2008 German Grand Prix
| 2008 German Grand Prix | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 10 of 18 in the 2008 Formula One World Championship | |||
 The Hockenheimring | |||
| Race details | |||
| Date | July 20, 2008 | ||
| Official name | LXVIII Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland | ||
| Location | Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 4.574 km (2.842 miles) | ||
| Distance | 67 laps, 306.458 km (190.433 miles) | ||
| Weather | Cloudy, partly sunny;[1] Air 22-23 °C, Track 28-34 °C | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Time | 1:15.666 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | |
| Time | 1:15.987 on lap 52 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Second | Renault | ||
| Third | Ferrari | ||
The 2008 German Grand Prix (formally the LXVIII Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland) was a Formula One motor race held on July 20, 2008 at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany. It was the 10th race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 67 laps, was won by Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team after starting from pole position. Nelson Piquet, Jr. finished second in a Renault car, with Felipe Massa third in a Ferrari.
Hamilton started from pole, and led until he made his first pit stop. As other cars made their pit stops, Hamilton regained the lead. On lap 36 Timo Glock crashed, and the race was neutralized by the safety car. Hamilton did not stop to get more fuel during this period, while all the cars around him did, meaning that when he did eventually stop, he came out in fifth. Afterwards Hamilton overtook his teammate Heikki Kovalainen, Massa, and finally Piquet, to win the race.
The victory was Hamilton's second consecutive win, having won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The win put him ahead of his two main rivals in the Drivers' Championship, Kimi Räikkönen and Massa of Ferrari, who were on equal points with him before the race. After the race he was four points ahead of Räikkönen, and seven ahead of Massa. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren drew closer to the two teams ahead of them, BMW Sauber and Ferrari. Ferrari still led by 15 points from McLaren, and 12 from BMW.
Report
Background
The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers, in ten teams of two.[4] The teams, also known as "constructors", were Ferrari, McLaren–Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Force India, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Williams and Toro Rosso.[4]
Prior to the race, Hamilton, Räikkönen, and Massa led the Drivers' Championship, all with 48 points. Behind them in the Drivers' Championship, Robert Kubica was fourth with 46 points in a BMW Sauber, and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was fifth with 36 points.[5] In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading with 96 points, 14 points ahead of BMW Sauber, whom at this stage were actually ahead of McLaren, despite Hamilton tying for the lead of the Drivers' World Championship. This was mainly due to Heikki Kovalainen's low point score. Toyota were fourth, with 25 points, ahead of Red Bull by one point.[5]
At the previous race Hamilton had won the British Grand Prix by 68 seconds, while seven cars had gone off the road.
Practice and Qualifying
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and a third on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour.[6] In the first practice session the track was wet with early morning rain, and shortly after practice started a further shower and drizzle made the track even wetter. The track did begin to dry during the second half of the session.[7] Hamilton was the fastest in the first practice session ahead of his teammate Kovalainen.[7] The Ferraris of Massa and Räikkönen came third and fifth respectively, with Renault's Fernando Alonso sandwiched between them in fourth place.[7] Kubica spun off the track and Sébastien Bourdais had a mechanical problem with his flywheel sensor[8] towards the end of the session. Both ended up at the bottom of timesheets.[7] Friday's second session was held in dry conditions.[9] It again saw Hamilton as the fastest driver. Massa and Räikkönen were second and third, pushing Kovalainen to fourth position.[9] Mark Webber came in fifth, after earlier facing electrical and clutch problems with the car.[10] Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Kubica, Heidfeld and David Coulthard made up the rest of the top ten.[9]
In the final practice session on Saturday, which was held in dry conditions, Kovalainen was fastest, ahead of Massa and teammate Hamilton.[11] Alonso continued his strong practice form, finishing fourth, with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel making it to fifth position. Kubica once again was at the bottom of the table, this time due to a transmission problem.[11]
The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon was split into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes, and cars that finished the session 16th or lower were eliminated from qualifying. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 15. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position. Cars which failed to make the final session could refuel before the race, so ran lighter in those sessions. Cars which competed in the final session of qualifying were not allowed to refuel before the race, and as such carried more fuel than in the previous sessions.[6]
"What a lap! My first run during [the third session of qualifying] wasn’t bad, but my final lap was very smooth and I expected to set an even better time. The wind made today's conditions quite tricky and sometimes it was difficult to stay on the racing line, particularly in the stadium section – where the wind seemed to change a couple of times. The team did a really good job to adjust to these conditions and to prepare the car perfectly. We’ve been fast and consistent all weekend, we have good pace, and I’m confident for tomorrow."
