Highlights

Alonso not too troubled by Hamilton's lead

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-15 09:37

Fernando Alonso says being overtaken at the top of the Formula One championship by rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton worries him less than Ferrari's pace.

Spain's double world champion left his home Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday after another extraordinary afternoon for his 22-year-old McLaren team mate.

The Briton, second behind Ferrari's Brazilian race winner Felipe Massa, roared into the record books as the youngest championship leader in the sport's history, with a two-point lead over Alonso.

It was the first time since March 2005, when he was at Renault and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, that the 25-year-old champion had lagged a team mate in the standings.

Despite that, and Hamilton's amazing record of four podium finishes from his first four races, Alonso said he was not concerned.

"I think it is still the same," he told reporters when asked whether he still looked at his team mate in the same light as he did before the season started.

"He is still my team mate. After one or two races, we saw him become a championship contender and we still see him as one now," he added.

"In a way, I look at him the same way I look at Kimi (Raikkonen) or Felipe, opponents for the championship. I have to beat them all if I want to become champion.

"But he is the one who worries me least because he is my team mate and we are here to help each other. I worry more about the Ferrari pace than if Lewis is two points ahead of me," said Alonso, beaten by Hamilton for the second successive race.

MONACO TARGET

Hamilton was helped by Massa and Alonso coming together at the first corner with the Spaniard running wide on to the gravel while the Briton roared past.

The rookie's third second place in a row made him the first Briton to lead the championship since David Coulthard with McLaren at the start of 2003.

Already the only driver to stand on the podium in all of his first three races, Hamilton's fourth sent him into the history books as the youngest leader -- ousting his team's late founder Bruce McLaren who set the previous record in 1960.

Asked after Sunday's race whether he had thought it was possible when the season began that he would lead the standings, Hamilton said: "No, not at all. I just want to do a good job and that is what I'm doing. With that in mind, I've got the points. But no, I definitely didn't expect to do as well as I'm doing."

Monaco, the glamour highlight of Formula One's calendar, is next up and Hamilton could well add a victory to his remarkable resume.

The 22-year-old has raced there three times, in Formula Three and the GP2 support series, and won every time. After the Spanish race, he turned to Massa and assured the Brazilian that he would get him soon.

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh agreed that the prodigy had every chance, even if Alonso won there for Renault last year and Raikkonen the year before with McLaren.

"I think Lewis has been gearing himself, as he tucks himself into bed at night, to the idea of winning in Monaco," he told Reuters.

"But the truth is that both of our guys are very quick there ... I think they both fancy their chances and the car will suit there as well."

If Hamilton wins that one, then Alonso may not feel so quite comfortable with a team mate who has yet to put a foot wrong and has more and more superlatives heaped on him with every race.