Lewis Hamilton holds a slight edge going into this weekend’s German Grand Prix, which sets off what is likely to be a dramatic second half to the Formula One season since only two points separate the four drivers at the top the overall standings.
Hamilton, coming off a 68-second victory at Silverstone for his third win of the season, is tied with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen with 48 points, though the McLaren driver leads on a tiebreaker. BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica trails the leaders with 46 points.
Hamilton goes into the 31st running of the German GP at the Hockenheim circuit as a rookie since he has never raced the 4.574km track in a Formula One car.
The 23-year-old Briton has already buried the memories of that last victory in front of his home crowd — the most dominant F1 win in 13 years.
“It’s going to be difficult to cap that. But I’m going to have to put it to the back of my mind because there are still nine races and the championship to keep pushing for,” Hamilton said on Thursday. “We are just going to focus on trying to build up some momentum and consistency.”
Teams are well-prepared for the challenges of 67 laps around this circuit after testing last week. Raikkonen is holding out for high temperatures in hopes of avoiding another unpredictable race, as has been seen recently. The weather outlook includes the chance of rain.
“Our car goes really well at high temperatures and also the tire-wear is not too high. So I really hope it will be hot,” said Raikkonen, the defending world champion, who has finished on the podium only once in his last four races.
With every point counting, the slightest of errors will prove costly down the stretch.
“I’ve always said that the championship will be very uncertain. I had the possibility to win the last three races, but for one reason or the other things didn’t go the right way. But that’s racing and I’m sure I’ll win again soon,” said the 28-year-old Finn, who has two victories this season.
Though McLaren and Ferrari remain the favorites in Germany, BMW Sauber remains close in the hunt for a drivers’ and constructors’ title.
The Germans trail leader Ferrari by 14 points in the constructors’ table, while Kubica has been at the front of the field all season to challenge for the championship.
But teammate Nick Heidfeld, who clinched his third runner-up finish of the season with an excellent drive at the British GP, could give the German fans someone to cheer for in the absence of Michael Schumacher.
Heidfeld, who trails the leaders by 10 points, is still chasing a maiden victory in his 142nd start.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS