Lewis Hamilton secured his second straight Grand Prix win this afternoon at Indianapolis as he took the chequered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of McLaren Mercedes team-mate Fernando Alonso in what was a tight and tense 73-lap US Grand Prix. Hamilton started the event from Pole Position and resisted a challenge from Alonso into turn one. Alonso shadowed Hamilton until the first round of pit stops aiming to get the jump but the order remained consistent with rarely over a second separating the two. Coming up to lap Tonio Liuzzi at just over half distance, Alonso was able to get a great run on Hamilton down the long straight but Hamilton calmly moved to his right and held his line into turn one. Alonso was on a short middle stint at this time and did seem to have better pace than Hamilton, but simply could not find a way by. "What a dream!" Hamilton said. "To come to these two races and win first time out twice is just amazing. But this is really due to the quality of the team back in Europe and here at the track. Without all the guys, it would be impossible.""I came under a lot of pressure from Fernando today and it was very close at times, but he was so professional. We raced really hard. My tyres went off in the second stint. I think they were graining, probably because I pushed too hard. They came on the radio in the third stint and told me there are 15 laps to go and those laps seemed to last forever...
"Hamilton’s second victory moves him ten points clear of Alonso at the head of the drivers’ championship and to his credit, Alonso was not all doom and gloom on the podium. Felipe Massa started third in his Ferrari and finished in the same position. The Brazilian held on to the back of the McLaren duo until the first round of pitstops, but lost ground in the second stint as he found himself stuck behind Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber who were running a very long first stint. From a six second deficit to Hamilton to just over 12 seconds in a handful of laps, Massa’s charge was halted and he turned his attention to the recovering Kimi Raikkonen closing fast in his mirrors. Raikkonen dropped behind both Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen at the start and having opted to start the race on the hard tyres – the only driver to do so – he was unable to make progress until after his first round of stops. Raikkonen, clearly the faster Ferrari driver in the closing stages, was unable to separate Massa from the final podium position as they took the chequered flag just a few second apart.
"Hamilton’s second victory moves him ten points clear of Alonso at the head of the drivers’ championship and to his credit, Alonso was not all doom and gloom on the podium. Felipe Massa started third in his Ferrari and finished in the same position. The Brazilian held on to the back of the McLaren duo until the first round of pitstops, but lost ground in the second stint as he found himself stuck behind Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber who were running a very long first stint. From a six second deficit to Hamilton to just over 12 seconds in a handful of laps, Massa’s charge was halted and he turned his attention to the recovering Kimi Raikkonen closing fast in his mirrors. Raikkonen dropped behind both Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen at the start and having opted to start the race on the hard tyres – the only driver to do so – he was unable to make progress until after his first round of stops. Raikkonen, clearly the faster Ferrari driver in the closing stages, was unable to separate Massa from the final podium position as they took the chequered flag just a few second apart.
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