Jun
11
Black F1 driver wins first race!
June 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
AP Photo/Ryan Remiorz,CP
MONTREAL — Lewis Hamilton’s learning curve just got shorter — a lot shorter.
The 22-year-old Englishman, the first black driver in Formula One history, added his first F1 victory to an already remarkable career start by winning the crash-filled Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
And he made it look easy.
Hamilton started from the pole, also for the first time. Apart from losing the lead for three laps when he made his first of two pit stops, he led all the way and was never challenged.
The slim, soft-spoken youngster has six consecutive top-three finishes in six starts, something no other first-year F1 driver has accomplished.
“This is history,” Hamilton said, grinning.
The only one to give the Mercedes McLaren driver any competition during the 70-lap race on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s 2.71-mile road course was BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld. He chased Hamilton all day without catching him.
The only thing that kept the race close at all was accidents — four full-course caution flags that wiped out the leads Hamilton built with seeming ease. He kept winning the restarts though and beat Heidfeld to the finish by 4.3 seconds.
“It was a fairly simple race, apart from the restarts,” Hamilton said. “On those, I was just trying to keep the tires warm and not make a mistake. The last few laps I was just counting down.
If you liked that, check these out...
MVP OF THE WEEK: DANICA PATRICK by chanceblack on April 20th, 2008
Tags: NASCAR-F1