FORMULA ONE
2008 French Grand Prix - Magny Cours
In what could be the final French Grand Prix held at Magny Cours it was Kimi Raikkonen who claimed Ferrari’s 200th pole position as a constructor. Team mate Felpe Massa was second. Lewis Hamilton was third but dropped to 13th following his crash with Raikkonen in Canada.
This meant the second row saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso along side Jarno Truli of Toyota. The third row has Heikki Kovalainen in fifth and championship leader Robert Kubica struggled to sixth place on the grid.
As the lights went out and the cars began the grand prix it was a formation start from the Ferrari’s as Raikkonen led from Massa. Alonso starting third dropped behind Trulli and Kubica. The Toyotas were running with black stripes on the cars and the crew and drivers wore black armbands as a mark of respect to former team boss Ove Andersson who died in a classic rally in South Africa last week.
On lap 2 Alonso regained a position by passing Kubica. Further back on lap 1 Hamilton had climbed to tenth but in making his pass on Sebastian Vettel he had cut straight across the Nurburgring chicane. This would come into play later…
Raikkkonen set about building up an early lead and had opened up a gap of over 2.5 seconds to his team-mate Massa. Jenson Button crashed into the back of local ace Sebastien Bourdais and Button retired 15 laps later having struggled on before the front wing became dislodged and stuck under the front of the car.
Meanwhile Hamilton had managed to get by his team-mate Kovalainen at the Adelaide hairpin. Hamilton was now behind Nelson Piquet Junior but the Brazilian defended his position well with Hamilton getting more frustrated.
Hamilton, however would be more frustrated as race control investigated the passing incident on Vettel. Hamilton was given a drive through penalty for gaining an advantage with his shortcut and this news was confirmed on lap 13.
On lap 15 Alonso was the first driver to make a pit stop and came out just before Hamilton who had served his drive through penalty. Raikkonen set the fastest lap of the race on lap 16 with a time of 1 minute 16.630 which extended his lead to Massa to more than 4 seconds.
Lap 19 and Alonso ran wide round the first corner and Hamilton went up along side but before going past the cars banged wheels. The pit lane was to become increasingly busy on the following lap as both Trulli and Kubica came in. Trulli stayed ahead of Kubica as they came out of the pit lane.
Lap 21 saw Raikkonen enter the pits and two laps later Massa went into the pits having been angered by the driving of Hamilton as Massa had come up to lap him. Lap 24 Kovalainen and Piquet Junior pitted. Having crossed the white lane that ends the speed restriction Piquet seemed to have a problem and Kovalainen passed him.
After all pit stops had been made and a truer reflection of the top eight was given on lap 29 with Raikkonen maintaining the lead with a new gap of 6.534 seconds over Massa while Trulli lay in third. Vettel and Nick Heidfeld had been running fourth and fifth before they made their pit stops.
On lap 35 there was drama as part of Raikkonen’s exhaust pipe came loose on the car and Massa had cut the gap in half. Four laps later Massa whizzed past the ailing Raikkonen. The big question was, could Raikkonen coast home to the finish and still claim points?
Lap 40 and Raikkonen at this stage is dropping a second a lap to third placed Trulli while Nico Rosberg made his first pit stop of the race. On lap 42 the pit lane geared up for the second round of pit stops and once more Alonso dived in first this time from fifth place. Alonso exited the pit ahead of Hamilton. On the same lap Kovalainen mades a pass on Webber at the Adelaide hairpin. By lap 43 Massa had extended his gap to 6 seconds ahead of Raikkonen and three laps later Kubica pitted which saw him demoted him to tenth. Hamilton again went past Alonso for twelfth.
On lap 51 Trulli pitted as did Piquet Junior. On the next lap Raikkonen came into the pits but the broken piece of exhaust pipe was not removed at the stop. Kovalainen also came into the pits. Three laps later Massa came into the pits and Ferrari managed to have the pit stop complete in 6.3 seconds.
A bit of drizzle came down around lap 57 and the drivers were treading their way around the circuit carefully and were setting times around the 1 minute 21 second mark.
Lap 58 and despite the rain Massa has again increased his lead to Raikkonen who in turn managed to stem the time losses to Trulli. Kovalainen was all over the back of Trulli and Kubica was now closing to the two drivers in front.
Raikkonen’s exhaust pipe finally fell off on lap 62 some 27 laps after the pipe had initially come loose. Lap 64 and Trulli has managed to pull out a small gap over Kovalainen with another small gap to Kubica back in fifth.
Trulli does the fastest time he has ever done in this race over the course of the first section. On the penultimate lap Alonso slid wide at the Adelaide hairpin after trying to lap some backmarkers, which allowed his team-mate Piquet Junior to sneak past and take seventh.
The final lap saw the last piece of action with Trulli and Kovalainen banging wheels around the Nurburgring chicane, Kovalainen went straight on but didn’t gain an advantage so was not penalised.
So it was Felipe Massa who claimed the race win and in doing so now takes his turn to lead the World Championship with Raikkonen managing a credible second place finish after losing part of his exhaust and subsequently losing some power.
| 1 Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1h 31m 50.245s |
| 2 Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | + 17.984s |
| 3 Jarno Trulli | Toyota | + 28.250s |
| 4 Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren | + 28.929s |
| 5 Robert Kubica | BMW | + 30.512s |
| 6 Mark Webber | Red Bull | + 40.304s |
| 7 Nelson Piquet Jnr | Renault | + 41.033s |
| 8 Fernando Alonso | Renault | + 43.372s |
| 9 David Coulthard | Red Bull | + 51.072s |
| 10 Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | + 54.521s |
| 11 Timo Glock | Toyota | + 57.738s |
| 12 Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso | + 58.065s |
| 13 Nick Heidfeld | BMW | + 1m 2.079s |
| 14 Rubens Barrichello | Honda | + 1 lap |
| 15 Kazuki Nakajima | Williams | + 1 lap |
| 16 Nico Rosberg | Williams | + 1 lap |
| 17 Sebastien Bourdais | Torro Rosso | + 1 lap |
| 18 Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India | + 1 lap |
| 19 Adrian Sutil | Force India | + 1 lap |
| R Jenson Button | Honda | + 16 laps |
R = Retired
All results subject to FIA confirmation.
Ciarán McBride