The Complete 2007 British GP Review

The fairytale script demanded a debut home win for Lewis Hamilton, the man single-handedly responsible for the surge of patriotic interest that saw record crowds filling Silverstone throughout the British Grand Prix weekend.

But it seems that 2007 is not the season for home victories, for just as tens of thousands of Spaniards left Barcelona disappointed by Fernando Alonso's third place, so the British fans had to watch the object of their adoration overcome by Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso at Silverstone.

If Hamilton hadn't over-achieved so spectacularly in his first eight GPs, then third at Silverstone would be regarded as an outstanding result for a rookie. It was still better than any British driver had managed on home ground since David Coulthard's 2000 victory. And it maintained Hamilton's breathtaking feat of taking a podium from every Formula One start to date, while ensuring his championship lead remained at a comfortable twelve points.

The Silverstone race was the first since Melbourne that reflected the predominant pre-season wisdom. Raikkonen and Ferrari's awesome pace was sufficient to overcome a determined and canny challenge from Alonso's fractionally-slower McLaren. Hamilton displayed abundant speed, but his inexperience was also apparent, as he lost ground in the race and had an over-eager moment (at his first pit stop). Most expected the 2007 title battle would follow a similar plot.

Instead, despite beating him at Silverstone, Raikkonen and Alonso know that they still have a long way to go to overcome the relentlessly impressive and consistent Hamilton in the championship, and after his form in the first half of the season they will recognise that Silverstone is more likely to be a blip than the start of a trend.

Despite taking a second consecutive win, Raikkonen remained cautious about his title hopes - conscious of both his 18-point championship deficit, and the way form has fluctuated this season.

It was Alonso who seemed most optimistic. He may have been defeated, but having avoided the mistakes of Canada, having overcome a qualifying disadvantage in the way he could not in the USA, and having escaped the misfortune that struck in France, he felt he had shown his true race potential for the first time since Monaco.

"I think in Canada I was very, very quick all weekend. In Indianapolis I was the quickest in the race. In Magny-Cours I was third quickest after the two Ferraris," said Alonso. "So it has been the last four or five races that I was quite happy with the car and quite quick all weekend."

Unfortunately for the champion, with 12 points to catch up he needs every weekend from now on to be like Silverstone - and he could really do without Ferrari's recent superior pace becoming a trend.

Hamilton may have been muted on Sunday, but on Saturday he had produced a classically emotive moment of British GP theatre, of the kind that Nigel Mansell used to specialise in. The new home hero had looked a most unlikely pole-winner as he proceeded quietly through Q1 and Q2 and then underwhelmed a little with his first Q3 low-fuel run. But with the very last lap of the hour, Hamilton hauled himself from sixth to pole position, and the explosion of delight that followed gave some hint of how Silverstone would have erupted had he won on Sunday.

That will have to wait for another year.

Despite Hamilton's assertion that the only pressure he feels is self-induced, he would have been truly super-human not to feel the weight of expectation on his shoulders at Silverstone.

When national media reports of practice prefixed news of his fourth place on Friday afternoon with a disappointed "could only manage...", it was clear that anything short of victory would be seen as a let-down. Finishing off the podium - and Hamilton conceded that this had been a possibility had Felipe Massa not stalled on the grid - was unthinkable.

Add the facts that it was also the home race for Hamilton's team and engine constructor (the Mercedes badge notwithstanding), that a major team sponsor was also the GP's title backer (and had placed life-sized Hamilton cut-outs in all its UK outlets), and that McLaren desperately needed a morale boost after the depressing experience of being drawn into the leaked Ferrari data controversy during the preceding week, and the burden multiplied.

For this pressure only to tell in a fractionally premature departure from a pit stop was almost as great an achievement as anything else Hamilton has accomplished in recent months. He looked, understandably, disappointed in the post-race press conference, but he already plans to bounce back even stronger.

"I think I need to step up my game, which I intend to do," he said. "As a driver I'm still learning - I still have time to find in myself through experience."

