Hamilton streets ahead of moaners
front of the whole of Europe.’’
A small section of Croatian supporters threw eight small flares on to the pitch and attacked a much larger group who had behaved impeccably up to the point when the violence broke out.
Play was suspended as the Croatia players appealed for calm in the closing stages of the match when they were 2-1 ahead.
The Czechs, who had pulled a goal back after falling 2-0 behind, grabbed a last-gasp equaliser and Cacic said the trouble no doubt deprived his distracted team of victory.
In the day’s other games, Brazilian Eder scored an 88th-minute goal for Italy to grab a 1-0 win over Sweden, while Spain convincingly beat Turkey 3-0, with goals from Alvaro Morata either side of the break and Nolito also getting in on the action. There is no record in the annals of Formula One of a driver crashing into a 12th century city wall, but there is time for a first in Baku this weekend.
The cars that hurtled at almost 350kmh yesterday along the broad seafront avenue – the longest in Formula One at 2.24km – were suddenly confronted with the narrowest section of track in the sport.
Just seven metres wide, the boundaries are marked by vivid purple and yellow barriers up against the ancient walls of the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. Even at just 120kmh, such a tight squeeze between the picturesque crenelated turrets and Rococo and neo-classical buildings concentrated the minds of young men anxious not to create their own bit of Azerbaijan history.
Not that Lewis Hamilton noticed much. The world champion – and the man on a roll after two consecutive victories – scoffed at the time his rivals spent working on simulators and walking the track, noting each detail of this 5.9km hurtle around a world heritage site.
He turned up, put on his helmet and overalls and went fastest in practice for the European Grand Prix. The hat-trick beckons and so does the lead in the world championship.
He loved it all, describing Baku as like Monaco only speeded up, and then had a dig at his cautious mates.
‘‘These drivers they moan so much,’’ he said. ‘‘It is really bumpy down the main straight and you can’t see turn one that well. The car is vibrating, so it is really hard, but that’s a part of racing. These guys want it to be so smooth, smoother, than ever, and no vibrations, and no bumps and they want to take all the character and life out of these tracks.’’
Nico Rosberg, his team-mate, was a mile off, 0.69sec slower than Hamilton before his Mercedes gave the up the ghost with a ‘‘loss of drive’’. That slender nine-point lead the German holds over Hamilton could be wiped out here tonight (NZ time).
More than that, there seems no answer to the twin Mercedes on a circuit that will play to sheer power of the three-pointed star. Take note, too, that the top five cars yesterday, including Force India and Williams, were all Mercedespowered.
The rest looked positively limp by comparison. The Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were nowhere to be seen, leaving the third spot on the timesheets to Force India’s Sergio Perez.
Remember that speculation that Perez might replace Raikkonen next season? Well, third played 13th yesterday, with the Finn ending up stranded down an escape road with a dodgy energy recovery system.
The next escape for him could be the exit. TIMES