2008 German Grand Prix Race Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Lewis Hamilton took a fine win in the German Grand Prix, ahead of rookie Nelsinho Piquet and title rival Felipe Massa, while fellow title rival Kimi Raikkonen struggled home in 6th place. The race was punctuated by a safety car period due to a heavy crash by Timo Glock after his car suffered a suspension failure.

The race weekend saw the return of the German Grand Prix and a return to the new Hockenheimring. It started well for the McLaren boys - top of the time sheets in P1. The session was initially wet after some early rain, and dry running was only possibly with just half an hour of the session left. It was ample time for Hamilton to stamp his authority with a time of 1:15.537, besting his team mate by just over a tenth of a second, with Massa third fastest a further tenth slower. Raikkonen was fifth fastest, 7 tenths slower than Hamilton - he looked to be struggling to find the balance of the car. In fact several drivers struggled in the tricky conditions, including Hamilton, who had a quick spin across the grass on the damp track, and Robert Kubica, who spun into the barriers in the stadium section.

Clearly the improvements that McLaren have made to their car in recent weeks have been working for them. In P2 Hamilton was again fastest, this time by 7 tenths of a second, ahead of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who set very similar times, and Kovalainen. Mark Webber showed good pace and was 5th fastest, ahead of Alonso, Rosberg and Kubica.

McLaren were top in P3 also, but this time it was Kovalainen who was fastest, just under a tenth faster than Massa and just over two tenths faster than Hamilton. Raikkonen, however, was mired down in 9th, almost 8 tenths off the pace as he continued to struggle with the set-up of his car. However, there were strong shows of pace from both Alonso, who was 4th fastest, and Vettel, who was 5th, just 4 tenths slower than Kovalainen.

The stage was set for qualifying then. Q1, as usual, saw the elimination of the two Force India cars, but also the elimination of Nakajima, Piquet, and Barrichello. It was a particularly disappointing performance from Piquet given where his team mate would ultimately qualify, although traffic meant that he couldn't get a clear run in. Q2 saw another tight mid-field battle, with just three tenths covering 11th - 15th places. Those eliminated were Glock, Heidfeld, Rosberg (three of the five German drivers), Button, and Bourdais. Bourdais is another driver who is probably looking at his team mate and wonder what he has to do to be competitive.

So came Q3. As expected, it came down to a battle between McLaren and Ferrari. Kovalainen had a few wayward moments in the stadium section, and ultimately wound up third. Felipe Massa made a valiant effort, but ultimately it was not good enough to take pole - Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole with a time of 1:15.666, two tenths faster than Massa. Hamilton was typically much quicker in the stadium section, and it was paying off. Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen could manage no better than 6th, almost 8 tenths adrift of Hamilton. The Finn really looked to be struggling. The Ferrari team tried to put a brave face on it (when pressed, Stefano Domenicalli kept repeating "wait until tomorrow" as though it were Mantra, but it was obvious that they were worried about his pace). Meanwhile, Jarno Trulli would line up 4th on the grid ahead of Alonso, who put in another great one lap performance. Robert Kubica was 7th, Webber was 8th, Vettel was 9th, and Coulthard was 10th.

Before the start of the race, there were some murmurs that rain could be possible before the end of the race, although as the start neared, those fears eased. So the car lined up, the lights went out, and the race got underway. Hamilton made a good start, but Massa made a marginally better one, forcing Hamilton to go defensive into the first corner. Out of the first corner, however, Hamilton rocketed away and was ahead of Massa by over ten car lengths by the time they reached turn two. There was a lot of jockeying for position in the mid field, and at the hairpin Robert Kubica managed to jump ahead of both Alonso and Trulli as the pair got in each other's way. Elsewhere, David Coulthard got a dreadful start and slipped from 10th to 15th place while Bourdais gained three positions to move up to 12th.

