ITV’s presenters mentioned Lewis Hamilton 16 times in the build-up to qualifying. How many times did the other British drivers get mentioned?
David Coulthard got a single mention – and that was it. Poor Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson didn’t get a look in.
Button also lost his record for being the youngest ever point scorer to another young hotshot. Find out more about the United States Grand Prix.
That accolade now belongs to Sebastian Vettel, who scored a point on his debut at the age of 19 years, 11 months and 14 days. Button scored his point in the 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix – but only after David Coulthard was disqualified from second.
He is the sixth youngest driver to have started a race: the youngest being Mike Thackwell at 19 years, five months and 29 days at the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix. The other four are Ricardo Rodriguez, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Tuero and Chris Amon.
OK, let’s get the obligatory bit about Lewis Hamilton out of the way: He won his second race and second on the trot, extended his run of podium finishes to seven, led a race for the seventh time and scored his second pole position.
The last British driver to win the United States Grand Prix was John Watson at Long Beach in 1983. Watson’s win set a record for winning from the lowest starting position ever – 22nd. That’s the lowest a driver can start from today until Prodrive join in next year.
Scott Speed became the first American to finish his home race since Eddie Cheever at Pheonix in 1989.
Jarno Trulli continued his excellent streak at the Brickyard. Since 2001 he has finished fourth, fifth or sixth every time, the only exception being the Michelin withdrawal in 2005 – when he had set pole position.
More cars finished the Indianapolis race than ever before – 17. The last two years had been particularly bad: 16 cars withdrew in 2005, leaving six finishers, and only nine finished last year after seven were eliminated at the start.
Despite Fernando Alonso’s best efforts, there has not been a pass for the lead on-track yet in 2007 other than on lap one. And even then only Felipe Massa has failed to convert pole position into the lead – at Sepang.
Related links
- United States Grand Prix 2007 review: Win #2 for Hamilton
- Canadian Grand Prix 2007 facts & statistics
- Grand Prix reviews
Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport
William Jacobs
2nd July 2007, 19:29
John Watson’s US Grand Prix victory from 23rd place was at Detroit, not Long Beach. I know this because I was there.
Thanks
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd July 2007, 20:47
Actually we’re both a little wrong!
Watson won at Detroit from 17th in 1982 (here’s a recent feature on it).
The following year he won at Long Beach from 22nd on the grid, not 23rd, and I’ve fixed the above article accordingly.
I’d be fascinated to hear about what the old Detroit race was like, though – perhaps you could write a comment about it on the section about the Detroit circuit here?