2008 Brazilian Grand Prix Race Report

by effwun - FOAS #65

Felipe Massa took a dominant win at his home grand prix, but it was Lewis Hamilton who did just enough to clinch the world title in an absolutely nail biting and thrilling finish, that saw Hamilton claim 5th place - enough to clinch the title - on virtually the last corner of the last lap of the race. It was a heartbreaking end for Massa and the partisan Brazilian crowd, but it was a deserved and hard earned world championship for Lewis Hamilton.

Coming into the weekend, it always looked like it was going to be Felipe Massa's race - he historically has performed superbly at the Interlagos circuit. That, however, did not particularly concern Hamilton. His 7 point lead in the championship meant that, no matter what Massa did, he only needed to finish fifth in the race to clinch the title. It was no surprise, then, that the two fastest men in P1 were Massa and Hamilton, with Massa two tenths faster than Hamilton. The rest of the top six were Raikkonen, Kubica, Kovalainen and Alonso.

In P2, Fernando Alonso played his hand and topped the time sheet, edging out the home town favourite Massa by half a tenth. Meanwhile, the McLaren boys had a miserable session, and Hamilton ended up 9th, Kovalainend ended up 15th. Not too much should have been read into that perfomance, though, because of fuel loads and tyre strategies. To allay any fears that the Hamilton fans may have had, he was second fastest in the Saturday P3 session, less than a tenth of a second slower than the form man, Alonso. To prove the point, Kovalainen was 3rd fastest, ahead of Massa, Vettel and Heidfeld; Raikkonen was 12th.

And so came the final qualifying session of the year. There were no surprises at the very bottom - the two Force India Cars were slowest - but the two Williams cars were also for the chop. It was a disappointing end to the season for the Grove boys. It was a totally expected end for the Honda boys - Button knocked out in Q1.

Rubens Barrichello in the other Honda found himself convincingly knocked out of Q2 - he was over 4 tenths slower than the next slowest qualifier David Coulthard, who probably was hoping for better in the final race of his career. The other eliminees were Piquet, Webber and Kubica. It was a somewhat surprising and disappointing result for Kubica, who had been a championship contender until late into the season. It came down to the final Q3 session of the year then. In reality, the result was never in any doubt - Felipe Massa romped to pole position, but all eyes were on Hamilton. If he needed to finish fifth in the race, at a minimum, then he needed a good grid slot. It was somewhat of a surprise then that he secured 4th, but the real surprise was that in the dying moments of qualifying, Jarno Trulli snatched second place on the grid ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. More probably could have been expected from Heikki Kovalainen, who was effectively acting as wing man for Hamilton - he would qualify fifth - and Alonso, who had shown good pace all weekend, was sixth. The rest of the top ten was rounded out by Vettel, Heidfeld, Bourdais, and Glock.

As the cars lined up on the grid for the race, the tension was palpable. There was a real sense of expectation from the Brazilian crowd, who of course were cheering for Felipe Massa. There was the prospect of a thrilling race ahead, and to add to the drama just minutes before the formation lap was due to get underway, the heavens opened and there was a brief but intense downpour. The start was aborted and the "change in climatic conditions" board was shown to allow teams to change tyres and brake ducts and the like. As quickly as the rain had come it went, but the shape of the race was definitively changed - with the use of wet tyres, the need to use both compounds of dry tyres was eliminated.

So, after ten minutes, the cars were given the green light for the formation lap. Parts of the lap, especially the final corners and the pit straight were very wet, but most of the rest of the track was quite dry. As a portent of things to come, some of the drivers were told to expect more rain in about 40 minutes. So the cars lined up for the start, the lights went out, and racing was under way in Brazil. As the cars hurtled towards the first corner, there was plenty of spray from the rain, but most of the field got round ok. Sebastian Vettel managed to squeeze by Kovalainen, but David Coulthard got double-teamed by the Williams cars, and crashed out of the race. It was a miserable end to the final race of his career. Nelsinho Piquet was also off the track, and the safety car was deployed.

The safety car peeled off at the end of lap 5 and the race was underway again. Felipe Massa immediately stretched his lead, setting the fastest lap of the race. Further back, Kovalainen and Alonso battled each other, but the Spaniard prevailed. Meanwhile, Hamilton maintained his 4th position. Massa continues to roar away into the lead, whilst his team mate abattled with Trulli for second place.

On lap 8, the first concerted efforts to switch to the dry tyres came, as the track began to dry out - Rosberg and Button pitted. They were followed a lap later by Bourdais, Glock, Sutil, and Nakajima, then a lap later by Vettel, Alonso, Webber, and Barrichello. During Barrichello's stop, a fire extinguisher went haywire, and sprayed foam all over the pit box, which the mechanics frantically swept away.

On lap 11, the leader Felipe Massa pitted and took on the dry tyres, handing the lead to Trulli. On the very next lap, Trulli, Raikkonen and Hamilton all pitted for dry tyres too. After the pit stops, the order shook out as Massa, Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Fisichella (who took dry tyres during the safety car period), and Hamilton; Trulli dropped back to 9th after a spin. Hamilton needed to get past Fisichella to maintain the 5th position that he needed, but the little Italian was very impressive in the tricky conditions. Eventually Hamilton muscled his way past into turn on on lap 18. Meanwhile, Massa was cruising into the distance, although he was being closely shadowed by Sebastian Vettel, who on lap 19 set fastest lap of the race so far. Indeed, the young German began hounding Massa and he got within half a second of the lead before the reason for his fast pace became clear - he was light on fuel, and he pitted on lap 28.