Lewis Hamilton, following the third qualifying session.[12]
Hamilton took pole position for the ninth time in his career with a lap time of 1:15.666, having beaten Massa by two-tenths of a second in his final lap of the third session.[13] Kovalainen, coming back after an error in his first run, qualified third, with Trulli taking fourth position.[13] Alonso and Räikkönen ran a close fifth and sixth positions, with just 0.006 seconds separating them.[13] Kubica took a comfortable seventh, half a second quicker in the third session than eighth-placed Webber.[13] Vettel and Coulthard were ninth and tenth respectively.[14][13] Glock finished 11th for Toyota, seven places behind his teammate Jarno Trulli. Heidfeld was 12th, in front of his home crowd, Rosberg 13th, Jenson Button 14th and Bourdais 15th.[13] Both Heidfeld and Button later said that they suffered from tyre problems during the session.[12] Kazuki Nakajima was 16th, Nelson Piquet Jr. 17th for Renault, Rubens Barrichello 18th, and the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella 19th and 20th.[13] Piquet later complained that he was blocked during his lap run by Vettel, affecting his lap timings.[12]
Kovalainen was fined €5,000 for a breach of the refuelling regulations during qualifying. It was stated that the fine was imposed since Kovalainen's car was running while being refuelled using non-FIA approved system.[15]
Race
At the start, Hamilton retained first place while Massa attempted, but failed to pass Kovalainen. Kovalainen went on the defence, and Hamilton quickly began to pull away from the other cars, at about half a second per lap.[16] Kubica passed Räikkönen off the grid, and went on to pass both Alonso and Trulli at the hairpin when Alonso's attempted pass on Trulli delayed both drivers.[2] Hamilton began to quickly pull away from Massa, while behind the leading trio, the fight for fourth continued. Kubica ran wide at the final corner on lap four, impeding Trulli and therefore allowing Alonso an overtaking opportunity down the main straight. Trulli held on to his position though, and Alonso was in fact passed by Räikkönen[17] moving him into sixth. At the back of the field, Kazuki Nakajima spun his Williams but recovered onto the track.[17]
At the first round of pit stops, Hamilton had a lead of nearly 20 seconds over Massa, and fuelled longer than all others in the points positions. Coming out of the pits, Hamilton made an error and was passed by Jarno Trulli;[17] the two drivers then nearly collided at the hairpin, with Hamilton holding back for the rest of the lap when Trulli came in.[17] Trulli's teammate Timo Glock stayed out on the track longer than all other drivers - meaning that when he pitted, he was actually in third position. Hamilton regained the lead as others pitted, and had in the region of an 11 second lead over Massa at the half-way stage.[17] Behind the leaders, Kubica was beginning to catch Kovalainen while Trulli, Räikkönen, Alonso and Sebastien Vettel battled over the final four point-scoring places.[17]
On the 36th lap Glock's right suspension failed coming out of the final corner.[17] Spinning on the grass, he then shunted side-on against the pit wall, debris flying on to the track.[2] The car, pointing the wrong way, rolled to a stop on the grass. A dazed Glock extracted himself before being treated at the medical centre. The safety car was then deployed.[17]
When the pit lane opened, most drivers headed in, including all the leaders - except Hamilton.[17] McLaren believed they had enough fuel for Hamilton to stay out then pull away when the safety car went. This would prove to be very risky, as Massa rejoined in fourth position, fuelled to the finish.[2] Nelson Piquet had fortuitously pitted immediately prior to the safety car and was already fuelled to the end of the race, and he was the only driver on a one-stop strategy.[17] In third place, he was set to take the lead once Hamilton and Heidfeld (who too had stayed out) pitted for their final stops. During the mass pit stop, Vettel squeezed past Alonso at the pit exit, pushing him over the white line; Alonso complained over his radio but no action was taken against either driver.[17]