His comments were a reminder that Hamilton will contest many more British GPs, and he will potentially get a great deal quicker too. His three experienced title rivals know they must make the most of days like Silverstone.

Practice

Practice 1 - Friday am

Lewis Hamilton delighted the record Silverstone Friday crowd by beating the Ferraris to the top spot in the weekend's opening session. He recovered from an early spin at Abbey to lap in 1:21.100, a tenth clear of Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso also left the road briefly at Priory, as cold and gusty conditions made life tricky for the entire field. The world champion ultimately took fourth, behind Felipe Massa.

The last British driver to win his home Grand Prix ended the session in the gravel - David Coulthard spinning off in the complex with 15 minutes to go. His day then improved as he was confirmed for a fourth year at Red Bull during the lunch break.

His countryman Jenson Button was 15th, but then had to sit out the rest of the day after a recurrence of the back pain that had developed after his trip through the air in the Indianapolis first corner shunt three weeks earlier.

Practice 2 - Friday pm

Raikkonen was dominant in the afternoon, lapping a comfortable half a second clear of the opposition. Massa made it a Ferrari one-two, with Hamilton and Alonso only fourth and sixth as the Toyotas infiltrated the leading group. Ralf Schumacher took a promising third - his time equalled by Hamilton - with Jarno Trulli splitting the McLarens in fifth.

Nico Rosberg followed up his morning fifth place with seventh, a place ahead of his Williams teammate Alex Wurz. Anthony Davidson was the second-best of the home drivers in 10th, behind Mark Webber.

While Button headed for a London hospital for treatment, Honda test driver Christian Klien made his first appearance in an official session for 10 months and took 18th, 0.3 seconds behind Rubens Barrichello.

After their chaotic French GP, the Spyker bosses had targeted a mistake-free Silverstone. So it was little surprise that Mike Gascoyne responded to Adrian Sutil's meeting with the Copse tyre wall with barbed remarks about "Adrian ensuring that our composite department will not be bored..."

Practice 3 - Saturday am

Raikkonen's run continued on Saturday morning, as he led most of the final practice session. Alonso briefly held the top position, but Raikkonen soon regained control and ended the hour fastest by 0.169 seconds.

Massa and Hamilton completed the top four, with Rosberg and Schumacher repeating their Friday speed to go fifth and sixth. Vitantonio Liuzzi was a surprise seventh for Toro Rosso.

Practice round up

Sorted by total laps from all three sessions

Qualifying

Part one

The 'Lewis Hamilton' effect meant another record crowd for qualifying day at Silverstone, but the first third of the session offered little to please the patriots in the stands. As well as Hamilton being at the back of the elite quartet in fourth - with his teammate and main title rival Fernando Alonso 0.423 seconds clear on top - two of the other three British drivers found themselves eliminated.

Their departures were not unrelated. In the scramble for space in the final seconds, Jenson Button allowed Anthony Davidson to pass him, only for the Super Aguri to encounter more traffic and back off. Then while preparing for another attempt at a flying lap, Davidson "obviously just over-did the tyre warming a tad" and veered into the gravel trap between Brooklands and Luffield.

The yellow flags required to clear the stranded Super Aguri then hampered Button's chances of improving on his own final run.

"I had my engineer shouting at me in Abbey and also in Priory that there was a yellow flag, and then it was clear," rued Button. "It doesn't really help you, in that situation. It's disappointing. It wasn't going to go a lot quicker, but it would have been nice to get into Q2."

The Britons ended up 18th and 19th, just behind Nico Rosberg - whose rapid practice pace vanished when an ill-timed misfire struck his Williams

"It was really going well this morning - I really felt comfortable with the car and I was really attacking," he said. "So I was looking forward to qualifying, but 17th is really a disaster. Not much is going to be possible from there tomorrow, but we'll try."

The Spykers and Takuma Sato completed the grid. Adrian Sutil was "really happy" after beating Sato's ill-handling Super Aguri to 20th, while Christijan Albers was inevitably "quite disappointed" in 22nd, 0.6 seconds slower than his teammate.

