2008 British Grand Prix Race Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Lewis Hamilton scored a superb victory in difficult wet/dry conditions to earn his third win of the season and re-take the lead of the Drivers' championship. Nick Heidfeld also drove a superb race to come second, and Rubens Barrichello put in an equally fine performance to score his first podium since 2005 and Honda's first since 2006. It was a difficult day for the Ferraris however, and Kimi Raikkonen struggled home in a distant 4th place after enduring two spins and a rare tactical mistake by Ferrari; team mate Felipe Massa finished last after spinning five times.

Indeed it was a torrid weekend for the Brazilian. Even though he was fastest in P1, he suffered a major accident after Fernando Alonso's Renault suffered a catastrophic engine failure at the end of the Hangar straight. A huge amount of oil was dumped on the circuit and Massa spun on the oil just moments later, slamming into the tyre barrier backwards and causing major damage to his Ferrari. The two McLarens were 2nd and 3rd fastest, with Kovalainen the faster of the two men, and Raikkonen was fourth fastest.

In P2, it was Kovalainen who was fastest, with Mark Webber a somewhat surprising second fastest (albeit half a second slower) ahead of Hamilton, Coulthard, Rosberg and Vettel. Indeed both the Red Bull teams showed good pace, perhaps indicating that they are beginning to turn their fortunes around. The Ferraris on the other hand were somewhat off the pace - Massa was 8th in a newly built car, and Raikkonen was 12th - and were reportedly struggling with on-throttle oversteer.

P3 was declared wet due to rain in the morning, although no rain fell during the session. Fernando Alonso was the quickest man on the track, beating Mark Webber by 2 tenths and Kovalainen by half a second. Sebastian Vettel continued to show good pace and was 4th fastest ahead of Hamilton, Piquet, Bourdais and Glock. Raikkonen was 9th fastest, while Massa was 12th. Meanwhile, the BMWs of Heidfeld and Kubica languished in 15th and 19th respectively, and David Coulthard brought up the rear after his car developed an oil leak.

As is relatively normal for a British summer, the threat of rain loomed large over qualifying - a shower at any point had the potential to mix up the grid. As it happened, only a brief, light shower occurred in Q1. However, it was enough to cause a few surprises. Due to the threat of rain, most of the drivers got a fast lap in early. However, some elected not to make a second run assuming that the lightly damp conditions were unfavourable. They were wrong. Indeed the tiny amount of rain that fell served only to cool the track and thus improve grip. Consequently Barrichello, Button, Rosberg, and the two Force India cars were left on the outside looking in as those that elected to run at the end of the session put in some stunning times (especially Vettel, who was 3rd fastest; and Bourdais, who was 6th fastest).

Q2 was a more normal affair, although Mark Webber surprised with the 3rd fastest time. The Ferraris were also surprising - Raikkonen 6th and Massa 8th. Indeed Massa would make it into Q3 by less than a tenth of a second. Those eliminated were Coulthard (who rued the lost track time due to his oil leak earlier in the day) Glock, Bourdais, Trulli, and Nakajima. The Toyotas were probably expecting more after a promising test session last week.

The decider was Q3, and again Mark Webber was full of surprises - he snatched provisional pole on his last run, only to be pipped by Heikki Kovalainen, who took the first pole position of his career by over half a second. His team mate Lewis Hamilton would manage fourth on the grid after an off on his first flying lap and a couple of small mistakes on his second flying lap. Kimi Raikkonen secured third on the grid, but team mate Felipe Massa was mired down in 9th after a relatively slow first lap, which was then compounded by a problem with a wheel nut at his pit stop. The lengthy stop prevented him from being able to complete a second run. So, the top ten were Kovalinen, Webber, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Alonso, Piquet, Vettel, Massa, Kubica.

As the cars lined up for the race on Sunday, the weather was looking "changeable". It had rained in the morning, the track was wet, and a stiff breeze was blowing from the south-west. Moreover, several bands of rain were blowing in, and indeed it was predicted to start raining at roughly the time the race was due to start. Sure enough, a light rain began to fall, and all the teams elected to start on wet (as opposed to extreme weather) tyres. When the lights went out, Hamilton rocketed off the line and surged alongside his team mate into the first corner. The two narrowly avoided touching, although Kovalainen's car twitched massively as he put the power down out of Copse. It was tight between the pair of them into Becketts, but discretion won out and Hamilton tucked in behind his team mate through the complex. So the order at the front was Kovalainen, Hamilton, Raikkonen, and Webber, who had a slightly slow start.