As the safety car came in, Räikkönen quickly passed the squabbling Vettel and Alonso on the way down to the hairpin, while Hamilton desperately tried to pull away at the front.[17] Räikkönen passed Trulli two laps later, while David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello collided on the 48th lap, both cars pitting for repairs.[17] Barrichello retired three laps later. Hamilton pitted on lap 50, coming out behind Heidfeld, Piquet, Massa and Kovalainen[17][2] (who had passed Robert Kubica after the safety car period). Kovalainen let his team-mate past at the hairpin, meaning that Hamilton was now fourth. Heidfeld entered the pits with a sizeable gap over Piquet, returning to the field comfortably ahead of Kovalainen, but behind Hamilton. On lap 52, Heidfeld set a new fastest lap time, a 1:15.987. He was the only driver to go under one minute 16 seconds all day.[18]
Hamilton's speed allowed him to quickly catch Massa in second position, with Piquet in the lead by three seconds. An easy pass on Massa on lap 57 put Hamilton into second.[2][17] Three laps later he used a similar move to overtake Piquet[2] - although the Renault driver put up a greater fight than Massa had.[2] Hamilton led easily to the finish, although Piquet kept within five seconds of him. Heidfeld threatened a slowing Massa in the last laps, while Räikkönen was able to pass Kubica for sixth place.[17]
Hamilton took the chequered flag first, while Piquet enthusiastically celebrated his drive from 17th to second, just 5.5 seconds behind.[17] Massa held on to take third ahead of Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, and Kubica.[17] Sebastian Vettel secured eighth for Toro Rosso, having bested Trulli and Alonso for most of the race.[2]
Post-race
The top three finishers appeared in the subsequent press conference where Hamilton said that the decision to not pit-stop during the safety car period was the team's desicion: "We had two very comfortable, two very decent stints and the team opted for me to stay out. I guess they thought I could pull out a gap but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I only had seven laps or something, so I don’t know how that worked out."[19] He also said that "When the Safety Car came out, I questioned whether I should pit but I trusted the team to make the best decision on strategy. It didn't quite work out..."[20] Hamilton added that he felt that things looked good for the rest of the season: "We are really on top of our game right now. But I think we have not to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have got a lot of work to do for the rest of the season but if we can continue with this momentum we have got we are looking very good."[19] Piquet was delighted with his drive from qualifying 17th all the way to second, saying:
I am obviously very happy! After qualifying yesterday I was thinking that my weekend was over, but we opted for an aggressive strategy in the race and the team made some great decisions when the safety car came out. Then I had to concentrate to keep my pace up and look after my tyres as much as possible towards the end of the race. I knew that Lewis was much faster than me, so I did not want to take any pointless risks. This second place today is a great reward for the whole team.[20]
Massa commented that was car was not in good order: "It was just slow with difficult stability and also on braking I think I had a little problem as well and lost a lot of performance. I didn’t have the car to fight. I tried but it was not possible."[19]
Giancarlo Fisichella was penalized 25 seconds for unlapping lead cars during the safety car period.[21] This dropped him down two places, from 14th to 16th.
