2008 Chinese Grand Prix Race Report

By effwun - FOAS #65

Lewis Hamilton took a commanding victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, ahead of title rival Felipe Massa and his Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen, to extend his World Championship lead to 7 points going into the final race of the season. The only other title challenger, Robert Kubica, finished in 6th place, and is now mathematically eliminated from title contention.

It was a more or less dominant performance from Lewis Hamilton all weekend. He was fastest in P1, 4 tenths faster than Massa, who was ahead of Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Kubica, and Alonso. So, there were really no surprises early on, and it was more of the same in P2 - Hamilton top of the time sheet again, although this time he was ahead of the two Renaults of Alonso and Piquet; behind them were Trulli and Webber. The Ferraris had a rather low key P2 session - Massa was 6th fastest, and Raikkonen was 8th fastest - while Robert Kubica could manage only the 12th fastest time.

Saturday's P3 session was highly competitive - 1 second covered the top 17 places. Hamilton missed out on the top spot by 8 hundredths of a second - Nick Heidfeld was fastest in his BMW Sauber, although he was probably concentrating on his qualifying pace rather than his race pace. The two BMWs sandwiched Hamilton in fact, which suggested that they had a lot of pace and that they could be in contention for a podium this weekend. Hamilton's team mate Kovalainen was 4th fastest, ahead of Trulli, Rosberg (who usually goes well in P3), Bourdais and Coulthard. It was a mediocre session for the Ferraris - Massa was 12th and Raikkonen 13th - but it was an abysmal session for Mark Webber, who suffered and engine failure in his Red Bull-Renault. The loss of track time would be the least of his worries - he would have to take a 10 grid slot penalty after qualifying, effectively scuppering his chances of a points finish.

And so to qualifying. As is normal, the two Force India cars were eliminated from Q3, but there were probably some furrowed brows at Williams and Red Bull - Kazuki Nakajima and David Coulthard were eliminated. It was a tight battle though, and Coulthard missed out on the top 15 by just under a tenth of a second. Coulthard would later slam the driving of Nick Heidfeld, who he accused of unsportsmanlike behaviour by making another qualifying run in front of Coulthard when he did not need to, thus holding the Scot up. Heidfeld subsequently incurred a 3 grid place penalty. Nevertheless, it compounded the Red Bull misery after Webber's engine failure, and probably didn't improve Coulthard's state of mind as he headed into the final two Grands Prix of his career. So, the cars eliminated were Coulthard, Nakajima, Button, Sutil, and Fisichella.

It was another tussle in Q2, and this time it was Nelsinho Piquet who lost out, this time by the slender margin of 7 thousandths of a second. There was consternation at BMW though - Robert Kubica struggled with the handling of his car, and could manage no better than 12th on the grid. It was looking like a very tall order if Kubica was to remain in the title hunt. So the eliminees were Piquet, Kubica, Glock, Barrichello, and Rosberg.

The Q3 battle predictably came down to a fight between Hamilton and the Ferraris. It was Kimi Raikkonen who was the faster of the two red cars, and he set the provisional pole time. However, Hamilton made a mistake in the second sector of the lap which cost him around 7 tenths. After he pitted for fresh tyres and made his second run, Hamilton nailed his qualifying lap and took pole position by 3 tenths from Kimi Raikkonen. Felipe Massa would line up third on the grid, ahead of Alonso, who now seems to have cemented himself as the best non-Ferrari/non-McLaren car on the grid. The top ten was rounded out by Kovalainen, who was extremely frustrated to be fifth on the grid; Webber, who would take a ten spot penalty and drop to 16th alongside team mate Coulthard; Heidfeld, who would take a 3 spot penalty; Vettel, Trulli, and Bourdais.

So the cars lined up on the grid on Sunday afternoon. All weekend there had been a threat of rain, but shortly before the start of the race, that threat seemed to evaporate, even though it was a humid and overcast day.

The Ferraris opted to start on the softer option tyre whilst the most of the rest of the field elected to start on the harder prime tyre. All eyes were on the start and in particular Hamilton, after his scrappy opening lap in Fuji. On the line, plumes of smoke were pouring from the front-right wheel of Kovalainen's car, indicating a possible brake problem. The lights went out and the cars blasted off the line. Hamilton got a smooth start and comfortably led into the first corner, ahead of Raikkonen and Massa. Heikki Kovalainen managed to jump ahead of Fernando Alonso, and attempted to take Massa around the outside of turn 2, to no avail. Further back, Jarno Trulli and Sebastien Bourdais fought over the same piece of turn 2, resulting in a collision that spun Trulli off track and out of contention (he would pit and rejoin the race briefly, but his car was too heavily damaged to continue).

Fernando Alonso hounded Heikki Kovalainen all through the opening lap and seized the opportunity when Kovalainen made a small mistake exiting turn 13, hurting his run down the long back straight. Alonso outdragged the Finn all the way down the back straight, and outbraked him into the hairpin to retake fourth position.

Elsewhere, Heidfeld was on the move, climbing three places on the opening lap, whilst Webber fought past Timo Glock to take 11th place. But no-one could touch Hamilton, it would appear. He pulled out a lead of over a second on the first lap, and in the early part of the race was able to lap six tenths of a second per lap faster than Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton set several fastest laps in that opening stint, and Kimi Raikkonen was just able to match the pace of the McLaren, although by this time Hamilton was 3 seconds in the lead.

