MOTOR SPORT/Formula One Championship British Grand Prix:There's a moment in every fairytale where the hero has to undergo a number of trials before emerging a stronger, wiser character. For Lewis Hamilton, the first test came in the shape of overcoming a team-mate of the stature of double world champion Fernando Alonso. That, in Canada, was achieved with a first victory that sent Alonso spiralling into a sulk the size of Spain. The second obstacle may not be so negotiable.
Yesterday, on the day Hamilton was scripted to spark hysteria with a win at his home race, in front of a capacity Silverstone crowd, Kimi Raikkonen took on the role of wicked witch and for the second time in a week displayed all the talents that make him, reputedly, the grid's highest earner.
To make the day even more painful for the British boy wonder, Alonso too headed him home to ever so slightly close the points gap between them at the head of the drivers' championship.
Despite dreadful weather at the start of the Grand Prix weekend, Britain's newest sporting hero had brought those rained off Henman Hill or Murray Mount out in force. Shiny new McLaren jackets and T-shirts were everywhere, the flags of the new faithful emblazoned with only one name: Hamilton. And like Henman, their hero put in a truly heroic early performance before fading in the main event.
On Saturday, the young Briton looked in danger of being relegated to the relatively unfamiliar surrounds of row two of the grid as, in the final minutes of qualifying, first Alonso and then Raikkonen put in supremely quick laps to take the front row.
Hamilton, though, clearly has an eye for the dramatic, and with seconds remaining on the clock he arrowed his McLaren through the penultimate lap sensor, the clock revealing he was slightly up on Raikkonen's time. The crowd rose to their feet, and despite a truly ragged run through the final corner, their hero crossed the line ahead to steal pole.
But that was the height of the drama.
Yesterday when the lights went Hamilton resisted a strong challenge from Raikkonen to hold his lead. The crowd, sensing a first home win at the circuit since David Coulthard in 2000, once again rose en masse.
But Hamilton couldn't shake Raikkonen, and as the pair exchanged fastest times through the opening laps, it quickly became clear Raikkonen had the faster car and Hamilton was holding him up.
That was proved correct in the first round of pit stops. Hamilton peeled off for the pits and Raikkonen saw his chance. Two fastest laps in succession gave him an advantage as he geared up for his own visit to pitlane, but it was Hamilton himself who handed the lead to the Finn.
"In the pitstop I made a mistake. I didn't hesitate but I thought the lollipop was lifted and I went," he admitted. "I don't know how much time I lost but a little. My mistake."
It was enough to hand control over to Raikkonen, but not for long.
Alonso was next in and, short-fuelling the Spaniard, McLaren were able to get him out ahead of Raikkonen in the hope he could drive round his car's deficiency to the Ferrari and the Finn might run into trouble.
It was a gamble and one that failed to pay off. When Alonso made his second visit to pitlane for fuel and tyres, Raikkonen had a massive six laps in hand in which to build up enough of a head of steam to get him in and out of his own pit stop and back on track ahead of Alonso.
He cruised to victory, letting an eight-second lead over Alonso drop to just over two as he babied his Ferrari across the line for his second straight victory.
The win leaves him on 52 points, 18 behind championship leader Hamilton and just six behind second-placed Alonso.
"It was very nice feeling to win the race," said the Finn, who had been on the podium here in his last four attempts but never won. "We have been close here several times, now finally we got the win.
"We had a little traffic but we had a good car all day and all weekend. I just tried to save some fuel and look after the tyres and the car, and when Lewis pitted I pushed to gain some time and Fernando did a very short stop so I knew I was going to run longer in second stop. So I tried to push as hard as I could when he came in and that was enough."
Hamilton was sanguine about his failure in front of his home crowd. Maintaining his title lead and his record of being on the podium at every race this season, he could afford to be.
"We had an interesting race," he said. "I started off quite well and at the beginning I was trying to open a gap on Kimi but he was extremely quick.
"At the end of the stint the tyres were falling away and I was struggling to keep the pace and he came to challenge me.
"We just lacked the pace so I don't know what happened in the last two stints. We came away with the points, the ninth podium, so I am happy with that and happy for the team to get all the points."
With Hamilton third, fourth place went to BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa fifth, a good result for Raikkonen's team-mate, who had stalled on the grid at the start and had to wade through the pack from last place after starting from the pitlane.
Nick Heidfeld guided the second BMW home in sixth, with the Renaults of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella taking the remaining points positions.
1 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1hr 21mins 43.074secs
2 Fernando Alonso (Spn) McLaren 1:21:45.533
3 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 1:22:22.447
4 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22:36.393
5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:22:37.137
6 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22:39.410
7 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault at 1 lap
8 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault at 1 lap
9 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda at 1 lap
10 Jenson Button (Brit) Honda at 1 lap
Also: 11 David Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull at 1 lap, 12 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams at 1 lap, 13 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams at 1 lap, 14 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri at 2 laps, 15 Christijan Albers (Ned) Spyker at 2 laps.
Not Classified: 16 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Scuderia Toro Rosso 53 laps completed, 17 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 43 laps completed, 18 Anthony Davidson (Brit) Super Aguri 35 Laps completed, 19 Scott Speed (USA) Scuderia Toro Rosso 29 laps completed, 20 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 22 laps completed, 21 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Spyker 16 laps completed, 22 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 8 Laps completed.
World Championship Standings
Drivers: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 70pts, 2 Fernando Alonso (Spn) McLaren 58, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 52, 4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 51, 5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 33, 6 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 22, 7 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 17, 8 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 14, 9 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams 8, 10 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 7, 11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 5, 12 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri 4, 13 David Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull 4, 14 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 2, 15 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 2, 16 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) BMW Sauber 1, 17 Jenson Button (Brit) Honda 1.
Manufacturers: 1 McLaren 128pts, 2 Ferrari 103, 3 BMW Sauber 56, 4 Renault 31, 5 Williams 13, 6 Toyota 9, 7 Red Bull 6, 8 Super Aguri 4, 9 Honda 1.
