Driving through the 2010 season with Lewis Hamilton (Part 1)
After having gone through a tough season and a further rough ending to it, Lewis Hamilton is looking forward for a short break before he begins the final preparations for the upcoming 2011 season. Despite having missed the second
championship chances of his career, the driver is glad for the battle he fought, clinching tight to the lessons learnt from the dramatic 2010 season.
He want out to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last round of the season with a very slight hope of winning the title, proclaiming that only a ‘miracle’ could now grant him his second championship. Despite having giving it his all,
the driver failed to pull rabbits out of his hat. As the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix began, he stood 24-point apart from the Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, and needed to win the race while all the other top contenders needed to finish out of points to grant him
his second title. However, after an evening long battle, the driver was only able to finish in second place behind Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. The German not only took away his second championship hopes, he also broke Hamilton’s record of being the youngest
World Champion.
The 2010 Formula One season had been a very exciting as well as a tiring one for the 25-year-old driver, who kept striving till the very last moment, only to wrap up the season in fourth place. The driver’s MP4-25 was the first
car of the season to enter the grid with the innovative F-Duct. A quickened pace gave the team a sound start as Hamilton ended the season opener, the Bahrain Grand Prix, in third place on the podium chasing the two Ferraris. However, the following races did
not see the driver do very well as the Austrian team, Red Bull came roaring down the track. Neither McLaren nor Ferrari were able to match Red Bull’s pace as their RB6 kept landing podiums and race wins, one after the other.
It was only the 7th race of the season, the Turkish Grand Prix, when a poor collision of both the Red Bull drivers, Mark Webber and Vettel granted the first victory of the season to Hamilton. At the Istanbul Circuit, the Red Bull
drivers led the rally of the cars all through the event. However, as the two reached the final laps heading for a certain 1-2 finish, the battle between the two began. With Webber in front and Vettel at his tale, the duo collided into each other, resulting
in a third place finish for Weber, while Vettel had to retire from the race. The opportunity was delightfully taken by the McLaren team getting the glorious 1st and 2nd place on the podium.
This was followed by another quick success by the British driver at the Canadian Grand Prix, which also elevated him to the top of the drivers’ charts. Superb strategy of the team and a great race by Hamilton further helped him
maintain his dominance. There had been times throughout the season when McLaren’s car was simply no match for Red Bull’s RB6, but both the team drivers Button and Hamilton kept pushing hard to get the maximum out of their car.
The next and very eventful European Grand Prix saw Hamilton get lucky once again as the driver narrowly survived a drive-through as he passed the safety car at the right time and got a second place finish behind Sebastian Vettel.
This time again, the Red Bull was short of luck, which came as a blessing for McLaren as Webber’s car spun in the air, ending his race mercilessly. With this incident, Hamilton’s top place in the charts was kept safe once again.
Continued in P2
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