That didn't last long though. Under power onto the Hangar straight, Mark Webber's car swapped ends and he found himself rolling backwards up the straight. Having to wait for all the other cars to pass him ensured that he dropped to last place. More action followed - Felipe Massa spun at the Abbey chicane, and also found himself pointing the wrong way on the circuit, Kaz Nakajima also spun, and David Coulthard got into the rear of Sebastian Vettel into Priory, resulting in both spinning off into the gravel and out of the race. Lap one was completed...

Up front, Hamilton piled the pressure on Kovalainen and the Finn resisted admirably, setting fastest laps in the process. However, Hamilton was the quicker man and on lap 5 Hamilton passed into Stowe to take the lead. Hamilton then began to disappear into the distance, setting fastest lap and gapping Kovalainen by two seconds, but all of the tussling had allowed Kimi Raikkonen to close up on the two McLarens.

The brief spell of rain had ceased by this point, and the track began to dry out. However, conditions were still tricky, and Felipe Massa endured another spin. Nevertheless, the lap times began to fall - Fernando Alonso found enough pace to set a fastest lap (which was soon bettered by Hamilton) and passed Nick Heidfeld to take 4th place. Meanwhile, Mark Webber was surging through the field after his early spin, and by lap 10 was up to 12th place.

On the next lap, as if to prove how treacherous the conditions still were, Heikki Kovalainen had a quick spin at the Abbey chicane. Fortunately he did an elegant 360 and ended up pointing the right way, but it allowed countryman Raikkonen through, and Alonso was hot on Kovalainen's heels. On the very next lap, Adrian Sutil lost control of his Force India machine under braking for the Abbey chicane, and sailed off into the gravel trap. he would later state the the car simply aquaplaned off the track and there was nothing he could do about it.

As the first round of pit stops neared and a dry line started to appear on track, Kimi Raikkonen's pace improved. He started to reel in Hamilton, setting fastest lap of the race in the process on lap 18 and taking a second out of Hamilton's lead, which was now down to just 0.9 seconds. However, the teams were predicting that rain was imminent. On lap 19 the first scheduled stop came - Kovalainen pitted from P4. It turned out he had been fuelled a little light, and thus his comparative lack of pace compared to Hamilton was a little disappointing. On lap 21 both Hamilton and Raikkonen pitted - Hamilton took on fresh wets and slightly more fuel than Raikkonen, who remained on the same set of wet tyres. Hamilton emerged from the pits just ahead of Raikkonen.

The rain had begun to fall again, and it was getting quite heavy. On his fresh wet tyres, Hamilton was able to surge away from Raikkonen, who was struggling for grip with his worn wet tyres. In just four laps, Hamilton gapped Raikkonen by ten seconds. Meanwhile, there was an epic battle developing over fifth place. Heidfeld, Glock, and Alonso were all battling for position but Heidfeld, in 7th place, had the quicker car. Into Luffield corner Heidfeld first drove around the outside of Timo Glock, then cut back to overtake Alonso on the inside as they exited the corner. It was a superb move, and he leapt from 7th to 5th in one corner.

Alonso was in fact struggling. After making his first stop on lap 21, he stayed on the same set of wet tyres and was suffering in the same way that Raikkonen was. On lap 27, Alonso decided that the conditions were too bad, and pitted for fresh tyres, dropping him to 10th place.

Up front, Hamilton continued to pull away from Raikkonen, but the lap times began to stretch as the rain came down ever more heavily. Raikkonen was in fact struggling, and had been caught by Kovalainen and Heidfeld. On lap 28, Kovalinen made a move down the inside of Raikkonen at Luffield and went through into second place. However, Heidfeld made a brilliantly opportunistic move, got on the inside of Raikkonen (giving him a little love tap in the process) then got better drive out of the corner to overtake Kovalainen as well. For the second time in the race, Heidfeld overtook two people in one corner, and was now up to second!

Up front, Hamilton had a near miss at Becketts when Giancarlo Fisichella span out of the race right in front of him as he was about to lap the Italian. By lap 35 the rain was pounding down, and conditions were atrocious. Piquet span off and out of the race; Hamilton and Kubica both had brief excursions at the Abbey chicane, and Felipe Massa aquaplaned in a straight line on the run down to Becketts. During the chaos, Rubens Barrichello elected to pit to take on fuel and a set of extreme weather tyres. It was a bold move, but it would turn out that there was a problem with the refuelling rig which resulted in a lengthy stop and an incomplete fuel load.

