2008 French Grand Prix - Race Report

by Effwun - FOAS #65

Felipe Massa took a comfortable victory in the French Grand Prix after team mate Kimi Raikkonen suffered a broken exhaust pipe and limped home in second place, ahead of Jarno Trulli in the Toyota, who battled hard with Heikki Kovalainen in the closing stages of the race to secure the final podium position.

The buzz going into the French Grand Prix weekend was mostly about Lewis Hamilton and the grid penalty he incurred as a result of his crash with Raikkonen in Canada. However, there were plenty of other tales of interest. The BMWs and Robert Kubica were coming of the back of their first victories in Canada, and would be looking to continue their good form; David Coulthard secured a well deserved podium in Montreal, and would be looking for further success; and Heikki Kovalainen would be looking to end a string of four poor races in which he scored only a single world championship point.

As is usual, the weekend started well for the Ferraris - Massa topped the time sheet in P1 with a time of 1:15.306, 7/10ths faster than Hamilton, with Kovalainen and Raikkonen less than a tenth slower. Robert Kubica was three tenths further back, but the surprise of the session was Sebastian Vettel - 8th fastest, albeit 1.5 seconds slower than Massa. Conditions were tricky in the morning, with gusting winds, and several drivers had small offs during the session.

P2 threw up another surprise - Fernando Alonso was the fastest man on track, with a time of 1:15.778, just under a tenth faster than Felipe Massa, who ran wide at the exit of Estoril towards the end of the session. Whether Alonso and Renault were showboating for the French crowd or not, it was fun to watch Alonso power sliding out of the final chicane as he chipped away at his lap time. Raikkonen was 3rd fastest in the session, ahead of Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, who continued to show excellent pace in the new STR machine - just half a second slower than Alonso.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend came in P3 - Nelsinho Piquet was fastest with a time of 1:15.750, just edging out Mark Webber in the Red Bull, followed by Vettel and Rosberg, all of whom were probably concentrating on their Q1 and Q2 pace, rather than their Q3 pace. Raikkonen was 5th fastest, ahead of Trulli, Hamilton, Bourdais, and Massa.

So came qualifying. Q1 proved to be a difficult session for many of the drivers, not least of which the BMW drivers who struggled for pace until late into the session, although Kubica would eventually be 5th but Heidfeld would be 12th in the session. Honda also struggled desperately, and both drivers were eliminated, along with the two Force India drivers and Kazuki Nakajima. Q1 also threw up an incident of apparent blocking - Heikki Kovalainen was on a slow out lap, and had been caught up by Nakajima and Webber. Nakajima passed Kovalainen into Lycee, and the Finn momentarily checked up - in the path of Mark Webber. The incident cost Webber time, but he still made it through to Q2 without problem. Nevertheless, the incident would net Kovalainen a 5 grid slot penalty.

Q2 again proved to be a struggle for Nick Heidfeld, and in the end could manage no better than 12th, and was eliminated. Also eliminated were Nelsinho Piquet, who continued his relatively feeble qualifying performances, the two STRs and Nico Rosberg - the Williams cars were not performing particularly well, and it would be a particular blow for Rosberg due to his grid penalty.

It came down to Q3 then, and the pressure was on Hamilton - the Ferraris comfortably cruised through Q1 and Q2, and he would have a lot of work to do in order to take pole (pre-penalty of course). In the end, Hamilton couldn't get it done - a mistake at the Nurburgring chicane on his first run negated that effort, and a similar but smaller mistake on his second run blew his chances, and he would wind up third fastest. It was Kimi Raikkonen, then, that took pole by 4 hundredths from team mate Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso continued to show his one lap form and was 4th fastest (but would be third on the grid), with the rest of the top ten on the grid filled out by Trulli, Kubica, Webber, Coulthard, Glock, Piquet, and Heidfeld. Kovalainen was 6th fastest in Q3, but would start 11th after his penalty; Hamilton would start 13th.

As the cars lined up on the grid for the race, there was a distinct threat of rain - there had been showers in the morning, and the weather had affected the GP2 race in the morning. However, any rain just prior to the race start amounted to little more than a light sprinkle, and all the cars would start on dry tires. Most of the field elected to start on the harder Prime tires, although one notable exception was Hamilton. When the lights went out, Raikkonen blasted off into the lead, hotly pursued by Massa. Alonso got an uncharacteristically poor start, and dropped to fifth behind Trulli and Kubica.

Lewis Hamilton was attempting to storm his way though the field, and got a good run out of the Adelaide hairpin to pull alongside Sebastian Vettel into the Nurburgring chicane. However, Hamilton ran wide and overshot the chicane. In the ensuing laps, Hamilton swarmed all over the back of team mate Kovalainen, even lightly running into the back of him into Chateau d'Eau, but on lap 8 the Stewards announced they were investigating him for cutting the chicane on lap 1. Soon afterwards, the verdict came - a drive through penalty. Hamilton's race was effectively over.

Elsewhere, Jenson Button ran into the back of Sebastien Bourdais on the first lap, damaging his nose. After touring round an entire lap, he pitted, but there was evidently more terminal damage and, after struggling around until his first pit stop, he retired with an "undriveable car".

