2008 Canadian Grand Prix - Race Report

by Effwun - FOAS #65

Robert Kubica took a historic first Grand Prix win for BMW, himself, and a Polish driver in an action packed and at times chaotic race. It was a double celebration for BMW as Nick Heidfeld secured second place to bring home BMW's first 1-2 finish as well, ahead of Red Bull driver David Coulthard, who took the final podium position. The main title protagonists Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton failed to finish the race after a controversial pit-lane collision.

The weekend started well for Robert Kubica - second fastest in Friday Practice 1, two tenths slower than Felipe Massa. Indeed the BMWs looked strong with Heidfeld 4th fastest. The McLarens looked strong as well, with Kovalainen and Hamilton in 3rd and 6th respectively. Raikkonen was 5th fastest. A lot of the drivers were struggling for grip on the green circuit - one that is rarely used during the year - and the conditions were cool and damp, with the circuit initially wet.

The track had dried by P2, and it was more of the same for Kubica - second fastest again, this time behind Lewis Hamilton. It was a trickier session in many ways though, and several drivers had issues. Felipe Massa coasted to a halt with a car failure; Nelsinho Piquet stopped at the pit-lane entry with brake failure; team mate Alonso spun out at turn two and lost the fire in his engine, ending his session; Timo Glock scraped the wall at the exit of the first chicane, damaging his car; Kubica touched the wall in the same place, but just light grazed it, so didn't do any damage; and Mark Webber had a spin at the second chicane.

Nico Rosberg topped the time sheet in P3, edging out Raikkonen by 34 thousandths, with Hamilton third fastest and Massa fourth. The BMWs were in 11th (Kubica) and 18th (Heidfeld), although they were probably concentrating on race set-up rather than 1-lap pace. With the Ferraris and McLarens near the top of the time sheet, it was again looking as though they were the cars to beat. It was a miserable session for Button and Vettel though. Button suffered a gearbox failure, and a change would net him a grid penalty, and Sebastian Vettel hit the wall at the exit of the second chicane. His car was too badly damaged to repair for qualifying, so he would sit the session out, and start from the pit-lane for the race.

So to qualifying. With Vettel sitting out the session and getting eliminated from Q3 by default, only four runners would get eliminated from Q1. As it was, those were Bourdais, Sutil, Fisichella, and Button, who was enduring a miserable weekend. There was drama on the track though - literally. The surface of the track began to break up, just as it had done in 2006, and chunks of rubble started to build up around the second chicane and L'Epingle (the hairpin). As seen in previous years, the off-line marbles could be treacherous, so Race Control announced that the track would be swept at the hairpin between the sessions. Q2 saw the elimination of Glock, Nakajima, Coulthard, Trulli, and Piquet, who was again struggling (as were both the Toyota drivers). There was a tough break for Mark Webber - having made it through to Q3, he spun on clag at the second chicane on his final lap and hit the outside wall, damaging his suspension - he would take no further part in qualifying

So it came to Q3. Several of the drivers seemed to favour doing multiple runs on one set of tyres, and it was as strategy that worked for Raikkonen - he set provisional pole on his third lap of his run. After the cars came in for fresh rubber, it looked like it would be a scrap between Hamilton and the Ferraris, but Robert Kubica stuck his nose in to take provisional pole. Raikkonen was fast in the first two sectors of the lap, but lost a lot of time in the third sector, presumably on the debris at L'Epingle. In the dying moments of the session, Lewis Hamilton slotted in a superb time to take pole by 6 tenths of a second - the largest margin for pole in 2 years. Hamilton was taking a tighter and neater line through the hairpin and took more curb on the inside of the final chicane than anyone else, and it was a great strategy - he was 8 tenths faster than Raikkonen in the final sector. So the top ten on the grid would be Hamilton, Kubica, Raikkonen, Alonso (who put in some fantastic laps), Rosberg, Massa, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, and Webber, who didn't set a time.