The treatment of Timo Glock after his crash caused Toyota some concern.[22] Toyota did not think that normal FIA procedure had been followed. After crashes, drivers are normally taken out of the car in their seat. Glock was unstrapped and then hauled out.[22]
The gap between Hamilton and Massa in the Drivers' Championship after the race stood at four points, in Hamilton's favour.[23] In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren somewhat caught up on Ferrari, although not by much. McLaren were ten points behind BMW coming into the race, but after the race, they were only three points behind.[23]
Classification
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Name | Constructor | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 |  Lewis Hamilton
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.218 | 1:14.603 | 1:15.666 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |  Felipe Massa
|
Ferrari | 1:14.921 | 1:14.747 | 1:15.859 | 2 |
| 3 | 23 |  Heikki Kovalainen
|
McLaren-Mercedes | 1:15.476 | 1:14.855 | 1:16.143 | 3 |
| 4 | 11 |  Jarno Trulli
|
Toyota | 1:15.560 | 1:15.122 | 1:16.191 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 |  Fernando Alonso
|
Renault | 1:15.917 | 1:14.943 | 1:16.385 | 5 |
| 6 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen
|
Ferrari | 1:15.201 | 1:14.949 | 1:16.389 | 6 |
| 7 | 4 |  Robert Kubica
|
BMW Sauber | 1:15.985 | 1:15.109 | 1:16.521 | 7 |
| 8 | 10 |  Mark Webber
|
Red Bull-Renault | 1:15.900 | 1:15.481 | 1:17.014 | 8 |
| 9 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel
|
Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:15.532 | 1:15.420 | 1:17.244 | 9 |
| 10 | 9 | David Coulthard
|
Red Bull-Renault | 1:15.975 | 1:15.338 | 1:17.503 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | Timo Glock
|
Toyota | 1:15.560 | 1:15.508 | 11 | |
| 12 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld
|
BMW Sauber | 1:15.596 | 1:15.581 | 12 | |
| 13 | 7 | Nico Rosberg
|
Williams-Toyota | 1:15.863 | 1:15.633 | 13 | |
| 14 | 16 | Jenson Button
|
Honda | 1:15.993 | 1:15.701 | 14 | |
| 15 | 14 |  Sébastien Bourdais
|
Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:15.927 | 1:15.858 | 15 | |
| 16 | 8 |  Kazuki Nakajima
|
Williams-Toyota | 1:16.083 | 16 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Nelson Piquet Jr.
|
Renault | 1:16.189 | 17 | ||
| 18 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello
|
Honda | 1:16.246 | 18 | ||
| 19 | 20 | Adrian Sutil
|
Force India-Ferrari | 1:16.657 | 19 | ||
| 20 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella
|
Force India-Ferrari | 1:16.963 | 20 | ||
Source: [24]
| |||||||
Race
Standings after the race
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
- ^ Emlyn Hughes (2008-07-20). "Live: Weather Forecasts and Reports - F1 2008 German Grand Pirx". Autosport. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "German Grand Prix". BBC Sport. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-02-21.
- ^ "Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2008". The Official Formula 1 Website. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
- ^ a b "2008 German Grand Prix Race Classification". FIA. Retrieved 2009-02-26.
- ^ a b Alan Henry. Autocourse 2008-09. CMG Publishing. pp. 180–181. ISBN 1-9053-3431-1.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|origmonth=ignored (help) - ^ a b "2008 Formula One Sporting Regulations" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 2008-05-19. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
- ^ a b c d Matt Beer (2008-07-18). "Hamilton tops first practice - Germany". autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- ^ "Germany Friday quotes: Toro Rosso". autosport.com. 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- ^ a b c Matt Beer (2008-07-18). "Hamilton also dominates second practice". autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- ^ "Germany Friday quotes: Red Bull". autosport.com. 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- ^ a b "Final practice - Kovalainen takes his turn at the top". Formula1.com. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
- ^ a b c "Qualifying - selected driver quotes". Formula1.com. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ^ a b c d e f g "2008 German Grand Prix Qualifying times". Official Formula 1 Website. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- ^ "Hamilton puts McLaren on pole in Germany". Formula1.com. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ^ "Kovalainen fined for rules breach". ITV-F1.com. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ^ "German GP - Sunday - Race Report". Grandprix.com. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Geoff Creighton and Emlyn Hughes (2008-07-20). "Live:Raceday at Hockenheim". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
- ^ "FORMULA 1 GROSSER PREIS SANTANDER VON DEUTSCHLAND 2008 Fastest laps". The Official Formula One website. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ^ a b c "FIA post-race press conference - Germany". The Official Formula 1 Website. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
- ^ a b "German Grand Prix - selected driver quotes". The Official Formula 1 Website. 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
- ^ Pablo Elizalde (2008-07-20). "Fisichella handed 25-second penalty". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
- ^ a b "Toyota concern over Glock rescue". Yahoo.com. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
- ^ a b c d Alan Henry. Autocourse 2008-09. CMG Publishing. pp. 190–191. ISBN 1-9053-3431-1.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|origmonth=ignored (help) - ^ "2008 German Grand Prix qualifying results". BBC Sport. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
External links
