McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton’s performance in the 2011 Formula 1 season so far
GP2 Series driver Lewis Hamilton is still driving for McLaren-Mercedes team since his debut in Formula 1 racing.
The Brit is moving in the right direction and performing very well from the start of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
He started his Formula 1 career with the McLaren team in 2007. He was confirmed by the McLaren team as a teammate of the current Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso for the 2007 Formula 1 season. Hamilton learnt a lot of things from Alonso during his debut season
in the sport.
After winning 4 races out of 17 rounds of the 2007 season, he finished his season at the second place in the drivers’ championship with 109 points.
The following year for Hamilton with McLaren proved as lucky, as he won the 2008 world championship for the first time in his Formula 1 career.
In 2009 and 2010, he finished his F1 season at the fifth and fourth places respectively.
After successfully finishing the 2011 pre-season test session on different F1 tracks, he took part in the ongoing season with an aim of winning another championship.
The team driver had a good start in the season, as he successfully finished his first race of the season in the second spot after starting from the same position on the grid in Australia.
He took a positive start in the next Malaysian Grand Prix, where he secured his second place for the Sepang race. However, the raceday was not so good for him, as he dropped down his position in the eighth spot at the Malaysian race circuit.
Winning a race in the Chinese Grand Prix was Hamilton’s great achievement in the ongoing season. He started his race from the third place on the opening grid and ended up ahead of other drivers after struggling a lot.
After getting strong results from the Shanghai race circuit, the Woking-based outfit delivered some new parts in their MP4-26 car for the rest of the season.
In the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix, the 26-year-old driver made a lot of struggle on the new 2011 Pirelli tyres, but could not finish his race on the podium, as the Ferrari driver Alonso was faster as compared to him during that.
Hamilton bounced back on the grid in the Spanish race weekend, where he finished his race on the second place podium for the team after a strong qualifying round at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The Brit made a lot of struggle on the sets of supersoft and soft tyres during the Monaco Grand Prix and completed his race in the sixth spot due to that.
Hamilton was unable to complete his 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, as he retired from the race due to an accident. The Montreal race results of Hamilton were very disappointing for the team, as they were expecting a podium finish from him over there.
In the European Grand Prix, the team driver tried to close his gap from the top runners of the season and after a fight with Red Bull’s Mark Webber for a few laps he finished his Valencia race at the fourth place.
He was again at the fourth position in the British Grand Prix after the 2011 Valencia race.
He won his second race victory of the ongoing season in the German Grand Prix, where he took a strong start and finished his race at the top place ahead of Alonso following a decent qualifying round.
In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton was 48.3 seconds off the pace of his teammate Jenson Button, who was the winner of the race. He showed a decent performance at the Hungaroring race circuit and ended up at the fourth place after starting from the second
place on the opening grid.
Hamilton has admitted that he is happy as well as satisfied with his current team. He said that he wants to stay with McLaren until the end of his three-year deal with them.
Let’s see how Hamilton performs in the rest of the 2011 Formula 1 season following his positive start to the season.
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