Another week, another win. The words must have passed through Lewis Hamilton’s head as his McLaren took the chequered flag for the second race in succession, making him the first rookie to win two grand prix in a row.

Fernando Alonso finished in a well-deserved second place, while Felipe Massa stood on the third step of the podium, finishing less than three seconds ahead of his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikonnen.

Hamilton, starting in pole position, didn’t make the best of starts, but it was enough to lead Alonso into turn one. In scenes strangely reminiscent of the previous weekend, Hamilton pulled out into Alonso’s path, forcing the Spaniard to go around him. The temptation to overtake Lewis on the outside of turn one must have been hard to resist though, and the cars went wheel to wheel until Alonso backed off ever so slightly, with memories of Canada still fresh in his mind. Hamilton stayed in front yet again and, barring places dropped due to pit stops, did so till the end of the race.

The first corner of the first lap also saw Ralf Schumacher braking too late, causing him to spin onto the grass bank, taking David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichelo with him. Schumacher ditched his car immediately, but his ‘victims’ staggered on for a little while before giving in. The race was marked with several retirements – the most unfortunate of the lot being Nico Rosberg’s engine blowout four laps from the finish. Rosberg had been running in the points, but was forced to pull onto the side of the start-finish straight with flames pouring from his engine. And he wasn’t too happy about it, as you can see.

The race was also notable for an almighty battle in the middle of the pack, with 6 cars battling for 12th place. Giampaolo Liuzzi successfully held off Alex Wurz, until Giancarlo Fisichella stormed up to overtake both of them, the move on Wurz being particularly pleasing to the eye. Takuma Sato was pulled up by race marshals for overtaking during a yellow flag, but spun onto the gravel and out of the race before his penalty was even decided, let alone served.

Alonso took on less fuel than Hamilton during his first pit, and the onus was on him to get ahead of the young Englishman before the second round of stops. The reigning world champion tried and tried, but to no avail – the only time he really came close, Hamilton blocked him off with a superb display of defensive driving. The contest between the two was much closer this week – expect Alonso to come back much stronger in the next race.

Ferrari had a fairly good weekend – Massa and Raikonnen completed the top 4. The car appeared to be well balanced, even if Kimi tended to lock up his front left tyre on occasion. The two drivers are the only genuine competition McLaren seem to have this season, so I’m hoping for a Ferrari win next time round, if only to make the Championship race more interesting.

On the whole, credit to Hamilton for keeping it together – apart from the record mentioned above, he is also the first rookie driver to take points in seven successive races. After finishing third in the first race of the season, he’s only gotten better – runner up in the next four, before winning the last two. Talk of the championship is probably too soon, but you wouldn’t bet against it on this form.

On a side note: Jarno Trulli received a rude shock when he found a steward’s blue flag stuck in the side pod of his car. The flag had been dropped off the pit wall – by mistake, we imagine. It didn’t cut off the air intake, thankfully. Also, kudos to Sebastian Vettel – the 19 year old replacement for Robert Kubica, and driving in his first race, picked up a point for BMW. Back to Europe in a week or two. Or three.