Hamilton on red alert for fight to wire

Tag : and wire

Massa's many critics believe that he has the weakest claim on thetitle and has benefited more as result of his rivals' mistakes thanhis ability. The likeable and sporting Brazilian is regarded by thepurists as not good enough to drive a Ferrari in Formula One and,even if he is a superb driver in qualifying, he is weak in wetweather - he spun his car five times in the British Grand Prix atSilverstone two weeks ago - and he can crumble when under pressureon the track.
In his favour, however, Massa can point out that, along withHamilton, he has managed three wins to Raikkonen's two this season,that he drove impressively when winning his third Turkish GrandPrix in succession in Istanbul on May 11 and also did so in therain in Monte Carlo two weeks later. Massa is hungry for a titlethat he knows he could have won last year had he not been thevictim of some cruel luck, and he has Michael Schumacher helpinghim focus on doing that.
His team-mate Raikkonen - “The Iceman” - who is earningmore than twice Massa's £10million salary, is the hardest toread. Supremely quick with a perfect temperament for Formula One'slong game, he should have momentum behind him after winning lastyear. But Raikkonen's focus is arguably not as intense as eitherMassa's or Hamilton's and he can switch off. Even as he fights fora second successive title, the Finn has hinted at the possibilityof retirement, although, confusingly, he seems to be enjoyinghimself more at Ferrari than he did at McLaren. Crucially,Raikkonen has not imposed his authority on Massa (unlike Hamiltonover Heikki Kovalainen, his McLaren team-mate), so the Ferrari pairare fighting each other as well as Hamilton, which could work inthe Briton's favour.
After his epic win at Silverstone, Hamilton is flying high and willbe looking for a second successive ten-pointer in Germany tomorrow.It has been an odd season, in which Hamilton has looked more like arookie than he did last year, with an erratic pattern to hisresults and unforced errors creeping in.
Hamilton believes that he will play the percentages better thisseason, however, and he and McLaren, who have also made mistakes,are determined to re-establish the consistent form that marked hisdebut season. Busy off the track, Hamilton is driven by the dreamof becoming world champion, which he believes is his destiny, andmissing out last year has only fired him up. The big question iswhether he can control that competitiveness and desire and turn itinto a steady flow of points to make him Britain's first worldchampion since Damon Hill in 1996.