Part two

Alonso had been the only one of the title contenders to try the softer Bridgestones in Q1, but any suggestions that this had been the sole cause of his superiority were swiftly dispelled when he switched to hard rubber for Q2 and went another 0.2 seconds faster, securing the top spot again.

Until recently simply escaping Q1 had seemed a tall order for Alex Wurz and Ralf Schumacher, but both cruised through to the second segment at Silverstone. And as the end of Q2 approached, it looked like both might even make the top ten shoot-out, as they sat in eighth and ninth places.

Then Jarno Trulli's improvement from 15th to eighth knocked his teammate Schumacher out, but the German responded to go fifth in the session. That pushed Wurz outside the top ten, and he then fell right down to 13th as the two Red Bulls moved up to the sixth row spots, Mark Webber ahead of David Coulthard - the latter surprised to be so high after struggling for speed in the morning.

Rubens Barrichello felt that 14th reflected Honda's current maximum qualifying pace, with Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi feeling similarly about Toro Rosso after securing the eighth row. Liuzzi missed the final run after his gearbox refused to downchange.

Not for the first time, STR had failed to replicate their practice form in qualifying.

"When it comes time for everyone to go for a qualifying lap, me and Tonio have a bit less in hand," Speed admitted.

"Maybe it's because we push one another in practice, so we are getting the most out of the car then, without keeping anything in reserve for qualifying."

Part three

Until the final seconds of qualifying, it looked like Alonso was set for pole position, and Hamilton was in danger of disappointing his massed home fans.

On the first flying laps of Q3, Alonso had repeated his Q1 and Q2 form and leapt straight to the top with a 1:20.410. Hamilton was just 0.183 seconds slower, but only fourth.

When they rejoined on fresh tyres, Alonso raised the bar further with a 1:20.147. Felipe Massa was next across the line and had no answer, lapping 0.118 seconds slower.

Kimi Raikkonen beat Alonso in the first two splits, then ran wide exiting Luffield and put two wheels on the grass. This cost him a lot of momentum, but remarkably not provisional pole, as he beat Alonso by 0.048 seconds.

Meanwhile as Robert Kubica and Schumacher gained time, Hamilton found himself shuffled down to sixth. But it wasn't over yet, as on his second run the Briton improved by six tenths of a second and - benefiting from Raikkonen's relative poor final sector - vaulted into pole position for his first home Grand Prix, to the delight of his tens of thousands of supporters in the stands, and Hamilton himself.

"I came across the line and I could hear the crowd - I don't know if they could hear me but I was screaming just as loud as them," he admitted.

Raikkonen had no doubt about how costly his slip had been.

"We lost a lot of time," he said. "That's not something we can change any more but there was definitely speed enough for pole position."

After dominating most of qualifying, Alonso appeared frustrated to fall to third, but hinted he might have a strategic advantage.

"Third place is the best we could do today and hopefully tomorrow a good set-up on the car for the race will pay off and hopefully we can overtake people in the race," he said.

The BMWs, Toyotas and Renaults completed the top ten, with contrasting moods at two of the three teams.

Kubica was more than content with fifth, especially considering he had lost morning practice mileage to a gearbox problem, but ninth place did not please his teammate Nick Heidfeld.

"Of course I am not happy - ninth position is my worst qualifying result this season," said the German. "I couldn't get the most out of the tyres."

It was a similar story at Toyota, where Schumacher was thrilled to break into the top six for the first time in his troubled 2007 season, while Trulli was a frustrated 10th.

"The car seems to suit me better here this weekend and I can just do what I want with it so I am happy," said Schumacher.

"I have been struggling with the set-up and I have really found it hard to get hold of the car," said Trulli. "We tried to improve the set-up this morning but we didn't succeed. It seems that whatever I tried to do I would be slow."

There was greater consensus at Renault, as both Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella felt they could have done slightly better than seventh and eighth, but were confident they had better race pace.