Before the cars lined up for the race, the talk in the paddock was of the condition of the track - overnight, the circuit organisers had laid concrete and resin at the hairpin to shore up the surface, whilst they had patched other places on the track. It was slick in several places, and a lot of drivers complained about the conditions - the organisers will surely have to fix this problem before next year's race. Nevertheless, the race got underway as scheduled. Most of the field chose to start on the harder Prime tyres, but Hamilton and Rosberg elected to start on the softer and least favoured Option tyres, indicating that they would be doing short first stints. When the lights went out, Hamilton surged into the lead, with Kubica slotting in nicely behind him. Rosberg got a great start and swung around the outside of Alonso in turn 2 to take fourth place. There was less jockeying for position than is normally expected on the opening lap in Montreal, possibly due to the fears over the track conditions. All the drivers safely made it round the first few laps though.

Hamilton began to pull away steadily from Robert Kubica, and by lap 15 was over 6 seconds in the lead. Things were about to change dramatically though. Adrian Sutil's car stopped out on track on lap 15. The car was well off the racing line, and sat there for two laps whilst the race continued. However, the front brakes caught fire and a marshall had to give a quick burst with extinguishant. Something about the situation must have finally woken race control up, and they deployed the Safety Car on lap 18, and the pits were closed. Jenson Button took the opportunity to pit for new tyres (they started on the unfavoured Option tyres), but because he didn't take on fuel, avoided any penalty - an interesting twist of strategy. The pits officially opened on lap 19, and the leaders streamed into the pits together - Hamilton, Kubica, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Alonso, Massa, and Kovalainen. Kovalainen was far enough back that his stop wouldn't end up being stacked behind Hamilton, but Massa was stacked behind Raikkonen. Unfortunately, the Ferrari crew weren't ready with the correct fuel rig for him, and had to send him through to complete another lap.

That, however, was the least of the dramas in the pit lane. Hamilton had a slow stop - he took on a lot of fuel, but also there seemed to be a few fumbles from the McLaren crew. This allowed Raikkonen and Kubica to jump ahead in the pits. Raikkonen and Kubica drag raced each other to the pit exit, but the red light was on so they both dutifully stopped at the line. Hamilton, however, was caught totally unaware, and despite slamming on the brakes, shunted right into the back of Raikkonen, smashing off his rear wing and damaging the front suspension of Hamilton's car. To compound the error, Rosberg then ran into the back of Hamilton, albeit relatively lightly. It was a careless mistake by Hamilton, one that he can ill afford to make after losing the world championship last year through making a careless mistake. Moreover, there is no excuse - the pit lane red light in Montreal is infamous. The normally unflappable Kimi Raikkonen signalled his displeasure at Hamilton, pointing to the pit lane lights. Hamilton knew it was his mistake, and when a camera was thrust in his face, he angrily shoved it away.

There was, however, still a race going on. Because the top 7 had pitted, and drivers behind them were on a 1-stop strategy, suddenly the race became sort of umpolung, i.e. topsy turvey. The race order was Heidfeld, Barrichello, Nakajima, Webber, Coulthard, Trulli, Glock, Fisichella, Vettel. Kubica, who had been in second place (and who was now the highest placed car that stopped under the safety car) was in tenth place.

In the lead, Heidfeld pulled away from Barrichello comfortably, but there were some tight mid-field battles - Glock and Trulli were fighting over 6th place, and Webber and Nakajima were fighting over third. On lap 26, Nelsinho Piquet managed to spin at the first chicane, narrowly missing the wall. Incredibly he elected to reverse across the track, narrowly avoiding being hit by Felipe Massa, who was running 17th and last at that point. On lap 29 the leader Heidfeld pitted and took on a large amount of fuel and the softer Option tyres - he was fuelled to the end of the race. In fact Heidfeld, Coulthard, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, and Vettel would all 1-stop, and be fuelled heavy to the end of the race. Heidfeld rejoined the race just ahead of team mate Kubica, but Kubica was so much faster on light fuel that the German had no choice but to let him through at turn 1, but kept Alonso behind him, who was hot on Heidfeld's heels.

As the pit stops cycled through, several drivers took over the lead of the race - first Barrichello, then Coulthard for one lap, then Trulli, then Glock. As they peeled off, Kubica inherited the lead. It became clear that Kubica had a great chance of winning the race - he needed a gap of around 25 seconds over his team mate to be able to make his second and final stop and retain the lead. After Glock pitted on lap 42, Kubica stamped his authority on the race, lapping well over a second faster than his team mate, and at times two seconds faster. By lap 49, he had around a 24 second cushion to Heidfeld and pitted, took on fuel and tyres, and rejoined the race in the lead. It would be a straight shot to the end for the Pole, although the race was far from over.