Mark Webber continued his battle through the field, passing Rubens Barrichello with a bold move through the final corner, and Webber set about Nelsinho Piquet in ninth place. On the next lap, Webber set up a pass at the hairpin, but overshot his braking a little bit, allowing piquet back by. In an almost carbon copy of his pass on Barrichello, Webber stuck to his guns and muscled his way past Piquet through the final turn, causing Piquet to get out of shape on the kerbs.

The reason Webber was so racy was that he was on light fuel in an effort to mitigate his qualifying penalty. The run wouldn't last long enough for the Aussie though, and he pitted on lap 13. It was plain sailing up front for Hamilton though. He was really trying hard, as evidenced by a lurid slide through turn 2. With the pace that Hamilton was showing, it was assumed that he was light on fuel and that the Ferraris were heavier on fuel. This turned out not to be the case - Massa pitted on lap 15, along with Alonso. The very next lap, Hamilton and Raikkonen pitted. All completed their stops and maintained their respective positions. Hamilton and Alonso stayed on the prime tyre, whereas Raikkonen switched from the option tyre to the prime tyre; Massa took on fresh option tyres.

After the stops, Hamilton stretched his lead, and was 7 seconds in the lead by lap 20. Meanwhile, the other title contender - Kubica - was up to third place before having to take his first stop on lap 26. This dropped him back down to 9th. Strangely, the BMW team elected not to change tyres on Kubica's car, presumably because they felt the balance of the car was better on scrubbed tyres then new ones.

In the middle stint of the race Raikkonen was able to peg Hamilton's lead briefly as they negotiated traffic, but Raikkonen lost out dearly when attempting to pass Fisichella, and subsequently Hamilton extended his lead to almost nine seconds before the second and final round of pit stops. The first of the major players to stop was Kovalainen, but it was an unscheduled stop - on lap 35 he picked up a puncture on his front-right. It was hypothesised that the brake problem seen on the grid manifested itself in a high tyre temperature, and the tyre eventually let go and shredded itself. Kovalainen lost a huge amount of time, and he dropped to 17th place. A few laps later, the Finn would pull in and retire his McLaren with terminal issues.

Fernando Alonso pitted on lap 37 and took an the option tyres. Alonso was driving a solid race, and again solidifying his position as the fourth fastest car/driver package. On the next lap, Felipe Massa pitted, followed a lap later by Hamilton and Raikkonen. Massa took on the prime tyre; Raikkonen, Hamilton and Alonso took on the option tyre.

The top four maintained their positions after their pit stops, whilst Robert Kubica battled through to 6th place after his final pit stop on lap 41. In the final stint of the race, it was obvious that Hamilton was backing off, but so too was Raikkonen - he was plainly going to allow Massa past and into 2nd place to minimise his world championship penalty. The Ferrari pair made a meal of it though - Massa was decidedly off the pace, and struggled to catch up with Raikkonen. Raikkonen eventually conceded on the back straight with 5 laps to go, but so slow were the two Ferraris that Alonso was catching them at over a second a lap in the final stages of the race, setting his personal best lap on the final lap of the race. It was to no avail though, and Alonso would fly home 1.9 seconds behind Raikkonen to take a well deserved fourth place - in a race when the big guns actually stayed on track, that was the best he could hope for.

But it was a walk in the park for Hamilton. He cruised home to take an almost faultless win. In the end, he was fifteen seconds clear of Massa when he crossed the line. It was a dominant performance, and he never looked like he would be touched all weekend. It was the perfect answer to the critics and he now goes into the final race of the year with a 7 point advantage. He needs only finish in 5th place in Brazil to secure the title. The coincidence that Lewis went into the final round last year with a 7 point advantage over the eventual title winner will surely have occurred to him.

Lewis was jubilant after the race, but the expression on Massa's face said it all - he was probably watching his title hopes, and maybe his best shot at the title, fade away. Ferrari were left scratching their heads somewhat, slightly bemused by the pace of the McLarens. However, Felipe Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley mused that it might not have been the pace of the McLaren, but the pace of Lewis Hamilton.

The title hopes had completely disappeared for Kubica though. Despite a spirited performance, the Pole could manage only sixth place - not good enough to keep him in the title hunt. There is a ray of hope for Ferrari and BMW though - BMW are only ten points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship, and Ferrari only need to score 7 points to secure the title, irrespective of what McLaren do.

There is still everything to play for in Brazil, and with the way this season has been going, there may yet be some surprises.

- effwun

Final Classification
Pos. Driver Time Pos. Driver Time
1. Hamilton 1:31:57.403 11. Barrichello
+85.0
2. Massa +14.9 12. Nakajima +90.8
3. Raikkonen
+16.4 13. Bourdais +91.4
4. Alonso +18.3 14. Webber +92.4
5. Heidfeld +28.9 15. Rosberg +1 Lap
6. Kubica +33.2 16. Button +1 Lap
7. Glock +41.7 17. Fisichella +1 Lap
8. Piquet +56.6 18. Kovalainen Lap 50
9. Vettel +64.3 19. Sutil Lap 14
10. Coulthard +74.8 20. Trulli Lap 3

Fastest lap - Lewis Hamilton: 1:36.325 (lap 13)

 

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Robert Kubica (11th - 6th), Timo Glock (12th - 7th), David Coulthard (15th - 10th), Kazuki Nakajima (17th - 12th, 5 places).

2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Giancarlo Fisichella (for thoroughly getting in the way of Raikkonen).

3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Jarno Trulli (for the Bourdais collision, although it was a 50/50 really).

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: David Coulthard (for his outburst about unsportsmanlike conduct in qualifying).