Qualifying results

The Race

As if there wasn't already enough tension in the air as Lewis Hamilton prepared to carry the hopes of a success-starved nation from pole position on home ground, the initial start had to be aborted when Felipe Massa stalled on the grid.

Why the Ferrari's engine cut out remained a mystery to the team, but the result was that the Brazilian had to start from the pit lane in company with Takuma Sato, who had made a late switch to the Super Aguri T-car.

When the race began for real, Kimi Raikkonen - on the softer tyres - got a better launch than Hamilton, who made sure his McLaren occupied the middle of the road approaching Copse and held on to the lead.

Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica settled into third and fourth, while the Toyotas both lost ground off the line, allowing Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella to move to fifth and sixth.

The latter came under attack from Nick Heidfeld, who banged wheels with the Renault as he ran around the outside at Copse. The BMW got ahead, but Fisichella had a better run out of Becketts, slipstreamed Heidfeld down the Hangar Straight and then swept past on the outside at Stowe.

The slow-starting Toyotas got going in eighth and 10th, Ralf Schumacher ahead and Mark Webber between them. None of this trio would feature in the points battle for long. A differential failure removed Webber after just eight laps, while Schumacher dropped out 14 laps later with a suspension problem.

But the German remained upbeat: "We have been back in the top 10 with both cars and have shown a decent performance, so we are quite happy."

Trulli did not take similar consolation. Struggling again with poor handling and extreme tyre wear, he lapped a second off his teammate's pace, and tumbled down the order before eventually pulling out on lap 43.

All of this helped Massa's progress up the order - not that he required much assistance as he surged through the midfield with ease in the opening stages. It took the Brazilian just 11 laps to reach ninth place, although he was 28 seconds behind the leaders by that time.

At the front, the top three remained in close company, with Hamilton unable to shake off Raikkonen and Alonso lurking an ominous two seconds behind, matching his teammate's times.

"My tyres were falling away and I was struggling to keep up the pace," Hamilton admitted.

Raikkonen had no such problems, and his speed advantage was such that he seriously contemplated an on-track pass for the lead even though he was confident Hamilton would pit earlier.

The Ferrari drafted the McLaren down the Hangar Straight on lap 13, then made a concerted bid for the lead in the complex a lap later - getting right alongside Hamilton on the apex of Brooklands.

"I had a little chance to overtake but I think it would have been a bit too close," said Raikkonen. "There would have been a little bit of touching so it was better to wait than take the risk."

He didn't have to wait long, for Hamilton pitted on lap 16. The stop almost turned disastrous when Hamilton attempted to leave a few seconds early, but he hurriedly braked and the crew completed refuelling without drama.

"I thought I saw the lollipop move a little bit but I was maybe wrong," said Hamilton. "You try to be as quick as you can when the lollipop goes up, I tried to anticipate it and I was too early."

Incredibly, the stop was still amongst the fastest of the first sequence, despite this scare. But Hamilton's lack of pace on the out-laps was more costly, as he proceeded to lose one second per lap to Alonso, and double that to Raikkonen.

There was no shame in being slower than Raikkonen though, for the Finn's in-laps were breathtaking. Once free of Hamilton, he lowered his times by a second, produced two new fastest laps and set even quicker sector times on his in-lap.

But despite that speed, Raikkonen would remain in second place once the stops were complete. Alonso's in-laps were not in the Ferrari's class, but in the two laps between Raikkonen and Alonso's stop, the McLaren lapped a second quicker than the heavier Ferrari, then gained another three seconds by short-fuelling.

So as the race moved into its middle chapter, Alonso held a 2.4 second lead over Raikkonen and a 5.0 second advantage over his teammate - and then proceeded to extend both margins as he made the most of his lesser fuel load and the soft tyres he had switched to at his stop.

In the wake of the top three, Kubica continued to run a distant but secure fourth. Kovalainen had struggled with his tyres in his first stint and did not put up a fight when Fisichella tried to pass at Stowe on lap 11. Heidfeld then jumped both Renaults by running three laps longer before his stop, with the recovering Massa emerging from his service between Fisichella and Kovalainen in seventh, where he would remain throughout the stint.

