Motor Racing: HAM EYES FAST START

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, May 13, 2007

LEWIS HAMILTON fears first-lap mayhem may ruin his dreams of a memorable giant-killing act in this afternoon's Spanish Grand Prix.

Despite getting the better of Fernando Alonso in all but one of the previous sessions in Barcelona, he lost out in final qualifying for the fourth round of the world championship.

In a furious four-way scrap for pole between Ferrari and Vodafone McLaren, Felipe Massa (above) snatched his third successive pole from Alonso by three-hundredths of a second, with arch title rival Kimi Raikkonen third.

Hamilton, who starts fourth, knows he will have to make yet more history if he is to win, because no one has triumphed here in sunny conditions unless they have started from the front row.

But the 22-year-old focused on other concerns, with the new chicane into the final bend a good bet to be the scene of many broken dreams.

"We have got a good strategy to get a good clean first lap and then we should be OK," said a confident Hamilton. "I have had a very strong weekend, but I'm not surprised to see Ferrari so high.

"However, I think we have closed the gap to them."

Continual testing here means advantages, where they exist, are wafer-thin on a track where the man on pole has won the race for the last six years.

David Coulthard, infuriated by talk that he is set to be replaced by a younger driver, qualified in a season-best ninth, while Jenson Button starts from 14th - a place ahead of his Honda stable-mate Anthony Davidson.