On lap 38, Hamilton pitted again and took on fresh wet tyres (not extreme weather tyres). It was perhaps a gamble given how poor the conditions were. Indeed it looked like the wrong decision after he rejoined the track - Rubens Barrichello was 30 seconds faster that Hamilton on his out lap, and then lapped at over 4 seconds per lap faster than the Brit on his extreme weather tyres. However, Barrichello was over 40 seconds behind at this point. As more runners pitted, Barrichello cycled through to 5th place, and made light work of passing first Alonso and then Trulli to take third place. Then Heidfeld pitted and Barrichello was up to second place and was zooming away from Heidfeld at roughly 8 seconds per lap! However the glory would not last long - Barrichello had to pit again on lap 46 for fuel, and also took on wets (changing from the extreme weather tyres). This dropped him to third.

During this period, Lewis Hamilton put on an awesome show of driving skill. On the wets he was lapping some 4 seconds slower than Barrichello on the extreme weather tyres. However, he was some 5 seconds per lap faster than the next fastest driver on wets, Nick Heidfeld. And whilst others drivers were having spins and offs (including Raikkonen who span at the exit of Woodcote), he kept the car on track and rode out the worst of the weather until the rain stopped and the track began to dry out.

So, the rain eased off, the sun came out, and the track looked like it began to dry a little bit for the last few laps of the race. By this time, Hamilton was comfortably in the lead, ahead of Heidfeld and Barrichello. In fact, they were the only three runners on the lead lap. All three took is comparatively easy to the end of the race, but there was still plenty going on behind them. Heikki Kovalainen span out of fourth place, allowing Alonso and Raikkonen past him. Raikkonen subsequently got past Alonso to take fourth place, whilst Kovalainen battled back and passed Alonso to take 5th place. In fact Alonso was struggling so much that he fell into the clutches of Nakajima, but held on to finish 6th.

There were no such battles for Hamilton, though, who cruised over the line to take a superb victory, much to the delight of the British crowd, whose cheers could be heard above the engine noise. Heidfeld came home second, some 68 seconds adrift of Hamilton, followed by Barrichello who was a further 14 seconds behind.

Further back, Raikkonen limped home in fourth after suffering two spins, Kovalainen was 5th, Alonso 6th, Trulli (who passed Nakajima on the last lap) 7th, and Nakajima 8th.

It was an epic performance from Hamilton, who demonstrated just how skillful he is in the wet. On a day when so many others faltered, especially the Ferraris who made critical errors in their tyre choice, he kept his car pointing in the right direction for the most part, and by doing so regained the world championship lead (albeit in a 3 way tie) - the fifth time it has changed hands in as many races. Furthermore, Hamilton gave the best possible answer to his critics by putting in such a masterful performance. Moreover, he proved that he and McLaren have learnt from their previous mistakes - experience does matter.

- Effwun

 

Final Classification

Position Driver Time Position Driver Time
1 Hamilton 1:39:09.440 11 Bourdais +1 Lap
2 Heidfeld + 68.5 12 Glock +1 Lap
3 Barrichello + 82.2 13 Massa +2 Laps
4 Raikkonen +1 Lap 14 Kubica Lap 40
5 Kovalainen +1 Lap 15 Button Lap 39
6 Alonso +1 Lap 16 Piquet Lap 36
7 Trulli +1 Lap 17 Fisichella Lap 27
8 Nakajima +1 Lap 18 Sutil Lap 11
9 Rosberg +1 Lap 19 Vettel Lap 1
10 Webber +1 Lap 20 Coulthard Lap 1


Fastest Lap - Kimi Raikkonen 1:32.150 (lap 18)

The Alternative Podium Ceremony


1st - the John Watson Award for most places gained in the race - Rubens Barrichello (16th - 3rd, 13 places)
2nd - the Nigel Mansell Award for the best overtaking move - Nick Heidfeld (for overtaking two cars in one go twice!)
3rd - the Philippe Alliot Award for the most pointless crash - David Coulthard (first lap clash with stablemate Vettel)

Constructors - the Felipe Massa award for most spins in the race - Felipe Massa (5)