Alonso stretched his lead over Raikkonen to four seconds in the first four laps after his stop, but could only add one more second to that advantage in the next 10 laps before he pitted again. The Spaniard suspected this would prove insufficient.

"I knew that I had to open a maybe eight, ten second gap, to be able to win the race, and I was only five seconds ahead so when I pitted the second time, I knew already that maybe it was not enough," he said.

Rejoining behind three lapped cars didn't help his cause, but Alonso refused to complain about traffic.

"I had some difficulties today lapping people and the blue flags were not perfectly okay but sometimes they helped me, when Kimi was behind them and he was not able to overtake them as well," he said. "At the end of the race, I think it's quite equal and quite balanced."

Raikkonen could run another six laps before pitting again, and he made excellent use of his low fuel load to pull away from Alonso by between 0.9 and 1.3 seconds on every tour.

He therefore became the race's third and final leader when he rejoined four seconds clear of Alonso on lap 43. For the second time in seven days, a burst of pre-pit stop speed in the final pit sequence had earned Raikkonen a victory.

By this time Hamilton was over half a minute behind. He had lost up to two seconds per lap to the leaders in the middle stint.

"I just struggled with the balance," he said. "Throughout the whole weekend I've been struggling to perfect the balance and sort of driving around the issues that I had with the car.

"In that middle stint, I started to grain my tyres after the first lap due to understeer and it just continued and it got harder and harder to maintain the pace.

"I made a wrong decision with the set-up. I chose a different rear end to Fernando and I think it really caused me problems during the race."

Hamilton also rued his tyre choice - unlike the top two, he waited until the final stint to use the softer compound.

"We wanted to start with the softer tyre but we thought it was too much of a gamble due to the tyres going off too quickly so we started with the prime, but I thought that the last stint was perhaps the best for me, in terms of the stability of the car," he said.

While the three podium men all drove conservatively in the closing laps, the battle for fourth raged until the end.

Massa had made further progress by again running longer than those around him at the second stops. That put him ahead of Heidfeld and Fisichella, and 1.8 seconds behind Kubica. He quickly demolished that gap and then tried a series of passes on the BMW in the remaining laps, but Kubica could not be separated from his second consecutive fourth place.

"He had a harder job than me as I just had to control the situation, not push too much, not make any mistakes," said Kubica. "I was pretty sure I would hold him."

The result brought mixed emotions for Massa - torn between elation at having recovered with such flair, and frustration over the loss of a likely podium at a crucial stage in the title battle.

"It was a great race - it's always good to remember that you can race like that," he said. "But I think today it was possible to fight for the victory."

Heidfeld rued his poor qualifying position after finishing three seconds behind this battle in sixth.

The Renaults swapped places again in the final stint as Fisichella encountered the same tyre troubles that had earlier slowed teammate Kovalainen. The Finn moved ahead on lap 42 and secured seventh, but three points for Renault on a day when BMW scored eight made third in the constructors' contest a more distant target for last year's champions.

Few expected Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button to finish in the top ten as they languished in 17th and 18th places early on. But their slow pace was deceptive, for Honda were running a unique one-stop strategy.

The plan paid off, and as others wilted or pitted, the Hondas steadily rose up the leaderboard. Barrichello was happier with his set-up than Button and duly finished six seconds ahead in ninth, while the Briton held off countryman David Coulthard for 10th. Red Bull's choice of a long first stint and a mid-race sprint helped him clear the rest of the midfield, but he didn't have the pace or time to pull a sufficient margin over Button before his last stop.

The Williams duo had eventful runs to 12th and 13th. Nico Rosberg embarked on an aggressive early charge with just 15 laps of fuel on-board. Thanks to some bold moves through the opening corners - and despite a trip over the Club grass after banging wheels with Coulthard - he reached 12th before his stop. But he rejoined at the back of the pack and lost time amongst the Super Aguris and Spykers.

