The 2008 British Grand Prix was the ninth race of the 2008 Formula One season. It was held on 4 July–6 July at Silverstone, England. It was the the 59th British Grand Prix. The 2008 British Grand Prix was once again sponsored by Santander. The event was a sell out for all sessions.
Ahead of the race, French Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa led the Drivers' Championship for Scuderia Ferrari by 2 points from Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber. World Champion Kimi Räikkönen was 5 points behind team-mate Massa, with British driver Lewis Hamilton a further 5 points back for McLaren.
After dominating the 2008 French Grand Prix, Ferrari led the Constructors' Championship by 17 points from BMW Sauber. Force India were the only team yet to score points in the championship.
Four former British Grand Prix winners were in the field in 2008. Räikkönen won the 2007 race on his way to the World Title. Fernando Alonso of Renault won the 2006 drivers' championship the previous year after a British Grand Prix win. Honda's Rubens Barrichello won the 2003 race whilst at Ferrari and David Coulthard of Red Bull Racing had previously won the race for McLaren in 1999 and in 2000. He was the last Briton to win the race. The last Englishman to win the race was Johnny Herbert in 1995.
Ferrari have won 15 World Championship British Grand Prix, including 5 of the last 10. Only Renault have stopped Ferrari and McLaren from winning in the last decade. McLaren's last win in Britain came from Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005.
Report
Practice
Despite suffering a crash in the latter part of the session, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was fastest in Friday's morning practice. The Brazilian driver met with an accident due to oil spilled from Fernando Alonso's Renault.[1] McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton were second and third fastest in the session. Kovalainen however was fastest in Friday's second practice session, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber with Hamilton once again running third. Jarno Trulli in Toyota suffered a crash in this session while Williams' Kazuki Nakajima hit a sidewall.[2] Alonso was fastest in damp conditions during final practice session on Saturday, with Webber and Kovalainen second and third respectively. David Coulthard of Red Bull did not participate through most of the session due to a technical problem with his car and was ranked at the end of the order.[3]
Qualifying
First session
McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen was quickest in the first session, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. His teammate Lewis Hamilton was second, over three tenths behind, and less than a tenth ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel as well as Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was fifth and Sébastien Bourdais was sixth.
Nico Rosberg in Williams' could only run a single lap after facing a suspension problem and was eliminated in the session. Other drivers eliminated were Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button and Force India's Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Second session
The two McLarens were again dominant in the second session, with Hamilton edging Kovalainen by six hundredths of a second. Red Bull's Mark Webber was only just over a tenth behind Kovalainen in third. The BMW Sauber cars of Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were less than a tenth behind him. The first of the Ferraris was that of Räikkönen in sixth place.
David Coulthard in the second Red Bull faced problems due to engine oil leak during qualifying and was eliminated in this session,[4] along with the Glock, Bourdais, Trulli and Nakajima.
Third session
Kovalainen took his first career pole position by over half a second ahead of Mark Webber, whose Red Bull found an extra bit of pace to take second ahead of Räikkönen and Hamilton. The first of the BMW Saubers was that of Nick Heidfeld in fifth place with the Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet in sixth and seventh places, Vettel qualifying eighth. Felipe Massa could go for a second lap run since his pitcrew faced a problem while changing the right rear tire during his pitstop after the first run.[5] He had to settle for ninth place. Kubica did not set the time in the third session after he abandoned his first lap due to a possible puncture.
Race
Like the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the year, the race was held in semi-wet conditions, with all drivers opting for the intermediate tyres. Rosberg had his Williams car radically changed to the wet setup, thus forfeiting his grid position to start from the pitlane instead.
At the start Kovalainen got away well from his pole position. Webber, who was second in his Red Bull, had to move left to block a charging Raikkonen, giving Lewis Hamilton a chance to seize second position. The McLaren cars entered the first corner side by side, while Raikkonen's Ferrari overtook Webber for third. Sebastian Vettel had the worst start and lost his position to Massa and Kubica. Meeting more trouble, Webber spun his car just after Maggots corner before the Hangar Straight, dropping him to the back of the field just in front of Nico Rosberg. His spin was the first of many in this race, as Felipe Massa also spun at the second sector of the lap and fell to the back. Consequently, all the midfielders bunched up together, and David Coulthard and Vettel collided past Bridge Corner, both retiring.
On lap 3 Fernando Alonso rapidly caught and passed Heidfeld's BMW, and Massa spun again, falling to last place. On lap 5, Hamilton passed Kovalainen into Stowe Corner, with Alonso rapidly closing on Raikkonen in third. Webber passed five cars in five laps as he moved back up through the field, and Sutil aquaplaned off the track into the gravel trap on lap 10 and retired.
From lap 18 most drivers started coming into the pits for fuel and tyres. Believing that the rain would not return, the Ferrari and Renault drivers decided to keep the worn tyres on, which offer an advantage over new intermediates on a drier track. McLaren, BMW and several other teams swapped for another set of intermediate tyres.
On lap 22 there was a downpour on the track. Räikkönen, who had closed right up on Hamilton before their pitstops, rapidly dropped back, while the Englishman on fresh intermediates pulled away at the head of the field at a rate sometimes several seconds a lap faster than any driver on the same tyres. Most teams elected not to lose time in the pits switching again to the full wet tyres designed for these conditions. Those teams that opted for full wets, however, obtained a significant advantage, as evidenced by Rubens Barrichello who moved from 15th to second place, and had been lapping up to 30 seconds faster than the lap leader. However, when Barrichello pitted there was a problem with the fuelling rig and Jenson Button queued up behind him. The problem meant that not enough fuel was put into the car, and Barrichello later had to pit again, dropping him to third place behind Heidfeld.
Throughout the middle part of the race the rain continued and several drivers left the track, sliding across the grass, including the leader Hamilton. Piquet, Button and Kubica all spun into retirement during this period, and there were less serious spins for Raikkonen, Massa and Glock. Rosberg hit Glock on lap 40 and had to pit for a new front wing. As the rain eased and the track started to dry out a little, the lap times improved, but the track was never dry enough to allow the use of dry tyres. Despite this, Hamilton was able to start a late charge and put himself a considerable distance ahead of his pursuers. Kovalainen, suffering from understeer, spun on lap 49 but recovered and later passed Alonso for 5th place. Trulli passed Nakajima for 7th place on the last lap.
Hamilton crossed the finish line first, having lapped all but BMW's Heidfeld and Honda's Barrichello, who completed the final podium positions, both trailing Hamilton by over a minute. The Briton later described his race as "one of the best ones I have ever driven."[6] 13 drivers were classified, the last being Felipe Massa after spinning six times during the course of the race. The Brazilian said afterwards, "I could hardly keep the car in a straight line."[7]
Classification
Qualifying
Race
Notes
References
External links
|
