Hamilton, Heidfeld, Barrichello dominant in Silverstone

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton gave his adoring fans exactly what they came to see at a sodden Silverstone on Sunday. A brilliant British Grand Prix victory in often treacherous conditions lifted him right back into contention for the world championship, on a day when Kimi Raikkonen failed to shine and Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica were the ones who came home pointless.

The race started on a damp track, with the promise of more rain to come. Hamilton touched wheels with pole-sitting team mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap one at Copse after making a terrific start, and edged ahead of him at Becketts on the fifth lap. Thereafter it was his race to lose, and the most crucial point came when both he and Raikkonen, an apparent threat at this stage, pitted on the 21st lap. But where McLaren gave their man another set of standard wet-weather Bridgestones, Ferrari kept theirs on the same set. Hamilton rocketed away from the red car, and Raikkonen slipped steadily down the order as strong mid-race performances from Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica put BMW Sauber into the frame for podium finishes.

Heavy rain in the middle of the race created further havoc, however, as driver after driver slipped and slid off the road. This was where clever strategic thinking by Ross Brawn at Honda saw the team risk bringing in both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button for extreme wet tyres on the 35th lap. The Brazilian made great use of them and was able to push up into second place until a late switch back to intermediates. As Heidfeld clung on to a good second place, after making the right call for fresh intermediates at his first stop, Barrichello recovered to a podium finish that was a great boost to the Japanese team.

Behind them, Raikkonen finally fought his way out of a late-race battle with Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Kovalainen to finish fourth.

 

Full report: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8058.html

France - Magny-Cours Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired
1	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	1:31:50.245
2	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	70	+17.9 secs
3	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	70	+28.2 secs
4	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+28.9 secs
5	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	70	+30.5 secs
6	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	70	+40.3 secs
7	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	70	+41.0 secs
8	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	70	+43.3 secs
9	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	70	+51.0 secs
10	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+54.5 secs
11	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	70	+57.7 secs
12	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	70	+58.0 secs
13	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	70	+62.0 secs
14	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	69	+1 Lap
15	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	69	+1 Lap
16	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	69	+1 Lap
17	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap
18	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap
Ret	16	Jenson Button	Honda	16	Accident damage

Massa on the top step of podium, thanks to Raikkonen exhaust

 

Felipe Massa took the lead of the drivers’ championship after a decisive victory for Ferrari at Magny-Cours on Sunday. The Brazilian trailed team mate Kimi Raikkonen for the first 38 of the 70 laps, but moved ahead decisively as the Finn’s F2008 developed an exhaust problem. The latter cost Raikkonen the win, but nobody else ever got close enough to the red cars for this to be a problem to the team.

Jarno Trulli might have been able to catch Raikkonen, but had his hands full fending off a strong late-race challenge from McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn nearly squeezed by on the penultimate lap, but as the Toyota moved over they briefly rubbed wheels and Kovalainen went over a chicane and had to concede his challenge. It gave Toyota their first podium since 2005.

Behind them, Robert Kubica clung on for second place in the championship chase thanks to a fifth place finish, well ahead of the scrap for the final points between Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the Renault drivers. When Fernando Alonso slid wide lapping Giancarlo Fisichella with three laps left, Nelson Piquet moved ahead of his team leader and was hounding Webber by the flag in a drive that gave him his first championship points and might arguably have saved his career.

It was a disastrous afternoon for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who had worked his way up to ninth place when he had to serve a drive-through penalty on the 13th lap after the stewards adjudged him to have gained an advantage on the opening lap by going over a chicane to overtake Sebastian Vettel. The Englishman finally finished 10th, behind David Coulthard’s Red Bull.

 

Full report: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/6/7978.html

Canada GP - Robert Kubica Led Nick Heidfeld One-two Finish

From left: Nick Heidfeld, Dr Mario Theissen, Robert Kubica and David Coulthard

 

BMW Sauber finally took their long overdue maiden victory in Montreal on Sunday, as Robert Kubica led Nick Heidfeld home in a fabulous one-two on a day when early leader Lewis Hamilton inadvertently crashed his McLaren into Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in a pit-lane collision during the first round of refuelling stops.

As a result of his first win, Kubica now leads the world championship fight with 42 points to Hamilton and Massa’s 38 and Raikkonen’s 35.
At the start Hamilton sprinted away from pole position, leaving Kubica to fend off Raikkonen. But the safety car neutralised that when it was deployed to recover Adrian Sutil’s Force India from a dangerous position on the 17th lap.