Alex Wurz had the opposite strategy, running until lap 26 on his first stint. Scott Speed was racing with the Williams on a similar pit schedule and remained ahead after the stops, but their battle came to an unruly end when Wurz dived inside Speed at Vale while the American was being lapped by Alonso. Wurz got ahead but his right rear wheel clouted Speed's left front as he completed the move, putting the Toro Rosso out of the race. The Austrian escaped the incident and finished five seconds behind teammate Rosberg.

"Alex decided to take a very optimistic move down the inside and couldn't hold the inside and ran wide into me," reckoned Speed.

"He left the door open, but after I went through, he hit my rear wheel," Wurz retorted.

Speed's teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi was slightly slower all afternoon and was in line to finish behind the Williams in 14th until his gearbox failed five laps from home.

The Super Aguris were faster than the Spykers, but slower than everything else. A very long first stint saw Anthony Davidson run as high as 11th before he decided that the car's unnerving handling required attention. Nine minutes in the garage failed to produce a solution, and he ultimately retired.

After his pit lane start, Takuma Sato overcame Christijan Albers in the first stops to earn 14th, although Spyker took some consolation from being closer than usual to Super Aguri's pace. Albers looked set to finish behind teammate Adrian Sutil again, but a cloud of engine smoke on the Hangar Straight on lap 16 signalled the end of the rookie's race.

Race results

59 laps; 308.355km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1h21:43.074
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +     2.459
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    39.373
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +    53.319
 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +    54.063
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    56.336
 7.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +     1 lap
 8.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +     1 lap
 9.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
10.  Button        Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    2 laps
15.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    2 laps
16.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:20.638

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Trulli        Toyota               (B)    45
Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    37
Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    31
R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)    24
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    19
Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)    10


World Championship standings, round 9:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      70        1.  McLaren-Mercedes     128
 2.  Alonso        58        2.  Ferrari              103
 3.  Raikkonen     52        3.  BMW Sauber            56
 4.  Massa         51        4.  Renault               31
 5.  Heidfeld      33        5.  Williams-Toyota       13
 6.  Kubica        22        6.  Toyota                 9
 7.  Fisichella    17        7.  Red Bull-Renault       6
 8.  Kovalainen    14        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
 9.  Wurz           8        9.  Honda                  1
10.  Trulli         7
11.  Rosberg        5
12.  Coulthard      4
13.  Sato           4
14.  R.Schumacher   2
15.  Webber         2
16.  Vettel         1
17.  Button         1

Team-by-Team

MCLAREN-MERCEDES

Hamilton tops the opening practice session and takes an extremely popular home pole, but is never quite satisfied with his set-up. This shows in the race, where he comes under pressure from Raikkonen throughout the early laps, falls to third in the first pit stops, then rapidly loses ground to the leaders in the middle stint.

But third place continues his podium run and protects his points lead. Alonso starts third and grabs the lead by running long then short-fuelling at the first stop. He is unable to establish a sufficient margin over Raikkonen before his relatively early final stop and has to settle for second.

The drivers insist midfield practice times are unrepresentative, and sure enough they improve to seventh and eighth in qualifying - Kovalainen fractionally ahead of Fisichella.

They keep the same positions in the race, although problems with the tyres mean their pace fluctuates, with Fisichella passing Kovalainen in the first stint and the Finn returning the favour later on. Both lose out to Heidfeld and Massa during pit stops.

Raikkonen dominates most of practice, but runs wide on his best qualifying lap and is beaten to pole by Hamilton. He pressures the McLaren until its stop, then shows his true - much faster - pace. But Alonso's quick in-laps and short stop mean Raikkonen has to follow the other McLaren in the middle stint.

He keeps it in sight and then gets ahead in the next stops, clinching a second consecutive win. Massa qualifies fourth on a slightly heavier fuel load, but stalls on the grid. He starts from the pit lane and carves through the field, before getting stuck behind sixth-placed Fisichella in the middle stint. He jumps the Renault and Heidfeld at the final stops, then hassles Kubica in vain until the flag.

