FORMULA ONE
2008 British Grand Prix
The grid for the penultimate British Grand Prix at Silverstone was as follows: Heikki Kovalainen claimed his first ever pole position in Formula 1, alongside him was Mark Webber – the first front row position for Red Bull.
On the second row was Kimi Raikkonen with Lewis Hamilton and the third row was Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso. The fourth row saw Nelson Piquet Junior with Sebastian Vettel followed surprisingly by the top two in the championship with Felipe Massa ninth and Robert Kubica tenth.
As the lights went out Webber moved across the track and left a gap on the inside, which Hamilton dived through and moved up to second and Raikkonen managed to get by Webber and into third.
Webber had slipped to fourth but his disastrous start continued when he spun and went to last position. The tricky conditions caught out Massa who had his first spin of the day. Vettel didn’t have a good start either and tangled with David Coulthard and they both spun out of the race.
Alonso meantime was on a charge and eased past his team-mate Piquet and BMW driver Heidfeld under increasing pressure from Hamilton. Massa meantime spun again.
On lap 5 Hamilton eased past Kovalainen and then Hamilton began setting about building a gap. Kovalainen then spun over the Abbey chicane, which handed second place to Raikkonen.
Hamilton’s gap had increased to five seconds. On lap 12 Adrian Sutil spun out also at the Abbey chicane but Raikkonen now set two fastest laps in a row and the latter of these was the fastest of the entire race at 1 minute 32.510 seconds on lap 18.
Lap 19 saw Kovalainen came into the pits and decided to stay on the intermediate tyres. On the next lap Alonso came in and his front wing was tweaked however he decided not to change tyres.
On lap 21 the top two runners in the race pitted and it was Hamilton who got out the quicker of the two and Raikkonen also decided to stick with the same tyres. Heidfeld after making his pit stop came out and demonstrated a superb piece of driving by passing Timo Glock on the outside and then past Alonso on the inside at Woodcote.
Glock managed to get past Alonso who was suffering on the old tyres. With the rain having come down again Raikkonen lost time hand over fist which cost him any chance of a victory. On lap 26 Giancarlo Fisichella span out.
Raikkonen was forced to make a second pit stop, which dropped him to eleventh place, that left Hamilton out in front with an even bigger margin now in hand over Heidfeld who managed to pass both Kovalainen and Raikkonen at Woodcote.
So on lap 31 the top eight was Hamilton out front with Heidfeld in second place with a gap of around 25 seconds then it was Kovalainen, Kubica, and Piquet who had passed his ailing team-mate. Sixth was Rubens Barrichello then Timo Glock and rounding out the top eight was Jarno Trulli.
Lap 33 and Kubica passes Kovalainen although the rain has now intensified. On the next lap Kovalainen makes his second pit stop. Conditions have worsened as illustrated when Glock ran wide and Trulli inherited the place. Kubica ran wide and on to the grass on the same lap.
Piquet span out of the race at the Abbey chicane on lap 35. The conditions caught out both Hamilton and Kubica who both went wide and on to the grass as did Raikkonen on the next lap.
Two laps later Hamilton made his final pit stop and opted to remain on intermediates while both Raikkonen and Webber spin but manage to keep going. Barrichello was setting a blistering pace on the extreme wets and starts to come through the field and passes both Alonso and Kubica with ease.
Kubica span out on lap 40 and Nico Rosberg crashed into Glock, although both are forced to make a pit stop they continue on and Button also retired on this lap. Five laps later after managing to get to second Barrichello has to make a pit stop after an earlier refuelling problem and drops to third.
Kovalainen spun on lap 48, which let both Raikkonen and Alonso past. Raikkonen put Alonso under severe pressure and got by on lap 53. Three laps later Kovalainen was still behind Alonso but Kazuki Nakajima and Trulli were catching them.
On lap 58 Kovalainen passes Alonso who manages bravely not to lose any more positions. While British hope Hamilton won the race and after the second pit stop he had a gap of around the minute mark and was therefore never in any real danger of being caught. Heidfeld claimed second and Barrichello third, these were the only drivers not to be lapped by the race winner Hamilton.
| 1 Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 1h 39m 9.440s |
| 2 Nick Heidfeld | BMW | + 1m 8.577s |
| 3 Rubens Barrichello | Honda | + 1m 22.273s |
| 4 Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | + 1 lap |
5 Heikki Kovalainen |
McLaren | + 1 lap |
6 Fernando Alonso |
Renault | + 1 lap |
| 7 Jarno Trulli | Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 8 Kazuki Nakajima | Williams | + 1 lap |
| 9 Nico Rosberg | Williams | + 1 lap |
| 10 Mark Webber | Red Bull | + 1 lap |
| 11 Sebastien Bourdais | Torro Rosso | + 1 lap |
| 12 Timo Glock | Toyota | + 1 lap |
| 13 Felipe Massa | Ferrari | + 2 laps |
| R Robert Kubica | BMW | |
| R Jenson Button | Honda | |
| R Nelson Piquet Junior | Renault | |
| R Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India | |
| R Adrian Sutil | Force India | |
| R Sebastian Vettel | Torro Rosso | |
| R David Coulthard | Red Bull |
R = Retired
All results subject to FIA confirmation
Ciarán McBride