The jockeying for position continued for several laps. Alonso, in an effort to regain a position, made an optimistic move on Trulli at turn two but couldn't make it stick. He then got poor traction out of the corner, and that allowed Kimi Raikkonen to sneak through. Those moves would be the story of Alonso's day. The mid-field battle continued for several laps, with Trulli, Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel, and Webber all within striking distance of each other.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was cruising away from Massa at the rate of over half a second per lap, and by lap 15 he was ten seconds ahead of Massa. After seting several fastest laps, Hamilton pitted on lap 18 to take on a sizeable amount of fuel - a long middle stint - and fresh Prime tyres. It became obvious that McLaren were trying to minimize the amount of running they would have to do on the Option tyres, presumably because they were too hard on them. Hamilton exited the pits just ahead of Jarno Trulli, but somehow managed to lose the place to the Italian at turn 2. Hamilton fought back hard - somewhat foolishly - before dropping back a little as it became apparent that Trulli was on his in-lap.

On lap 20, Massa pitted from the lead. He didn't, in fact, have sizably more fuel on board than Hamilton. It looked as though Hamilton, with the pace that he showed, was going to have the race locked up. Moreover, Massa took on less fuel that Hamilton, yet after the pit sops, Hamilton was still the quicker man, even though Massa switched to the softer Option tyre.

So, after the first round of pit stops cycled through, Hamilton retained the lead ahead of Massa, Glock (who had yet to pit), Kovalainen (whose timing transponder had failed and had dropped off the lap chart!), Kubica, Raikkonen, Trulli, Vettel. Nick Heidfeld pitted quite late, on lap 28, which was just shy of a 1-stop window, and Timo Glock pitted on lap 30, also just shy of a 1-stopper.

The only person who was actually on a 1-stop strategy was Nelsinho Piquet. He had started in 17th place, and had worked his way up to 12th before his pit stop on lap 36. It was immensely fortuitous timing from the young Brazilian. Just moments after his pit stop, Timo Glock had a big accident exiting the final corner. The TV replays showed that as his car went across the kerb, the right-rear suspension collapsed, and he was pitched into a spin. The rear of the car impacted heavily with the pit wall, and he slewed to a halt on the outside of the track. He was able to limp away, although clearly in some discomfort, and although not suffering any visible injuries, he was taken to hospital for observation.

The crash precipitated the safety car. It was a blow for Hamilton - his comfortable lead of over ten seconds was erased, but he would still retain the lead and was still the quicker man. However, when the pits opened the leaders all dived for pit lane - except Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren team clearly thought that with the extra fuel he had on board, he could build enough of a gap to be able to pit under green and still retain the lead. It was a close call and a gamble, but as it would turn out their calculations were thrown off by the fact that the Safety Car stayed out for quite a long time while the debris from Glock's accident was cleared. It perhaps took such a long time because of what happened to Mark Webber - his car developed an oil leak after hitting debris from the Glock incident, and he would retire shortly thereafter.

The pits were quite chaotic - Ferrari ended up stacking their pit stops, although it didn't really harm them too much; there were some elbows between Vettel and Alonso, as Alonso crossed the white pit-out line (tecnhically illegally) but received no penalty because he was practically forced over by Sebastian Vettel, who cheekily took the place from Alonso.

After the pit stops (and the lapped cars unlapping themselves) the order was Hamilton, Heidfeld (who also did not stop under yellow), Piquet, Massa, Kovalainen, Kubica, Raikkonen, Trulli. When the Safety Car peeled off, Hamilton rocketed away with the intention of building as big a lead as he could before he had to pit. He was basically racing Massa, and he was gapping him at a rate of 1.8 seconds per lap. Curiously, Massa could make no inroads into Piquet - the rookie maintained station ahead of his compatriot, although he was setting personal best lap times in order to do so. Even though Hamilton had the pace, he didn't have the laps - after just 7 laps he pitted, with a lead over Massa of just over 15 seconds. He took on fuel and the softer Option tyres and rejoined in fifth place behind team mate Kovalainen. Heidfeld assumed the lead of the race.

