2008 European Grand Prix Race Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Felipe Massa scored a comfortable win on the streets of Valencia ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica to narrow his championship deficit to Hamilton to six points. However, it was a mixed day for Ferrari - they endured two controversial pit incidents and the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen with a blown engine.

Before the weekend began, the hype was focused on the brand new street circuit in Valencia, a venue added to the calendar ostensibly due to the popularity of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in his native Spain. The new harbourside venue had aimed to be a sort of new Monaco but, as some commentators pointed out, the comparisons weren't favourable. Valencia was more of a building site than a glamourous hangout; more of a dock than a harbour. There was praise of the track and its facilities though - it was smooth, with some superb high speed sweeping sections, although critics countered that it would be difficult to overtake on, and that some of the faster corners were blind, and thus quite dangerous.

Nevertheless, the European Grand Prix was to enjoy its first new venue since 1997.

The weekend started well for Ferrari, although not quite in the way they had expected - Sebastian Vettel topped the time sheet in his Ferrari powered STR, beating Felipe Massa by 1.5 tenths, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the sister STR of Sebastien Bourdais. Kimi Raikkonen semed to struggle in the low grip conditions, and was 7th fastest, 8 tenths adrift of Vettel.

Come P2, though, Raikkonen topped the time sheet ahead of local favourite Fernando Alonso (who picked up a 10,000 Euro fine for cutting across the white line at the pit lane entrance) and - surprisingly - Jenson Button. Only 7 hundredths covered the first three cars, so the suspicion was that Renault and Honda were on low fuel at the time. Behind them were the trio of Massa, Hamilton and Kovalainen, whilst Kubica was 8th fastest and the STRs of Vettel and Bourdais were 16th and 19th respectively.

As the new track continued to rubber in, the times continued to fall - times set in P3 were almost two seconds faster than in P1. This time it was Robert Kubica who was fastest, ahead of Rosberg, Bourdais, Nakajima, Massa, and Vettel, with Hamilton 7th, Alonso 13th, Kovalainen 14th and Raikkonen 15th. The optimism surrounding the performance of the Williams cars was probably unfounded as they were likely focusing on their qualifying performance, but the STR machines were again fast. Their somewhat surprising speed raised eyebrows all around, and there were murmurs about Ferrari engine power, and the recent accusations that they had circumvented the engine development ban.

Come qualifying, there wasn't much certainty about who could grab pole, but of the big guns, Massa had been consistently the quickest. In Q1, as is the norm, the two Force India cars were eliminated (despite their new seamless-shift gearboxes) as were both Hondas, who put in woeful performances, and David Coulthard - for whom it appeared that retirement could not come soon enough, as he struggled into 17th place.

To be fair to David, his team mate Mark Webber could only manage 14th on the grid, and was eliminated in Q2 along with Nakajima, Alonso, Glock, and Piquet. Q2 also saw the fastest lap of the weekend - 1:37.842 from Sebastian Vettel. Clearly whatever normally disadvantages the STRs was not doing so this weekend.

So the race for pole came down to Q3, and in the end it turned out to be a fight between Massa and Hamilton. Massa was stronger in the first sector, but Hamilton was typically better in the other two. Nevertheless, Massa put his Ferrari on pole, ahead of Hamilton, Kubica, Raikkonen (who still appeared to be struggling somewhat), Kovalainen, Vettel, Trulli, Heidfeld, Rosberg, and Bourdais.

Before the race, pole position was switched to the "clean" side of the grid to allow the pole sitter the advantage of a better start. When the lights went out, Massa certainly got a better start and led into the first sequence of corners from Hamilton and Kubica. Kimi Raikkonen's start was not so good, and he was passed by Kovalainen. Most of the rest of the drivers managed to hold station, although Adrian Sutil managed to make up 5 places at the start, despite starting from the pit lane (along with Barrichello). However in the concertina effect, Kazuki Nakajima managed to run into the back of Fernando Alonso. Whilst the Nakajima was able to tour back to the pits for a new nose cone then continue, the damage to Alonso's car was terminal, and he limped back to the pits to retire. The home favourite had not even made it through lap 1.

