2008 British Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = United Kingdom
Grand Prix = British
Date = July 6
Year = 2008

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Caption = The Silverstone Circuit modified in 2000
Race_No = 9
Season_No = 18
Official name = LXI Santander British Grand Prix
Location = Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England
Course = Permanent Road Facility
Course_mi = 3.194
Course_km = 5.141
Distance_laps = 60
Distance_mi = 191.603
Distance_km = 308.355
Weather = Rain, sunny and dry later; Air 16-18°C, Track 15-23°C
Pole_Driver = Heikki Kovalainen
Pole_Team = McLaren-Mercedes
Pole_Time = 1:21.049
Pole_Country = Finland
Fast_Driver = Kimi Räikkönen
Fast_Team = Ferrari
Fast_Time = 1:32.150
Fast_L

Fast_Country = Finland
First_Driver = Lewis Hamilton
First_Team = McLaren-Mercedes
First_Country = Great Britain
Second_Driver = Nick Heidfeld
Second_Team = BMW Sauber
Second_Country = Germany
Third_Driver = Rubens Barrichello
Third_Team = Honda
Third_Country = BrazilThe 2008 British Grand Prix was the ninth race of the 2008 Formula One season. It was held on 4–6 July at Silverstone, England. It was 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. [cite web
url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68827
title=Massa leads first practice despite crash
author=Matt Beer
publisher=autosport.com
date=2008-07-04
accessdate=2008-07-07] 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. [cite web
url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68833
title=Kovalainen quickest in second practice
author=Matt Beer
publisher=autosport.com
date=2008-07-04
accessdate=2008-07-07] 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. [cite web
url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68864
title=Alonso fastest in final practice - Britain
author=Matt Beer
publisher=autosport.com
date=2008-07-05
accessdate=2008-07-07]

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 Räikkönen. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was fifth and Sébastien Bourdais was sixth.

Nico Rosberg in the 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.

econd 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, [cite web
url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68890
title=Coulthard: Oil leak cost me top ten spot
author=Simon Strang
publisher=autosport.com
date=2008-07-05
accessdate=2008-07-21] 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. [cite web
url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68894
title=Massa laments costly pitstop problem
author=Pablo Elizade
publisher=autosport.com
date=2008-07-05
accessdate=2008-07-21] 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 Räikkönen, giving Lewis Hamilton a chance to seize second position. The McLaren cars entered the first corner side by side, while Räikkönen'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 Maggotts 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 Räikkönen 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, who had passed Alonso, Räikkönen and Kovalainen to move into second.

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 Räikkönen, 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." [ [http://www.grandprix.com/race/r794sunquotes.html Post-race team quotes from www.grandprix.com] ] 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." [ [http://www.grandprix.com/race/r794sunquotes.html Post-race team quotes from www.grandprix.com] ]

Classification

Qualifying

Race

Notes

*Lap Leaders: Heikki Kovalainen 4 (1-4), Lewis Hamilton 55 (5-21, 23-60), Nick Heidfeld 1 (22)
*First Pole Position: Heikki Kovalainen
*First front row start: Red Bull Racing
*Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest lap for the sixth consecutive race, his longest ever streak and placing him just one behind Alberto Ascari's record of 7 (between the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and the 1953 Argentine Grand Prix). Finland also equalled Italy's record of 7 consecutive fastest laps by drivers from the same country, as Heikki Kovalainen had set the fastest lap in the Bahrain Grand Prix immediately preceding Räikkönen's streak.
*Hamilton's win was the first time in 8 years a British driver had won at the British Grand Prix. David Coulthard, with McLaren, won in 2000.
*This was David Coulthard's last British GP after announcing his retirement, unfortunately failing to complete a lap during his final home Grand Prix.
*Rubens Barrichello's first podium since 2005 United States Grand Prix and Honda Racing F1's first podium since 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix.
*This was the first time that the British Grand Prix was held in rainy conditions since 2002.
*Lewis Hamilton's winning margin was the largest since Damon Hill won by over two laps in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.
*Kazuki Nakajima's eighth place was the first point for Williams at Silverstone since Juan-Pablo Montoya (who is still the last winner for Williams), finished 5th at the 2004 British Grand Prix.
*For the United States TV coverage, FOX broadcasted this race.

References

External links

* [http://www.fia.com/en-GB/sport/championships/f1/greatbritain/Pages/race_classification.aspx Official FIA results]

F1 race report
Name_of_race = British Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 2008
Previous_race_in_season = 2008 French Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 2008 German Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 2007 British Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 2009 British Grand Prix