Hamilton followed Kovalainen for a lap before the Finn yielded to Hamilton, who was clearly the quicker man. Soon afterward, Nick Heidfeld pitted, and Nelsinho Piquet inherited the lead. The order was Piquet, Massa, Hamilton. Hamilton was absolutely flying, and within 5 laps had caught Felipe Massa. On lap 57, Hamilton was right on the tail of Massa, and made his move at the hairpin. Massa initially defended the inside line, but moved over to take the racing line. It was all the encouragement that Hamilton needed, and he dived up the inside of the Ferrari. The two were side-by-side exiting the hairpin and almost touched. Hamilton had the racing line, though, and forced Felipe wide onto the run-off area. It was a bold and aggressive move, but Felipe wasn't going to take it lying down. He had better traction out of the hairpin, got in Hamilton's slipstream and attempted an outside pass at the very next corner. However because Hamilton again was ahead and had the racing line, he could cut Felipe off at the exit of the corner. This caused Massa to run a little wide and ultimately dropped back from the fight.

Hamilton then had Piquet in his sights. Within 2 laps he was on the tail of the young Brazilian, and then on lap 60 Hamilton executed a carbon copy of his maneuver (although somewhat cleaner) at the hairpin to pass Piquet and take the lead. It was superb driving from Hamilton, but neither of his rivals really put up too much of a fight - Massa wasn't willing to risk sacrificing world championship points, and Piquet wasn't willing to risk sacrificing a podium position. From there onward, Hamilton sailed off into the distance towards a fine win.

There were still battles raging on track though. Fernando Alonso waged war with Sebastian Vettel, and seemed especially fired up after their run-in in the pit lane. It was to Alonso's detriment though - having made optimistic lunges at Vettel (who defended quite sublimely), he left the door open first for Raikkonen, then Rosberg. He would eventually get back around Rosberg, but then spun at the hairpin to let the German through again. He would finish a relatively miserable 11th place, out of the points. Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen found his way past both Vettel and Kubica to take 6th place, but overall it was a relatively bad result for the Finn, who struggled with the handling of his car all weekend. And David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello had a scrap over 13th place which resulted in a collision between the two, and the retirement of Barrichello.

Nick Heidfeld plugged away and had a solid race, finishing fourth in a car that was, by BMW's own admission, somewhat off the pace this weekend. Heikki Kovalainen finished 5th, ahead of Raikkonen, Kubica, and Vettel, who netted a world championship point in the same weekend that it was announced that he would be moving up to the Red Bull team next year.

But the plaudits went to Hamilton. He was clearly the faster man all weekend, and proved it by not only blitzing away from the field at the start but by first catching then passing the drivers ahead of him to take the lead and take the win. It was a superb performance, as was Piquet's drive. He may have got lucky with the Safety Car, but he kept Massa at bay in the last phase of the race, and on occasion was actually quicker. His star appears to be rising.

So, on a day that the Ferraris were outgunned, Hamilton capitalized and now takes a four point lead in the Drivers' Championship. But with only just over half the season gone, there is still everything to play for.

- Effwun

Final Classification

Position Driver Time Position Driver Time
1. Hamilton 1:31:20.874 11. Alonso +38.6
2. Piquet +5.5 12. Bourdais +39.1
3. Massa +9.3 13. Coulthard +54.9
4. Heidfeld +9.8 14. Nakajima +60.0
5. Kovalainen +12.4 15. Sutil +69.4
6. Raikkonen +14.4 16. Fisichella +84.0
7. Kubica +22.6 17. Button +1 Lap
8. Vettel +33.2 18. Barrichello Lap 51
9. Trulli +37.1 19. Webber Lap 41
10. Rosberg +37.6 20. Glock Lap 36

 

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Nelsinho Piquet (17th - 2nd, 15 places)

2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: David Coulthard (for aggressively blocking Rubens which caused...)

3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Rubens Barrichello (should have known better than to get alongside DC!)

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: Casey Stoner (I couldn't think of anyone who really complained all that much at the German GP)