2007 United States Grand Prix

  2007 United States Grand Prix

Race details
Race 7 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One season
The Indianapolis circuit, designed in 2000
Date	June 17, 2007
Official name	XXXVI RBS United States Grand Prix
Location	Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.192 km (2.605 mi)
Distance	73 laps, 306.016 km (190.150 mi)
Weather	Warm (33C/91F) and clear
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:12.331
Fastest lap
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari
Time	1:13.117 on lap 49
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2007 United States Grand Prix (formally the XXXVI RBS United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, in the United States on 15 June 2007.^[1] The 73-lap race was the seventh round of the 2007 Formula One season and was won by McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, finished the race in second position whilst Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa, completed the podium by finishing third. This was the debut race of the future world champion Sebastian Vettel.

This race would be Formula One's final visit to Indianapolis, after an eight-year period. The race was removed from the 2008 calendar a few months later and Formula One did not return to the United States until November 2012, at the Circuit of the Americas.

Report

Background

Robert Kubica's large crash at the Canadian Grand Prix resulted in the season's first driver change. Although Kubica passed the medical examination and did not seem to show any ill effects, the FIA medical delegate decided it would be best to rest him for the weekend, and not risk a second impact at the circuit – so famous for its high speed crashes. This was a precautionary measure – another concussion so close to the previous one could be dangerous. He was replaced in the BMW Sauber team by Formula Renault 3.5 Series championship leader, 19-year-old German Sebastian Vettel, who made his Formula One debut at the Indianapolis circuit.^[2]

Practice

Friday's morning practice was dominated by McLaren and BMW Sauber, with Fernando Alonso putting in the fastest time.^[3] Sebastian Vettel started his first race weekend with a fourth fastest time. Ferrari, who expected that their pace would return at Indianapolis,^[4] found themselves on either side of Williams driver Nico Rosberg with the fifth and seventh fastest times.

Qualifying

David Coulthard and his Red Bull-Renault were the first to leave the pit lane in part one of the qualifying session. His partner, Mark Webber, was close behind followed by the Spyker and Williams cars. Later in the session, with about six minutes left, Coulthard spun out in turn eight. Fernando Alonso ran first, Nick Heidfeld second, and Lewis Hamilton closely behind in third. Although they struggled, both Ferraris made it, as well as Vettel. Scott Speed failed to make it out of Q1 in his native country, along with team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi. Adrian Sutil, Takuma Sato, Alexander Wurz, and Christijan Albers also missed the cut.

McLaren and Ferrari began part two of their battle with Hamilton taking the top spot early. However, his team-mate, Fernando Alonso took top spot midway through. Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen, and Heidfeld along with the two McLarens made the top five again. Webber made it to the next session, although his team-mate Coulthard was relegated along with 2002 United States Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello. Barrichello's partner Jenson Button was also relegated, along with Nico Rosberg, Anthony Davidson, and Ralf Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton on his way to pole position

In part three Hamilton was first out and set the quickest time with a 1:13:089. Alonso was about four tenths behind, followed by Heidfeld and the Ferraris. Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, both Renault drivers, also were near the top, but Jarno Trulli and Webber knocked Fisichella down. With about 5 minutes left, Massa took first spot and Räikkönen took second. Hamilton was bumped to third, Alonso fourth, and Heidfeld remained fifth. About one minute later, Hamilton took the top spot, and Alonso second. Alonso had one lap left, but could only get within about 2 tenths of a second of rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton. Massa and Räikkönen were dropped to third and fourth respectively. Heidfeld held on to fifth, with Kovalainen in sixth, bouncing back from his disappointing 22nd starting position in Canada. Vettel finished seventh, just two spots behind his temporary partner, Heidfeld. Trulli was 8th, with Red Bull-Renault's Mark Webber ninth and Fisichella tenth.

Race

Lewis Hamilton greets press and fans after winning his second race in a row from the pole

Hamilton on his way to victory in the McLaren MP4-22.

Lewis Hamilton, on the pole, sped off the grid. Fernando Alonso stayed close behind, followed by the Ferraris. The drama in turn one was in the middle of the pack. Vettel ran wide and lost places, but escaped damage. Ralf Schumacher, who started in 12th, turned in late, and ended up crashing into David Coulthard, who he had started alongside. Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg, 13th and 14th respectively, escaped but Rubens Barrichello got caught up. Schumacher was out on the spot, while Coulthard and Barrichello limped back to the pits and retired.