There were no such worries for the leaders though. Kimi Raikkonen was easing away from Felipe Massa at the front of the field, ahead of Trulli and Alonso, who had snuck past Kubica. However, the Spaniard was dropping back from Trulli, and was being hounded by Kubica. Alonso's situation worsened when he pitted on lap 16 - he was fuelled light for track position, and thus his early pace was misleading.

At the front, Raikkonen was still moving away from Massa, setting fastest lap of the race on lap 16, and by the time he pitted on lap 21, he was over 5 seconds clear of Massa. Massa, it would turn out, had two laps more fuel on board, but couldn't really capitalise on the advantage because of traffic. They emerged from their respective stops with the status quo maintained, and both stayed on the harder Prime tyre.

Elsewhere, Heikki Kovalainen had been hassling Nelsinho Piquet for several laps, but couldn't find any way past the young Brazilian. They both pitted on lap 25, and Piquet retained his lead out of the pits, but mysteriously failed to get up to speed as he released the pit limiter. That was all the incentive Kovalainen needed, and he zipped by at the pit exit.

In the middle section of the race, as the 1-stop pit stops neared, it would all start to come apart for Raikkonen - almost literally. After posting two laps that were almost two seconds off the pace, it became apparent that he had a problem - it was a broken right exhaust pipe. Not only was this costing him some engine power, but it was burning a hole in the airbox of his car. The slow laps allowed Massa to catch Raikkonen, and then on lap 39 he blew by at the Nurburgring chicane to take the lead. Soon afterwards, his lap times stabilized - Raikkonen was probably able to adjust the engine mapping and adjust his driving to compensate for the technical issue.

Back in the pack, Kovalainen had been making up ground, and found his way past Mark Webber into 6th place. As the second round of pit stops came he was able to leap frog both Piquet and Kubica to take fourth place, behind Jarno Trulli. Meanwhile the Ferraris had uneventful pit stops, switching to the softer Option tyres, as did most of the runners.

In the last stint of the race, an epic battle developed between Trulli, Kovalainen, and Kubica. A light sprinkle of rain had begun to fall, and the laps times fell off by some four seconds to lag in the 1m 21s range. Jarno Trulli appeared to struggle in the slightly greasy conditions, allowing Kovalainen and Kubica to close right up. The rain soon passed and the lap times picked up again, but Kovalainen was crawling all over the back of Trulli's car. The Finn couldn't, however, quite get close enough through Estoril to mount a challenge under braking for Adelaide, and he also seemed to lose out in the final sector. He was, however, quicker in the middle sector. Kovalainen was able to get very close to Trulli at 180, but there really isn't anywhere in sector 2 to pass. It didn't stop Kovalainen from trying though, and on the penultimate lap he attempted a move around the outside of Trulli at Imola. The two lightly touched, and Kovalainen was forced to abort the move across the run-off area. It was a valiant effort, but Trulli held to position to the end of the race.

A more audacious move, perhaps, came from Nelsinho Piquet. Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard were busy having a battle over 7th place, and Alonso dived down the inside at the Adelaide hairpin. Both drivers ran wide, which allowed Piquet to cheekily nip by and take the place. In the end it was a good race for Piquet, having started 9th and finishing ahead of his team mate - in the points - who started third. The same could not be said for Lewis Hamilton. After taking his driver through penalty, he became mired down in effectively last place, stuck behind Rosberg who was very heavy on fuel. He had to battle past a lot of people, but his pace simply wasn't good enough to make any difference, and he ended up 10th.

But it was plain sailing for Felipe Massa. So few were the dramas for the Brazilian that the cameras barely caught up with him all race, and he cruised home to a fine, albeit somewhat fortunate, win - without his exhaust problem, Raikkonen was the quicker man. Nevertheless, Massa made no mistakes and his qualifying performance with extra fuel on board was impressive. Furthermore, he now assumes the lead in the world championship - the fourth man in four races to do so. Ferrari also extend their championship lead to 17 points over BMW. They were utterly dominant today, and the next race is Silverstone - another race that they should dominate. As the season approaches the half-way point, it is shaping up to be another Ferrari year.

- Effwun

Final Classification

Position Driver Time Position Driver Time
1. Massa 1:31:50.245 11. Glock +57.7
2. Raikkonen +17.9 12. Vettel +58.0
3. Trulli +28.2 13. Heidfeld +62.0
4. Kovalainen +28.9 14. Barrichello +1 Lap
5. Kubica +30.5 15. Nakajima +1 Lap
6. Webber +40.3 16. Rosberg +1 Lap
7. Piquet +41.0 17. Bourdais +1 Lap
8. Alonso +43.3 18. Fisichella +1 Lap
9. Coulthard +51.0 19. Sutil +1 Lap
10. Hamilton +54.5 20. Button Lap 17

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Heikki Kovalainen (10th - 4th, 6 places)
2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Jarno Trulli (was very difficult to pass, as usual)
3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Jenson Button (was really the only crash of the day)

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: Ron Dennis (complaining about Hamilton's penalty)