A Ferrari win and a watershed moment for Lewis Hamilton in 2007 F1 title race

Lewis Hamilton has proven time and time again that once he can get into the head of his team-mate, there is little stopping him finding his best form and building a Formula 1 title charge.

This season, his Ferrari revival - which has seen him bag podiums in China, Canada and Monaco - has come in the face of his team-mate Charles Leclerc suffering arguably the worst Ferrari crisis of his career as he looks to get back on terms with the seven-time world champion.

Hamilton is now the chief rival to Mercedes Kimi Antonelli in the title battle, and this new found confidence brings back memories of his first ever season in F1 when he was team-mates with double world champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

READ MORE: Alonso shocks with 'probably last race' announcement at Barcelona Grand Prix

Hamilton vs Alonso

Heading into that season's 2007 Spanish Grand Prix, it couldn't have been closer at the top with Alonso and Hamilton tied on 22 points, along with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen after three races of the season.

The race at the Circuit de Catalunya marked a home one for Alonso and it was his opportunity to claim a second win of the season and set another marker of who was top dog at McLaren in front of Hamilton who while bagging podiums, hadn't won a race.

But fresh off winning the Bahrain Grand Prix, Felipe Massa's Ferrari stole the show in qualifying on Saturday when he pipped Alonso to pole by just three hundredths of a second - literally the blink of an eye. Raikkonen lined up third, with Hamilton fourth.

Off the line though, it was the McLarens with the better start, Hamilton edging past Raikkonen, while Alonso got up alongside Massa to try to pass him around the outside of turn one.

However, he was too aggressive and after slightly touching the Brazilian was edged on to the grass, seeing him drop to fourth behind Hamilton and Raikkonen while Massa maintained the lead.

This was an era where drivers had to decide their fuel heading into qualifying (more fuel, slower quali but more to start the race and vice versa) and Hamilton had fuelled heavy against the light-running Alonso. Advantage Hamilton.

Alonso hassled Raikkonen to pass in the early stages without success but had a spot of luck when Raikkonen was forced to retire with an electrical problem nine laps into the race.

Massa’s pit stop fire

Twenty laps in and with nearly a 10-second lead over Hamilton, Massa was on fire... and so was his car. After his pit-stop, Massa pulled away with fire streaming behind his crash helmet across the Ferrari, due to spilled fuel. As dramatic as it looked, the fire was out within seconds and did no damage to his car. Thankfully, this wasn't a repeat of Hockenheim 1994.

Hamilton pitted three laps later, and he had curious McLaren problems of his own in missing a left mirror having bounced over a kerb. At this stage of the race though Hamilton was 10 seconds in front of Alonso who was making no progress eating into the deficit against his rookie team-mate. Both though were being dropped by the dominating Massa.

And that's just about how it stayed until the finish. Not an epic but it will be remembered for Alonso's aggressive turn one move where had he settled for second might would have won the world championship by one point (the 2007 season is PACKED full of 'what ifs?')

2007 Spanish Grand Prix results

The final classification after a dramatic day in Barcelona looked like this:

Hamilton’s title charge comes alive

While Massa may have taken the win, Hamilton put his team-mate in the shade in his own back yard to leave Spain with the world championship lead for the first time in his career...okay his career was only four races old at this point but that just makes the achievement more remarkable doesn't it?

Hamilton was the youngest leader of the world championship at 22, and he knew, when he basically announced his championship challenge after the race, saying: "Things just keep getting better and I continue living my dream.

"Overall I'm happy with the outcome of the race, and I want to keep on scoring points. The team has worked really hard since Bahrain and whilst we didn't win I still think we can take some satisfaction as we are leading both championships."

Barcelona 2007 a catalyst for what was to follow

While not the pivotal race in the Hamilton & Alonso McLaren war, it is a catalyst for what was about to follow in Monaco. With Hamilton leading the world championship and showing he could go toe-to-toe with Ferrari, he was no longer going to play second fiddle. The next race at Monaco showed this (and you can read more about that here).

Spain really kickstarted Hamilton's confidence to win a world title, if he can make a dent into Antonelli's championship lead at the same Catalunya track 19 years later, then you can't rule him out of a title fight.

LEWIS HAMILTON: Career record with every pole, win and title

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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