Also, Kimi Räikkönen was caught by Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen. Up front, the top four were running strongly until the pit stops came around. The top four all went in early, soon followed by Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber, leaving sixth place qualifier Kovalainen in first. He led six or seven laps, and Hamilton then regained the lead.

Despite a mid-race challenge from team-mate Fernando Alonso, in which the two McLaren drivers were racing side-by-side for the lead down the main straight, Hamilton maintained the lead to win his second-ever Formula One Grand Prix race, the other victory being in the previous event at Montreal. This marked McLaren's first 1-2 finish at the circuit and their first win at Indianapolis since Mika Häkkinen's final Grand Prix win in 2001.

Takuma Sato spun off at turn 3 after managing to pass Adrian Sutil. Sato had been due a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, but this was changed to a 10-place grid penalty for the next race.

There were also three mechanical retirements – Nico Rosberg in the Williams suffered an engine failure with only five laps to go, while BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi also retired from the race due to mechanical failure.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	Grid
1	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:12.563	1:12.065	1:12.331	1
2	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	1:12.416	1:11.926	1:12.500	2
3	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:12.731	1:12.180	1:12.703	3
4	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:12.732	1:12.111	1:12.839	4
5	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:12.543	1:12.188	1:12.847	5
6	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:12.998	1:12.599	1:13.308	6
7	10	Sebastian Vettel	BMW Sauber	1:12.711	1:12.644	1:13.513	7
8	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:13.186	1:12.828	1:13.789	8
9	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:13.425	1:12.788	1:13.871	9
10	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:13.168	1:12.603	1:13.953	10
11	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:13.424	1:12.873		11
12	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:12.851	1:12.920		12
13	7	Jenson Button	Honda	1:13.306	1:12.998		13
14	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:13.128	1:13.060		14
15	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:13.203	1:13.201		15
16	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:13.164	1:13.259		16
17	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	1:13.441			17
18	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:13.477			18
19	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:13.484			19
20	19	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:13.712			20
21	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	1:14.122			21
22	21	Christijan Albers	Spyker-Ferrari	1:14.597			22
Source:[5]

Podium for the 2007 United States Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver to score a point by finishing eighth on his F1 debut for BMW Sauber, aged 19 years and 349 days. He has now lost this record to Max Verstappen

Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	73	1:31:09.965	1	10
2	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	73	+1.518	2	8
3	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	73	+12.836	3	6
4	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	73	+15.422	4	5
5	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	73	+41.402	6	4
6	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	73	+1:06.703	8	3
7	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	73	+1:07.331	9	2
8	10	Sebastian Vettel	BMW Sauber	73	+1:07.783	7	1
9	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	72	+1 lap	10
10	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	72	+1 lap	17
11	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	72	+1 lap	16
12	7	Jenson Button	Honda	72	+1 lap	13
13	19	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	71	+2 laps	20
14	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	71	+2 laps	21
15	21	Christijan Albers	Spyker-Ferrari	70	+3 laps	22
16	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	68	Engine	14
17	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	68	Water Pressure	19
Ret	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	56	Hydraulics	5
Ret	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	13	Spun off	18
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	0	Collision damage	11
Ret	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	0	Collision damage	15
Ret	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	0	Collision	12
Source:[6]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton 58 2 Fernando Alonso 48 3 Felipe Massa 39 4 Kimi Räikkönen 32 5 Nick Heidfeld 26

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-Mercedes 106 2 Ferrari 71 3 BMW Sauber 39 4 Renault 25 5 Williams-Toyota 13

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "Race page on Formula1.com". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
2. "Vettel to sub for Kubica at Indy". ITV. 2007-06-14. Archived from the original on 16 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
3. "Friday Practice 1 Results". Formula1.com. 2007-06-15. Archived from the original on 2007-06-17. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
4. "Massa: Ferrari poised to strike back". ITV. 2007-06-14. Archived from the original on 17 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
5. "2007 FORMULA 1™ United States Grand Prix - Qualifying". Formula1.com. 16 July 2007. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
6. "2007 FORMULA 1™ United States Grand Prix - Race". Formula1.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Official Formula1.com page
• Detailed United States Grand Prix results

Coordinates: 39°47′42″N 86°14′05″W / 39.79500°N 86.23472°W