Most recent post larger in center, older posts smaller and on left and right

Hello,

Ok, so I’m working on a layout for my blog and wondering what the better way of doing it is. What I want is to have the most recent post larger on top and up to 6 older posts smaller and in two columns. This is what I have so far.

<!-- you want to show 7 posts per page... -->
<?php query_posts("showposts=7"); ?>
  <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
    <?php if ($post->ID == $posts[1]->ID || $post->ID == $posts[3]->ID || $post->ID == $posts[5]->ID) { ?>
    <!--row -->
    <div class="row">
  <?php } ?>
  <?php if ($post == $posts[0]) { ?>
    <!--toppost -->
    <div class="toppost" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
      <!-- Most recent post here -->
    </div>
    <!--/toppost -->
    <?php } elseif ($post == $posts[1] || $post == $posts[2]) { ?>
    <!--post -->
    <div class="<?php echo ($post == $posts[1]) ? "post left" : "post right"; ?>" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
      <!-- Older post goes here, either on left or right -->
    </div>
    <!--/post -->
    <?php } elseif ($post == $posts[3] || $post == $posts[4]) { ?>
    <div class="<?php echo ($post == $posts[4]) ? "post left" : "post right"; ?>" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
      <!-- Older post goes here, either on left or right -->
    </div>
    <!--/post -->
    <?php } elseif ($post == $posts[5] || $post == $posts[6]) { ?>
    <div class="<?php echo ($post == $posts[5]) ? "post left" : "post right"; ?>" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
      <!-- Older post goes here, either on left or right -->
    </div>
    <!--/post -->
  <?php } ?>

  <?php if ($post->ID == $posts[2]->ID || $post->ID == $posts[4]->ID || $post->ID == $posts[6]->ID) { ?>
    </div>
    <!--/row -->
  <?php } ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Any suggestions on doing this better? I know its quite hackish but it’s all I could figure out how to do what I wanted.

Any tips/suggestions are appreciated.