Hamilton Rediscovers Cold-blooded Instinct to Silence Doubters

All Lewis Hamilton could see was the flash of red bodywork from the back of a racing car sticking out of the wall on the outside of a fast right-hander at the back of the circuit. "I didn't know whether it was one of us or one of the Ferraris," he said. "I was a bit terrified for whoever it was as I saw the impact was quite heavy." Within seconds his engineer came on the radio to tell him that the wreckage was that of his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen.

Then, in an example of what makes racing drivers different from the rest of us, while lapping at an average speed of just over 125mph he managed to watch a replay on one of the big screens lining the track. "I thought it looked very reminiscent of my accident at the Nürburgring last year," he said.

A man in an identical car to his own had just left the road at around 145mph, spearing straight across the run-off area and into the tire barrier. For the next half-dozen laps, with the field cruising behind the safety car, Hamilton watched as a posse of track marshals tried to pull the car clear before calling for a tractor to do the job. It was impossible for him to see what had happened to his team-mate, who was eventually removed from the cockpit and strapped to a stretcher for removal to the medical center.

At the time no one knew what had made Kovalainen's car reject his steering input. The first impression from the in-car footage was that something had broken inside the left front wheel and pierced the sidewall of the tire, the instant deflation removing the car from its driver's control. Whatever it was, there was a chance that it could happen on Hamilton's car, too.

In those circumstances a racing driver doesn't stop to think twice. He keeps his foot down. Any other reaction would provoke the thought that it might be time to consider retirement. This is another way they differ from you and me.

"If you let those things get into your mind, you're in trouble," Hamilton said later. "It never crossed my mind once. I was quite confident that we'd done a great job and that the car was reliable. That enabled me to keep pushing."

While a yellow helicopter was taking Kovalainen from the medical center to the nearest hospital for a thorough check-up, Hamilton raced on to a third place that gave him his first podium finish since his win in Melbourne in the season's opening race, along with the six points that took him back into second place in the drivers' championship standings, nine points behind Kimi Raikkonen and one ahead of Robert Kubica.

Finishing four seconds behind Raikkonen and the blink of an eye behind the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, he had produced a performance that put his season back on the rails after the mishaps and blunders that relegated him to a disappointing fifth in Malaysia and a humiliating 13th in Bahrain. This was the time when it mattered most. He was under scrutiny, and he delivered.

No one outside the Ferrari team knows how much extra pace Raikkonen and Massa might have been able to produce had they been put under real pressure. All the evidence suggests that they were content to do no more than was necessary to hold the opposition at arm's length, a sensible strategy given that each of the two engines will have to complete another race weekend in Istanbul next month. But Hamilton dispelled the doubts that have recently been raised, making his point most clearly with a brilliant start.

Combined with Fernando Alonso's engine failure, that was the principal factor behind his place on the podium. Fifth on the grid, and lining up behind the Ferraris on the clean side of the track, Hamilton maximized the advantage of good initial traction to take fourth place from his friend and old rival Kubica by the time they reached the first corner.

At this track, where the last eight grands prix have now been won by the driver starting on pole position, genuine overtaking opportunities are rare. "The key was to get a good start and make up as many places as possible," Hamilton said, and he seized the moment by employing the kind of cold-blooded decisiveness that characterized his getaways in the first few races of last season.

Once off the line he moved quickly on to the tail of Kubica's BMW and then jinked even further to the right, dodging in front of Kovalainen, who was in the process of making an even better start from sixth place, and forcing Kubica wide as he plunged down the inside.

"I know from past experiences in formula three that Robert is one of the hardest to overtake," he said. "He's very aggressive on the first lap but I was able to get up the inside of him. I think he was focusing on going to the left, perhaps to slipstream one of the Ferraris, but I was carrying so much speed that there was no time for him to react and go back to the right. I don't think he was expecting it."

The key move had been accomplished. "After that," he concluded, "it was pretty smooth sailing. It's good to be back."