come second half way through the race," insisted Dennis. "Then once Kimi was out, that was the deciding factor. We just said this is a race to be prudent about."

He didn't use Hamilton's problem as an excuse: "I am sure it's sore now, but it didn't cost him any lap time."

Lewis Hamilton attacks the kerbs in the chicane © LAT

Lewis himself wasn't so decisive: "It was nothing that really distracted me from my race," he insisted. But at the same time he also hinted that he had felt less than 100%: "Fortunately today it was better, but doing a whole race with it, I think I'm just sweating more because of feverishness, but I'll be OK for the next race."

McLaren would have taken comfort not just from the Ferrari engine failure, but also the obvious signs of pressure in the Ferrari pit stops. But McLaren itself was not immune, as Dennis explained.

"Heikki did a good job of increasing his pace to stay ahead of Kimi. Then in the last stop we had a wheel nut problem and Ferrari had a fuel nozzle problem. We lost about half a second. The guy was really quick. I don't know whether we would have got out in front, but there's a lot of pressure. I think that's why both teams felt it and had a bit of a problem. As it happens I think we had the pace to beat Kimi, so the outcome was not bad."

As noted earlier, the eight points were most welcome, but there's no escaping the fact that, as in Hungary, Massa was safely out of reach of Hamilton. It might not have been by much, but it was enough. That has given McLaren plenty to think about.

"If you told me that I'd have eight points to walk away with when I came here," said Hamilton, "I would have said great, because I wasn't feeling great.

"I think it was overall quite a good weekend, considering what's been going on. It's strange to see, but somehow we've extended the lead again. I think second is definitely a strong position to finish in, but I think it really shows that we definitely do have a strong package. But there are a couple of areas that we can improve on.

"I know that we're close. I think they should be more worried than us, due to their reliability problems. We don't have reliability problems, so we can focus on our car. That's the great thing, we've just got to continue to do that, so hopefully in the next couple of races we're be able to make a couple more steps forward.

"Overall, I think we have a good package, we have reliability and speed, whereas they have maybe a little bit more speed, but less reliability. So it's hand in hand, I think we just have to try to improve our speed."

Hamilton's focus on Ferrari's problems was understandable, but the twin failures were due to conrods from a dodgy batch from an outside supplier. Remarkably, Massa's Hockenheim/Budapest engine and Raikkonen's Budapest/Valencia unit had run to within 10 kms of each other when they failed, taking into account both races and all Saturday activity. The fact that both happened on a pit straight was an unfortunate co-incidence.

Ferrari will clearly get on top of that (the team is confident that Massa's Valencia engine does not have the same ticking time bomb inside it, and in any case Felipe does at least have a free change 'joker' to play). McLaren can't place too much faith on a repeat gifting some points.

As Dennis hinted, there are clear signs that Lewis and the team are prepared to play a percentage game, something that Hamilton wasn't so prepared to do last year.

Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa discuss their results on the podium © LAT

"I'm an all out sort of guy, but I'm going to be sensible this year. I'm going to be collecting my points. That's what a World Champion does.

"For sure we are all still battling with each other, and anything can happen, people can lose points. But I don't count on doing that. I'll keep on pushing."

Next on the agenda is Spa, where in 2007 the Ferraris ran away from the McLarens.

"We saw that Ferrari were very fast there last year," said Hamilton. "I think we'll be quick there at the next race, we've got a strong engine, a strong package. I'm looking forward to it. Spa is one of my favourite circuits, so we'll see."

"Monza's next isn't it?," said Dennis when I asked him about the Belgian track. "Oh, it isn't, it's a good job you told us," he smiled. "We'll be strong at Spa. I don't think anyone's going to be dominant anywhere this year. Races will move around a bit between the teams."