Button pulls out of second practice with twinges in his back, giving test driver Christian Klien the chance to take part in an official session. The Briton returns for Saturday but can only qualify 18th after being caught out by traffic and yellow flags.

Barrichello manages 14th on the grid. They use a one-stop strategy to superb effect in the race, advancing from an early 17th and 18th to finish ninth and 10th as others fail to pull far enough ahead to make their second stops.

Kubica is much happier with his set-up than Heidfeld in practice and qualifying, taking fifth on the grid to the German's ninth. A heavier fuel load plays a part, and Heidfeld gains ground in the race.

Helped by Massa's stall, they run fourth and fifth at half-distance. The Ferrari passes Heidfeld in the final stops, but cannot get around Kubica for fourth in a late race battle. Heidfeld finishes three seconds behind in sixth as BMW extend their lead over Renault in the constructors' championship.

Schumacher appears revitalised as he goes third quickest in second practice then qualifies a season-best sixth. Trulli is much less comfortable with the car but still starts ninth. Both lose places at the start, and Schumacher is an early retirement with a suspension breakage. Trulli struggles for speed thanks to poor handling and excessive tyre wear. He tumbles to 16th before retiring.

Despite unimpressive practice form, Webber and Coulthard improve to 11th and 12th in qualifying, with the Australian feeling that only a small error kept him out of the top ten. He jumps to ninth at the start and is confident he will stop later than those around him, but differential failure puts him out on lap eight. Coulthard runs on the fringe of the top ten all afternoon, but on a long first stint, short middle stint, strategy he cannot pull far enough ahead of the one-stopping Hondas and comes home 11th.

Rosberg flies in practice again but is hit by a misfire in qualifying and starts 17th, while Wurz ends his poor qualifying run by taking 13th. The Austrian runs a long first stint, the German a very short one, but they end up in virtually the same place on the track, finishing four seconds apart in 12th and 13th - Rosberg ahead. Wurz collides with Speed along the way, but suffers no damage.

More surprise practice form from Toro Rosso as Liuzzi appears in seventh on Saturday morning. He falls to 16th, not helped by gearbox problems in qualifying, with Speed taking 15th. The American races with the Williams on Sunday but retires after colliding with Wurz. Liuzzi is on course for a quiet 14th until his gearbox gives up again in the final laps.

Sutil irks the team by crashing on Friday, but rebounds to qualify 20th, with Albers last on the grid again. They run in close company until Sutil has an engine failure. Albers holds off Sato early on but falls behind the Super Aguri in the pits. He finishes 15th and last.

Davidson nudges into the top ten in practice, only to have an embarrassing trip into the gravel in Q1 while trying to warm his tyres for a final run. He starts 19th, with Sato struggling with his handling in 21st. The Japanese driver starts from the pit lane in his spare car but can only get past the Spykers in the race and finishes a lonely 14th. Davidson would have come home ahead of his teammate but retires after a long pit stop fails to cure a severe handling problem.

Lap-by-Lap

Pre-race: First start aborted after Felipe Massa - fourth on the grid - stalls. He is wheeled to the pits.

Lap 1: Lewis Hamilton makes a clean getaway from pole and repels Kimi Raikkonen's fast-starting Ferrari.

Felipe Massa overtakes Vitantonio Liuzzi on the start/finish straight © XPB/LAT

Fernando Alonso stays third ahead of Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard, Scott Speed, Alex Wurz, Nico Rosberg, Tonio Liuzzi, Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Anthony Davidson, Massa, Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers and Takuma Sato (who starts from the pits after opting to change his race chassis).

Lap 2: Hamilton leads by 0.6 seconds. Rosberg passes Wurz. Massa passes Barrichello, Button and Davidson.

Lap 3: Hamilton leads by 0.8 seconds. Rosberg passes Speed. Massa passes Liuzzi.

Lap 4: Hamilton laps in 1:21.898 to extend his lead to 1.0 seconds. Massa passes Wurz.