All of the leaders pitted on Lap 19, and as Hamilton rejoined, having dropped behind Raikkonen and Kubica after a longer stop, he ran into the back of the Finn, whom he suddenly realised was stopped by the red pit-lane exit light. Both the Ferrari and the McLaren were too damaged to continue. Nico Rosberg also damaged his Williams by running into the rear of Hamilton in the incident. An additional pit visit for a new nose thus dropped the German out of contention after running fourth early on.

 

Full Report: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/6/7900.html

Canadian Montreal Race Result

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	70	1:36:24.447	2	10
2	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	70	+16.4 secs	8	8
3	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	70	+23.3 secs	13	6
4	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	70	+42.6 secs	11	5
5	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	70	+43.9 secs	6	4
6	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	70	+47.7 secs	14	3
7	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	70	+53.5 secs	9	2
8	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	70	+54.1 secs	19	1
9	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+54.4 secs	7
10	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	70	+57.7 secs	5
11	16	Jenson Button	Honda	70	+67.5 secs	20
12	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	70	+71.2 secs	10
13	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	18
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	51	Accident	17
Ret	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	46	Accident	12
Ret	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	44	Accident	4
Ret	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	39	Brakes	15
Ret	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	19	Accident	3
Ret	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	19	Accident	1
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	13	Gearbox	16

Monaco GP - Race Result

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	76	2:00:42.742
2	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	76	+3.0 secs
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	76	+4.8 secs
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	76	+19.2 secs
5	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	76	+24.6 secs
6	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	76	+28.4 secs
7	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	76	+30.1 secs
8	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	76	+33.1 secs
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	76	+33.7 secs
10	Fernando Alonso	Renault	75	+1 Lap
11	Jenson Button	Honda	75	+1 Lap
12	Timo Glock	Toyota	75	+1 Lap
13	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	75	+1 Lap
14	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	72	+4 Laps
Ret	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	67	Accident damage
Ret	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	59	Accident
Ret	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	47	Accident
Ret	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	36	Gearbox
Ret	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	7	Accident
Ret	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	7	Accident

Hamilton Wins the Monaco GP

When Ferrari wrapped up the front row of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton’s only real hope of victory seemed to lie in the hands of the weather gods. It duly rained before the start, but after six laps the Englishman walloped the wall hard on the exit to the Swimming Pool, while trailing poleman Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. Into the pits he came, and at that stage the race seemed to belong to the Brazilian.

McLaren, however, brimmed the MP4-23 with fuel, and Hamilton caught his first break when the safety car was deployed on the eighth lap after Red Bull’s David Coulthard and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais went off at Massenet.

The racing resumed on the 11th lap, and two laps later Kimi Raikkonen dropped out of second place when he had to serve a drive-through penalty for having his tyres fitted too late in the grid. Now BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica moved up to push Massa, and was able to snatch the lead when the latter slid momentarily up the escape road at Ste Devote on the 16th lap. Hamilton was chasing hard after them, with Raikkonen now trailing in fourth place.

Kubica stayed ahead until he refuelled on the 26th lap, whereupon Massa went back into the lead until his stop on the 33rd lap. By then Hamilton was up to second, and after moving into the lead… he just kept going.

He did not have to refuel until the 54th lap, and that lengthy stint proved absolutely crucial. Kubica had already stopped for the second time a lap earlier, so was no further threat, and having built a lead of 37.6s Hamilton could refuel, switch to Bridgestone’s soft tyres, and resume still in the lead.

Still he was not home and dry, however. He was 40 seconds ahead when Nico Rosberg, running a lap down after two pits stops to replace damaged noses, tanked his Williams hard into the walls on the exit to the Swimming Pool on the 61st lap. Out came the safety car again, and suddenly Hamilton’s huge advantage had been eroded completely. He kept his head when the race restarted on the 68th lap, however, and was able to pull away to what he described as “a very emotional triumph. The highlight of my career.”

Behind him, Kubica had no trouble fending off Massa for second for BMW Sauber.

Adrian Sutil could have finished fourth for Force India - yes, that’s right - having driven a superb race with a heavy fuel load. But he was the biggest loser in the second safety-car incident. He had been comfortably ahead of Raikkonen’s Ferrari when Rosberg crashed, and was later assaulted by the red car going into the chicane as the race resumed. Raikkonen had got into the same sort of tank-slapper as David Coulthard did in qualifying, and though the Finn kept control of his car he smacked hard enough into the back of Sutil’s car to remove his own front wing and put the unfortunate German out of the greatest race of his life. Stewards subsequently investigated the incident, but decided no action was necessary.

Detail report: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/5/7838.html