Indeed, the track surface had begun to break up and debris was making the conditions very tricky. Several drivers fell foul of the conditions, including Alonso, who spun at the second chicane and broke his right-front suspension, ending his race. His team mate Nelsinho Piquet had already retired with brake problems. Kazuki Nakajima ran into the back of Jenson Button's Honda, breaking his front wing. As he came down pit lane for repairs, the wing came loose, lodged itself under the car and turned the Williams into a sled - Nakajima slid into the pit wall and out of the race.

Meanwhile, Massa had been clawing his way back through the field, and after all the 1-stoppers had made their stops, he cycled through to 6th, behind Barrichello and Kovalainen. Barrichello was heavy on fuel, and was proving very difficult to pass. On lap 51, Kovalainen attempted a move on Barrichello at the hairpin, but both got bogged down in the off-line marbles. Massa took his opportunity brilliantly, and passed both of them, then proceeded to rocket away into the distance - he had a very quick car all afternoon. The glory wouldn't last long, as Massa pitted on lap 54 for fuel and tyres, and rejoined in 7th behind the battling duo of Glock and Trulli. In fact, it looked like a snap decision by the Ferrari crew (also the McLaren, Red Bull and Honda crews because Kovalainen, Webber, and Button all pitted at the same time) because Giancarlo Fisichella had crashed his car at the exit of the first chicane (and for the second time in the race, Felipe Massa nearly hit someone spinning at the first chicane!). However, there would be no saferty car - Fisichella's Force India car was recovered with relatively little fuss.

There was more opportunistic driving to come from Massa though. On lap 68, Glock got bogged down at the exit of turn 2, Forcing team mate Trulli to check up. That was all the encouragement that Massa needed, and he zipped by into 5th place. Track conditions has been steadily worsening, and David Coulthard survived a wayward moment into the second chicane - having run just a couple of inches wide, he got on the marbles, but managed to stay on track. Coulthard's team mate Mark Webber also managed to have a spin, but kept his car going

There were no such dramas up front though, and Robert Kubica steadily ticked off the laps and cruised home to a historic victory, with Heidfeld making it a BMW 1-2 and David Coulthard scored his first points of the season with the final podium position. Timo Glock soldiered home in 4th, ahead of Massa, Trulli, Barrichello, and Vettel - who again drove an anonymous race to pick up a world championship point. It was a superb result for Kubica, Heidfeld, and BMW, although Heidfeld's disappointment at not winning was evident for all to see.

The drama was not over though. After the race, the stewards decided that both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had caused avoidable accidents in the pit lane, and both will be punished 10 grid places at the next Grand Prix in France. Lewis Hamilton took responsibility for the mistake, but nevertheless it was a mistake. Mistakes are what cost him the championship in 2007, but this error in Canada is, in many ways, worse - it wasn't so much a driving mistake as a thinking mistake. Call it brain fade if you will - it's not the sort of mistake that world champions make. Moreover, Hamilton has now relinquished the lead of the world championship - to Robert Kubica.

Effwun

Final Classification

Position	Driver	Time	Position	Driver	Time
1.	Kubica	1:36:24.447	11.	Button	+ 67.5
2.	Heidfeld	+ 16.4	12.	Webber	+ 71.2
3.	Coulthard	+ 23.3	13.	Bourdais	+ 1 Lap
4.	Glock	+ 42.6	14.	Fisichella	Lap 51
5.	Massa	+ 43.9	15.	Nakajima	Lap 46
6.	Trulli	+ 47.7	16.	Alonso	Lap 44
7.	Barrichello	+ 53.5	17.	Piquet	Lap 39
8.	Vettel	+ 54.1	18.	Raikkonen	Lap 19
9.	Kovalainen	+ 54.4	19.	Hamilton	Lap 19
10.	Rosberg	+ 57.7	20.	Sutil	Lap 13

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Sebastian Vettel (19th - 8th, 11 places)
2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Rubens Barrichello (was slow and difficult to pass)
3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Lewis Hamilton (the car was in gear, his brain wasn't)

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: Mark Webber (for complaining that he'd need a motocross bike instead of an F1 car for the race...)