The next nearest challenger to Massa was now Alonso, with Raikkonen in 3rd and Hamilton in 4th. The track had clearly dried out almost fully by this point - Massa set fastest lap of the race on lap 36. On lap 38 he pitted from the lead, handing the lead temporarily to Alonso. Soon after, the rest of the leaders pitted too, and the order again shook out as Massa, Vettel (who was off sequence compared to the others), Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton. Vettel took his final scheduled pit stop on lap 50 to drop him down to 5th. He promptly zoomed up to the back of Hamilton's McLaren, who appeared to be taking it easy knowing that he only needed 5th, and was currently in 4th.

Then came the event that would change everything. On lap 64, spots of rain started to fall. The rain was light - just spitting lightly, but it started to fall a little more heavily in the final sector of the track. Vettel was now all over the back of Hamilton as the lap times grew due to the rain. There was a critical tactical decision to be made - stay out on dry tyres and hope the rain wasn't too bad, or pit for wet tyres but lose track time and position. It was an easy choice for the front-runners - Massa, Alonso, and Raikkonen all pitted. It was not an easy choice for Hamilton - if the cars behind him gambled on dry tyres, it could cost him the championship.

On lap 67, Hamilton and Vettel pitted to take on the wet tyres. this dropped Hamilton to 5th, around 20 seconds behind Timo Glock - the Toyotas gambled on dry tyres. As long as Hamilton could maintain 5th, though, he was fine. Then came a giant twist. Robert Kubica had been languishing down the order all day, but in the wet conditions suddenly found more pace then the people directly ahead of him - those people were Vettel and Hamilton. Kubica unlapped himself (with respect to Vettel) at the turn 10 Bico de Pato hairpin, then passed Hamilton into Junçao (turn 12, but effectively the last turn on the track). As he passed Hamilton, he cut in front of him, taking the air off his front wing. Hamilton slid wide, and Vettel dived inside to take the position. Hamilton was 6th with just 2 laps to go.

The Brazilian crowd erupted with delight. It looked like Felipe Massa could actually take the title in the most unexpected fashion and in front of his home crowd, but the race was not over yet. What was crucial was the man in 4th place - Glock. Hamilton was not gaining on him fast enough, it seemed. Going into the final lap, Hamilton was 12 seconds behind Glock, but Glock's lap times weren't too bad in the conditions. However, the rain had started to fall more heavily. The gamble that Toyota took could go either way. The championship stood on a knife edge. Glock gave up 3 seconds to Hamilton in the first sector - it was slow, but it wouldn't be enough to hand Hamilton the title.

Felipe Massa crossed the start/finish line to take the win. The Brazilian crowd were jubilant. They thought their man had won the title.

But it came down to the middle sector of the final lap. Glock gave up 9 seconds to Hamilton in that sector. The gamble didn't pay off for Toyota, but it had worked - just - for Hamilton. He passed Glock into Junçao with just seconds to spare; just meters to spare. Hamilton outdragged the Toyota up the hill, and crossed the line in 5th place, 5 seconds clear of the German. Hamilton was champion. The crowd couldn't believe what they were seeing, nor could the Ferrari crew. They had in seconds gone from elation to despair.

A dejected Felipe Massa put on a brave face, and with great dignity stood on the top step of the podium as the Brazilian national anthem rung out to signal his victory. he was gracious in defeat, and iterated in the post-race interview that despite a heartbreaking result, he was proud to drive for Ferrari, and proud to race for Brazil.

But the plaudits went to Hamilton. He was the champion - the youngest ever in Formula 1. He had, by most accounts, been the fastest man all year. Crucial mistakes and a plurality of penalties had made the championship close towards the end, but he thoroughly deserved the championship.

Perhaps lost in all the excitement of the finish of the race was the fact that Fernando Alonso came home second - another incredibly strong performance by the Spaniard. Given where Renault started the year, they came a long way in the final stretch. Indeed, as Pat Symonds would later point out, had the championship been held over the final 8 races of the year, Alonso would have been champion. Something else that was perhaps lost in all the confusion was that Robert Kubica slipped to 4th in the drivers championship - he was equal on points with Raikkonen, but Raikkonen secured the place on a tiebreak (more wins).

If there was one consolation for Ferrari, it was that they were constructors champions once more - 21 points clear of McLaren. But the final, and perhaps most telling point, of the season finale in Brazil was that in Parc Ferme, Jenson Button's Honda caught on fire and torched itself. It somehow seemed a fitting end of a miserable year for the Honda boys. With so much to look forward to next year, they surely are looking forward to something - anything - better.

- effwun

Final Classification
Pos. Driver Time Pos. Driver Time
1. Massa 1:34:11.435 11. Kubica +1 Lap
2. Alonso +13.2 12. Rosberg +1 Lap
3. Raikkonen +16.2 13. Button +1 Lap
4. Vettel +38.0 14. Bourdais +1 Lap
5. Hamilton +38.9 15. Barrichello  +1 Lap
6. Glock +44.3 16. Sutil +2 Laps
7. Kovalainen  +55.0 17. Nakajima +2 Laps
8. Trulli +68.4 18. Fisichella +2 Laps
9. Webber +79.6 19. Piquet Lap 1
10. Heidfeld +1 Lap 20. Coulthard Lap 1
Fastest lap - Felipe Massa: 1:13.736 (lap 36)

The Alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Nico Rosberg (18th - 12th, 6 places).

2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Robert Kubica (sort of - his move on Hamilton caused all the grief!).

3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: David Coulthard (although it really wasn't his fault).

Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: David Coulthard (for actually taking the first lap incident in good humour. Goodbye David, we'll miss you).