In retrospect, his Canadian win came with relative ease. But in Indianapolis on Sunday Lewis Hamilton had to work every inch of the way for his second consecutive triumph as he beat McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso by just 1.5s after a gripping, race-long fight.

Hamilton just got the drop on Alonso from pole, and as they sped away from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen were both able to leap ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second red car. Further back, Ralf Schumacher lost control of his Toyota and collided with Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who was in the process of running into the back of David Coulthard’s Red Bull. Jenson Button in the second Honda and fellow Briton Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri were also delayed, while Schumacher, Barrichello and Coulthard became the first retirements.

In that first stint Hamilton did enough to eke out a lead that enabled him to pit on lap 21 and then stay ahead of Alonso once the Spaniard had followed suit a lap later. They went back to first and second as Kovalainen pitted from the lead on lap 27. Now Alonso turned up the wick, however, as Hamilton’s front tyres grained when he really pushed hard. On lap 38 they went down to Turn One side by side, but Hamilton had the inside line and was able not just to defend against his partner’s attack, but to open a small gap again.

When the next stops came, Alonso came in first, on lap 50, and when Hamilton did so a lap later he retained his advantage. Over the final stint he was able to maintain a two-second gap, as the two silver arrows circulated 13 seconds clear of the battling Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen. They were on different fuel strategies, and with softer tyres in his final stint the Finn was able to close in as the Brazilian was using Bridgestone’s harder tyre. However, Massa did not leave him any openings and they crossed the line in the same positions, only feet apart, after the 73 laps. Fifth place was sound reward for a gritty drive by Kovalainen, who was always a points contender, but the late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams (which had earlier been delayed slightly by a sticking fuel nozzle) made life a little easier for the Finn.

Rosberg’s sad demise was also a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who had a feisty scrap with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the closing stages as they took sixth and seventh. Right at the end, BMW Sauber rookie Sebastian Vettel closed in on them, and as the trio crossed the line a second apart, the young German scored a point on his debut. That was a small reward for BMW Sauber, as Nick Heidfeld had been heading for a possible fourth until power steering and gearbox problems intervened to drop him to fifth, and then to prompt his retirement with hydraulics failure on lap 59.

Giancarlo Fisichella fought back strongly for Renault after spinning on the second lap, and his side by side dicing with the Toro Rossos and Alex Wurz’s Williams was a highlight of the race. He finished ninth, ahead of Wurz, while further back Davidson recovered to catch and pass his old kart sparring partner Button for 11th. Toro Rosso’s Scott Speed was 13th after a fight with Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, who ran as high as 14th initially after the first corner incidents. Christijan Albers was 15th in the second Spyker, ahead of the non-finishing Rosberg and Tonio Liuzzi.
 

He had kept his Toro Rosso ahead of Wurz for the first stint but later retired with water temperature problems. Hamilton’s second North American triumph increases his lead in the drivers’ championship to 10 points over Alonso, while McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.

Jean Todt: "As expected, we had a very closely fought race and as was predictable, the final classification followed the grid order, confirming how important it is to start from the front if you want to win. Felipe drove a straightforward error-free race, while Kimi lost two places after the lights and then fought back well. Clearly the situation in the classification is getting more complicated but there are still ten races to go. Next week in Silverstone, we will try out some new developments which should help us in getting back to the level we were at from the start of the championship. We cannot deny we are disappointed with how the last few Grands Prix have turned out, but we strongly insist that we really want to turn the situation around."

Felipe Massa: "We can't be satisfied with third place. I did my best and I am happy to have got on the podium. We need to work out how to improve the car to get ahead of our closest rivals. We need to work flat out on the technical development to make up the ground lost over these past three races. In the final stint of the race, Kimi got very close and I was struggling a bit because I was on the hard tyres and he had the softs. I didn't make any mistakes and managed to stay ahead of him."

Kimi Raikkonen: "The car had a very quick race pace but I paid a high price for the positions lost at the start. We lost precious time behind slower cars and it is always difficult to overtake because when you close on a car ahead you lose so much aero downforce. In the final stages I closed on Felipe but there was never a really clear opportunity to overtake him and we were both thinking about the next race where we use the same engine. We must improve, especially in qualifying, because our target has to be to try and win."

Luca Baldisserri: "It was a close race if not very dramatic. Felipe got a good start, maintaining third place and stayed in touch with the McLarens in the first part of the race. Then in the second stint, he lost a bit of time with traffic and that built the gap that remained to the end. Kimi, after losing two places in the rush off the grid, drove a good race, which brought him back up to his team-mate. We have seen that in the race, we are competitive compared to our main rivals. We must do better in qualifying because it is crucial to start from the front to get the desired result at the end."

Race Details: Felipe Massa: 3rd +12.842 73 laps chassis 260; Kimi Raikkonen: 4th +15.422 73 laps chassis 262; Weather: air temperature 33/34°C, track temperature 45/46°C, sunny.