The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Hamilton’s bad luck benefits Alonso

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Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007
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Sport - Racing : Motor

Hamilton’s bad luck benefits Alonso

ISTANBUL: While Felipe Massa may have won the Turkish Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso will look to the race as a turnabout in his duel with McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title.

In a dramatic turnabout on the 43rd lap of Sunday’s race, Hamilton blew his right front tire while in third, limped to the pits to change it and dropped to fifth position. Alonso, who was down as far as sixth earlier, was able to take over third and slice Hamilton’s lead in the drivers standings to five points. Massa’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished second.

Alonso, seeking his third consecutive F-1 title, started fourth and was quickly overtaken by BMW drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

“The start did not go to plan and to be overtaken by two cars and to find yourself sixth at the first corner was not great. My race was a little bit over from that time,” the Spaniard said.

He followed Heidfeld and Kubica for 17 laps, passed them on the pit stops and hoped.

“You need to wait for a mistake from the car in front of you,” Alonso said. “I was half a minute behind everybody at that point.

“I just took my pace and concentrated on being consistent, not making a mistake and waiting for the miracle, which only happened with Hamilton.” Hamilton saw his chances of a podium finish fall apart with his tire.

“I saw some bits fly off the tire and then it blew on braking into turn nine,” Hamilton said. “It was lucky I didn’t put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits as this meant that in the end I only lost two places. — AP

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