Lap 5: Raikkonen pares 0.2 seconds from Hamilton's lead. Massa passes Speed.

Lap 6: For the first time Massa fails to gain any places during the course of a lap.

Lap 7: Hamilton leads by 1.1 seconds. Massa passes Rosberg.

Lap 8: Massa passes Coulthard. Webber pits to retire with hydraulic problems.

Lap 9: Rosberg slithers onto the grass after a brush with Coulthard, but he doesn't lose any positions.

Lap 11: Hamilton posts a 1:21.675. His lead is 1.0 seconds. Alonso, third, trails Raikkonen by 1.7 seconds. Massa passes Trulli.

Lap 12: Raikkonen sets a new fastest lap: 1:21.511, then Massa does a 1:21.450. Fisichella passes Kovalainen.

Lap 13: Massa ups the ante: 1:21.266.

Lap 14: Raikkonen tried to pass Hamilton at Brooklands but the leader holds firm.

Lap 15: Kovalainen and Rosberg pit.

Lap 16: Hamilton, Kubica, Fisichella and Schumacher pit. Hamilton almost sets off before the fuel nozzle is released. Massa posts a 1:21.165. Raikkonen leads.

Lap 17: Raikkonen laps in 1:20.658. Sutil retires in a cloud of engine smoke.

Lap 18: Raikkonen pits and gets out ahead of Hamilton. Trulli comes in, too. Alonso leads.

Lewis Hamilton holds off a charging Kimi Raikkonen © XPB/LAT

Lap 19: Heidfeld pits.

Lap 20: Alonso pits. It's a short stop and he rejoins just ahead of Raikkonen.

Lap 21: Alonso leads Raikkonen by 2.4 seconds, with Hamilton a further 5.0 seconds adrift in third. Kubica runs fourth from Heidfeld, Fisichella, Massa and Coulthard - the only one of the top eight yet to stop.

Lap 22: Alonso extends his lead to 3.2 seconds. Schumacher makes a second stop.

Lap 23: Alonso moves 3.9 seconds clear. Albers pits.

Lap 24: Liuzzi pits.

Lap 25: Alonso leads by 4.4 seconds. Speed pits.

Lap 26: Coulthard and Wurz pit.

Lap 28: Alonso leads by 4.3 seconds. Hamilton is falling ever farther behind in third. Sato pits.

Lap 30: Alonso loses time among slower traffic. Two of those in his way - Speed and Wurz - collide at Club after being lapped. Speed retires on the spot. Wurz drops behind Rosberg. Davidson pits and returns to his garage. He later rejoins, seven laps down.

Lap 31: Barrichello pits.

Lap 32: Rosberg and Wurz pass Trulli.

Lap 33: Button and Trulli pit.

Lap 35: Fisichella pits.

Lap 37: Alonso pits, as does Kovalainen.

Lap 38: Hamilton and the lapped Rosberg pit.

The Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button went to half-distance before refueling © XPB/LAT

Lap 39: Albers pits.

Lap 40: Raikkonen leads Alonso by 25.9 seconds - and he's pulling away significantly on his lighter fuel load. Kubica pits.

Lap 42: Kovalainen passes Fisichella. Heidfeld and Wurz pit.

Lap 43: Raikkonen pits - and rejoins with his lead intact. Trulli pits to retire.

Lap 44: Liuzzi pits.

Lap 45: Raikkonen leads Alonso by 4.1 seconds. Massa, Coulthard and Sato pit.

Lap 48: Raikkonen leads Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica, the close-following Massa, Heidfeld, Kovalainen and Fisichella. The rest, headed by Barrichello, are lapped.

Lap 54: Liuzzi stops by the side of the track.

Lap 59: Raikkonen eases up to win by 2.4. Hamilton is a distant third from Kubica, Massa and Heidfeld. Kovalainen is a lapped seventh from Fisichella, Barrichello, Button, Coulthard, Rosberg, Wurz, Sato and Albers.