MONACO
The twisty confines of the Monte Carlo track seemed to be playing into McLaren's hands, as Lewis Hamilton dominated Thursday practice, and the Brit looked odds on for pole position. But Felipe Massa was rapidly growing into quite the qualifying specialist as the season unfolded, and he shocked the McLaren team by storming to the front of the grid in what the Brazilian described as a perfect lap. Kimi Raikkonen completed the crashing of Hamilton's party with second place, and the cycle of Ferrari domination seemed set to continue. Meanwhile, David Coulthard, who was in the midst of a torrid final season, employed Michael Schumacher's old Monaco tactic by crashing when he was well placed on the grid and ruining anyone else's chance of beating him. Controversially, he wasn't penalised, and lined up 10th, which sounds rubbish, but was something of a highlight of his year.
Ferrari domination failed to materialise in the race, thanks largely to a combination of some damp driving conditions and some awful driving performances. Hamilton recovered from an early love-tap with the wall that forced him to pit to replace a punctured rear tyre to take an impressive win, as Massa and Raikkonen were caught out by conditions, though Massa recovered to finish third behind the consistent Robert Kubica, while Raikkonen ruined what would have been a heart-warming tale of "an underdog picking his way through the carnage to finish fourth", when he nerfed the luckless Adrian Sutil off the track at the Nouvelle Chicane. Biggest crash award went to Nico Rosberg, who spectacularly wrote off his Williams in the barriers after a stuttering afternoon. With Raikkonen finishing outside the points after his tangle with the Force India, his championship lead evaporated in an instant.
Championship contenders - Hamilton 38pts, Raikkonen 35pts, Massa 34pts, Kubica 32pts.
CANADA
The sole North American race of the year saw Hamilton lose his championship lead almost as soon as he had gained it, and in incredulous circumstances to boot. Things looked promising when he claimed his first pole since the opening race of the season, despite (or perhaps because of) an amateurish situation developing in the session when the track surface itself began to crack apart, making the lap part tarmac, part gravel. The grid saw five different teams fill the first five spots for the first time since Brazil 2006, which isn't all that impressive. It was an awful session for Toro Rosso, with Sebastian Vettel sitting out proceedings after a crash in practice, and Sebastien Bourdais sent to join him on the back row after an enforced gearbox change.
No matter how many world championships Hamilton goes on to win, his actions in Canada will remain a stick to beat him with for many many years to come. Having led from the start, a safety car period precipitated by Adrian Sutil's parked Force India caused the frontrunners to pit en masse as the pits opened. But while Raikkonen beat the McLaren man out of his pit box, and waited patiently at the red light while the safety car took the field by, Hamilton completely missed the stop signal and ploughed into the back of the stationary Ferrari, putting them both out on the spot. The chaos caused by the safety car and Hamilton's very public error left the BMW Sauber team conducting an internecine battle for the race win, with Kubica stopping once more than team mate Nick Heidfeld. The Pole managed to pull out the gap required and maintain the lead to take his maiden win, along with BMW's maiden win as a manufacturer, and the lead of the championship to boot. Even more incredible than the 1-2 finish he and Heidfeld managed was the sight of Coulthard in third place on the podium, as the wacky safety car regulations continued to shock and amaze.
Championship contenders - Kubica 42pts, Hamilton 38pts, Massa 38pts, Raikkonen 35pts.
FRANCE
After a couple of chaotic races, dire service was resumed at Magny-Cours. The fact that it coincided with another dominant event for Ferrari was neither here nor there, the French track rarely delivers no matter who is out front. The Italian team dominated qualifying, helped by a ten place grid penalty meted out to Hamilton after his Montreal misdemeanour, but the Brit couldn't match the pace of the red machines anyway, and ended third (i.e. 13th) behind Raikkonen and Massa.
Raikkonen dominated the race in a similar fashion, with Massa able or willing to do little else than keep a watching brief. The Brazilian picked up an unlikely win though, his third of the season, after Raikkonen's car began to melt after half distance. A dodgy exhaust crippled the Finn's pace long enough to allow Massa through, though the damage turned out to be superficial, and Raikkonen hung on to second place ahead of Jarno Trulli, who continued the theme of unlikely podium visits after Coulthard's in Canada. Hamilton's recovery drive never really transpired, his Achilles heel of panicky drives through the field exposed again as he passed Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso with the help of a tarmac run off, and he was given a drive through penalty for his sins. Presciently, this wouldn't be the last time Hamilton was found guilty of this particular offence this year. Mark Webber continued to challenge Kubica for the most impressive driver over the first half of the year with more points for Red Bull, but his season was about to unwind.
Championship contenders - Massa 48pts, Kubica 46pts, Raikkonen 43pts, Hamilton 38pts.
BRITAIN
The Great British climate came out to play at Silverstone, as is almost traditional. But first there was the bonkers larks of the qualifying session, which saw Heikki Kovalainen take his first ever pole position and Mark Webber take his first front row start since Monaco 2006. The championship contenders were all over the place, as Hamilton messed his final run, Raikkonen slithered to third, Massa was plain not quick and Kubica damaged his car, leaving plenty of big names out of position on the starting grid.
Then for the race, the rain came. Hamilton made a stonker of a start to leap up to second, while Webber spun away his chance of a top result halfway round the first lap. After Hamilton passed (was let past by) Kovalainen, he pulled out a decent lead, and despite being challenged by Raikkonen in the run up to the first stops, the Finn fell back after deciding against changing his tyres at the first pit stops. Hamilton went on to win by nearly a lap, ahead of Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello, who benefited from a mid-race stint on full wets when everyone else was on intermediates to leap up the field. Elsewhere, Raikkonen ended fourth, Massa spun a million times and finished last, and Kubica spun once and retired. The championship was now unfeasibly close, with three drivers tied in the lead and Kubica just two points further back.
Championship contenders - Hamilton 48pts, Raikkonen 48pts, Massa 48pts, Kubica 46pts.
At the halfway stage then, the championship was delicately poised. But with the races already becoming peppered with mistakes, the first questions as to who (if anyone) was worthy of winning the title began to emerge. Still, we thought, it can't get any worse can it? Or could it? Find out (if you've somehow managed to forget) in part three of our review.
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