From there onwards, the race was a rather dull affair, albeit punctuated by small dramas. Massa and Hamilton traded fastest laps, but overall Massa was the quicker of the two and steadily pulled away. His team mate Raikkonen was also faster than Hamilton's team mate Kovalainen, but Raikkonen simply could not find a way past his compatriot, and his progress was being compromised. Elsewhere, debris managed to get lodged under Kubica's car which apparently affected the handling of his car causing him to slow somewhat, although the debris was removed at his first pit stop.

Felipe Massa pitted from the lead on lap 15. Hamilton pited two laps later, but couldn't capitalise on the advantage of running longer, and rejoined the race behind both Massa and Raikkonen, with Kovalainen in the lead. After the pit stops cylced through, Massa regained the lead, and again began to pull away from Hamilton. Indeed, at times Massa gapped Hamilton by as much as 7 tenths of a second per lap. By the time of the second round of pit stops, Massa was over ten seconds ahead of Hamilton - a comfortable advantage.

However, there was consternation in the pits - upon exiting his pit box, Massa nearly ran into the Force India car of Adrian Sutil, who had to take minor avoiding action. Massa himself had to check up to avoid running out of room at the end of the pit lane. The Stewards announced that they were to investigate the "unsafe release" after the race, which made for nervous times in the Ferrari team. In the end, the punishment was merely a reprimand and a fine and the race result, thankfully, was not altered.

Worse was to come for Ferrari though. At Raikkonen's second stop, he set off with the fuel hose still attached, which dragged the refuelling mechanic under the right rear wheel of the car. The mechanic was stretchered away, and thankfully suffered no serious injuries. The replays suggested that it was Raikkonen who was at fault - he had set off before the green light was shown on Ferrari's pit light system.

Just two laps later, Kimi Raikkonen coasted past the pits with smoke billowing from his Ferrari engine. He was done for the day, much as Massa had been in Hungary two weeks earlier. After the race, the problem was traced and ascribed to the exact same fault that has sidelined Massa in Hungary - a bad conrod. Team boss Stefano Domenicalli would go on to admit that reliability is now a "major concern" at Ferrari.

Even so, Felipe Massa cruised home to a relatively easy victory ahead of title rival Hamilton (who later revealed that he had been suffering with flu-like symptoms and had struggled with an extremely painful neck all race long). Robert Kubica put in a solid performance to take the final podium position, ahead of Kovalainen, Trulli, Vettel, Glock, and Rosberg.

Except for the off-track dramas, the European Grand Prix turned out to be a rather dull affair, and the track proved to be hard to overtake on. The organisers of the event decalred it a success, but admitted that there are several improvements they wish to make ahead of next year's race. Perhaps the biggest one should be Fernando Alonso in a front-running car so that his home crowd will not go home disappointed.

- Effwun

Final Classification

Position
Driver Time Position
Driver Time
1. Massa 1:35:32.339
11. Piquet +92.7
2. Hamilton +5.6 12. Webber +1 Lap
3. Kubica +37.3 13. Button +1 Lap
4. Kovalainen
+39.7 14. Fisichella +1 Lap
5. Trulli +50.6 15. Nakajima +1 Lap
6. Vettel +52.6 16. Barrichello
+1 Lap
7. Glock +67.9 17. Coulthard +1 Lap
8. Rosberg +71.4 18. Räikkönen Lap 46
9. Heidfeld +82.1 19. Sutil Lap 42
10. Bourdais +89.7 20. Alonso Lap 1

Fastest Lap - Felipe Massa: 1:38.708 (lap 36)

 

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Timo Glock (13th - 7th, 6 places)

2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Heikki Kovalainen (for keeping Raikkonen behind him)

3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Adrian Sutil (had his own private meeting with the wall)

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: Felipe Massa (for blaming Sutil for the pit lane incident - sorry Felipe, but it actually wasn't Adrian's fault).