What would you expect from a Formula 1 driver that had a great season this year and finished 2nd on Top Gear’s test track, to do 80mph on the high way? I guess Lewis Hamilton, the boy wonder as newspapers call him, can explain that speed is in your blood so I guess that’s the reason why he was caught speeding with 40mph more than the limit, near Laon, a city in the north of France.

Though Hamilton was “polite and cooperative” consequences included a suspended license for one month and his Mercedes impounded. We will see the 22 year old racer in the 2008 F1 season driving for McLaren, but in the meantime his teammate Heikki Kovalainen should give him a ride if needed.

via TopGear

Kimi Raikkonen has become the 2007 Formula One World Champion. In a hectic race where each of the top three could have won it, it was Raikkonen who led his team mate over the finish line to win his first Brazilian race and his first world champion. After so many close attempts, Kimi is a worthy champion, and after his convincing display today around Autodromo Carlos Pace, McLaren will be kicking themselves for letting it slip away. From the first lap, it looked as though Ferrari would dominate, but what happened over the course of the Grand Prix wasn’t what was expected. (more…)

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso finished the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai in second place. Whilst his team mate Lewis Hamilton retired, when he went off and got stuck in the gravel with worn wet tyres on a drying track. Kimi Räikkönen took victory, so the championship will now be decided among those three at the final race in Sao Paulo in two weeks’ time. After 56 laps in changeable conditions, 305.066 km and a total race time of 1:37:58.395 hrs, Fernando came home 9.8sec behind Räikkönen’s Ferrari. Despite his first retirement in 16 Grands Prix, Lewis maintained his lead in the Drivers’ Championship after 16 out of 17 races with 107 points followed by Fernando in second position with 103 points; Räikkönen is third on 100 points with 10 points available in the remaining race. For the first time since 1986, there are three drivers to fight for the title in the final race. (more…)

Lewis Hamilton is on the verge of signing a $110 million deal to stay on at the McLaren team until the end of 2012. The German newspaper Bild claims the contract, representing a mammoth pay-rise over his debut salary, is worth $17m every year plus – oddly for a McLaren contract – the ability for his father Anthony to negotiate separate marketing arrangements.

Mercedes-Benz’s Norbert Haug confirmed: “We would like to cooperate with Lewis on a long-term basis. He is a great person and a great driver.” Hamilton’s father said they are yet to sign the deal. “Not yet,” he said, then referring to the upcoming FIA inspections at Woking. “There are still things to go through, such as whether the team is definitely in formula one.”

The news coincides with Hamilton telling reporters in the McLaren motor home that he has earned more respect from the team than his championship rival Fernando Alonso. “And since what’s gone on in the last few weeks they’ve realized who the real people are in the team and who they really should back,” the Briton, 22, added.

“We arrived at Spa and he is sitting there laughing and joking. I don’t understand it.” Hamilton confirmed suspicions that his relationship with the Spaniard is almost non-existent. “He is not the person I imagined him to be,” he said. (GMM)

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Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen has outperformed his team mate and shattered the pace of the McLarens this afternoon as he cruised to a fine win in the Ardennes forest. Felipe Massa brought home his Ferrari in second place, and the Scuderia have now officially sealed the 2007 constructors championship following McLaren’s exclusion. The loosing of the point over his team mate now means that Massa is unlikely to be pushed ahead for the title. Instead, Jean Todt will have to put the majority of resources behind todays winner as the season progresses away from Europe and into Asia.

The start of the Belgian Grand Prix was always going to be watched closely as the circuit tends to narrow going down into the impossibly tight La Source hairpin. The remodeled corner though has a slightly wider exit, and more importantly perhaps, is the large flat run-off area, penalising less if you overcook it. And it was this new area that saw some action on lap one after McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton attempted to prove their worth to each other. As the red lights faded, Alonso moved across from third to defend his position from Hamilton. The pair went into La Source very close to one another, Lewis on the outside and Alonso on the regular line. As the pair squeezed the throttle Alonso moved towards the outside and just kept moving. Hamilton was forced off the circuit and onto the run-off area. Not one to shy away though, Hamilton kept his foot in it and came back down alongside Alonso. They went into the fast Eau Rouge corner together, but as Alonso was on the inside, Lewis backed off and conceded the position.

From here on in, the Belgian Grand Prix simply became a tour and ultimately, proved to be very boring. Perhaps the lack of changeable weather (something we have come to expect from this spontaneous track) took the edge off the race. Perhaps it was the sheer dominant pace of the Ferrari’s that led to the race becoming dull, and although there were many other battles down through the field, we really wanted to see a battle between the top four.

A two week interval now allows the teams to ship every thing over to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix at the end of the month.

Results after the jump (more…)

Italian law enforcement authorities paid an unannounced visit to the McLaren pits on Saturday, as the team prepared for the Italian Grand Prix the following day. They informed McLaren team manager Ron Dennis that he was under investigation and also informed six other members of the McLaren team that they were being investigated. The investigation centers on Team McLaren’s possession of 780 pages of confidential documents stolen from Ferrari. (more…)

Fernando Alonso trimmed McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s title advantage to just three points by delivering a Monza masterclass in the Italian Grand Prix.

The world champion stamped his authority on the race from the off and was never challenged en route to his first win at the historic venue and his fourth victory of 2007.

Hamilton was unable to match Alonso’s pace but protected his points lead by putting a bold pass on Kimi Raikkonen after the Ferrari driver used a one-stop strategy to leapfrog the rookie following his second pit visit.

The 1-2 result was the best possible tonic for the beleaguered McLaren team on a traumatic weekend in which the latest developments in the spying controversy threatened to reduce the race to a mere sideshow. Results after the jump..

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This was another great F1 race on Sunday, unfortunately not a good outcome for the Mclaren team, finishing on third and fifth place. The Scuderia team took places one and two right at the beginning and never really looked back at the trailing Hamilton, which ended up on fifth place after an incident with his tire, but fortunately Alonso was able to capture that last podium place with a bit of skill and a lot of luck.

The start: For the fifth time this year, Lewis and Fernando had qualified second and fourth respectively. At the start, Lewis dropped to third behind the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen whilst Fernando was sixth at the end of the opening lap.

The race: Fernando got stuck behind Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber). When Heidfeld’s team mate Robert Kubica pitted on lap 12 Fernando improved to fifth. On lap 17, also Heidfeld came in and Fernando was fourth.

Fernando made his first routine stop on lap 18 (9.1sec) together with Räikkönen, whilst Massa came in on lap 19 and Lewis on lap 20 (9.4sec). After that, Massa went back into the lead ahead of Räikkönen and Lewis; Fernando passed both BMW Saubers during his pitstop and was fourth.