A technical and special circuit

McLaren drivers currently lead the packFollowing the North American fly-aways, McLaren Mercedes has returned to Europe for the 2007 French Grand Prix to be held on Sunday 1st July. The team arrives in France with a 35-point lead in the Formula 1 Constructors' World Championship, with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso lying in first and second positions in the Drivers' standings with 58 and 48 points respectively. The 2006 race marked the 100th anniversary of the first race that was designated a Grand Prix. Staged near Le Mans on 26th June 1906, 32 cars left the start line for a race that lasted two days and covered 1,238km. Two years later, Christian Lautenschlager clinched the first Mercedes victory in the French Grand Prix; the four-cylinder engine of his car had a displacement of 12.8 litres and an output of 135 bhp. Since the start of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950, the French Grand Prix has been a permanent fixture on the calendar, with the exception of 1955. Initially held at Reims, the event alternated between Rouen, Clermont Ferrand, Le Castellet, Dijon-Prenois and Le Mans before moving to its current home at Magny Cours in 1991, located some 160 miles/257 kms south of Paris.One of the main features of the Magny Cours circuit is the smooth track surface. There are very few bumps or dips that can affect handling and this allows the teams to run the cars with very low ride heights. For the majority of the track, the kerbs are also fairly low, however at the final chicane, they are higher and can lead to damage to the cars if the exact racing line is not used.

The asphalt is also very dark, and this sees it retain heat, which can have an affect on the wear rate of the tyres. The traction required for the exits of the numerous slow corners can also have an affect on tyre wear. The Magny Cours circuit has reasonable grip levels. There are a number of places where you can pass at Magny Cours, for example the run down to the Adelaide hairpin allows drivers to slipstream and pass under braking. Another opportunity is into the penultimate corner, the right-hander before the final chicane. Again it requires slipstreaming and late braking to take position. Fernando Alonso"I have always liked racing at this track, when you hear people talk about circuits that are technical, Magny Cours is definitely one of them. It is important to have good speed in the slow corners as they tend to lead onto long straights. You have to have good mechanical set-up for the corners and the same with traction for the exits. My favourite sections of the track are the two high-speed chicanes at the back of the circuit. We go through them at speeds of up to 200km/h, which is very fast for a chicane; very special to drive through and unique in Formula 1. Since the United States Grand Prix, I joined the test team at Silverstone for a day. We completed some key programmes as everyone in the team pushes hard to develop performance."

De la Rosa fourth fastest for McLaren (Silverstone)

Pedro de la Rosa continued his Silverstone test today for the McLaren Mercedes team. The Spanish test driver completed 58 laps with a best time of 1:22.018s, good for fourth fastest today and nine-tenths up on his Tuesday best. The development programme for the MP4-22 continued apace, with de la Rosa progressing his work from day one, assessing aerodynamics, race set-up and working on the Bridgestone Potenza tyre evaluation for the British Grand Prix. Running in the afternoon was limited as a result of rain showers.

Fernando Alonso takes over the test programme tomorrow for the third and final day of running. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was not scheduled to test this week.

Standings after 7 rounds

Hamilton holds off Alonso for Indy victory

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.