Lewis Hamilton Wins 2008 Monaco GP

On Saturday it was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who was all smiles after winning the pole on the Monte Carlo street circuit which–as he is the first to admit–he doesn’t like very much. Today Lewis Hamilton had the last laugh after he won the Monaco Grand Prix in what he said was one of the greatest moments of his life.

The race didn’t start out too well for McLaren as the Ferraris had the front row to themselves and Heikki Kovalainen had clutch trouble on the grid as the the rest of the field started their warm up lap which meant that he had to start from pit lane. As had been forecast it was also raining and some parts of the circuit were very wet.

To make matters even worse Hamilton slapped the barrier on the sixth lap and had to pit for fresh tyres as his right rear was flat. At this point his team changed their strategy and topped him off with fuel so that he could stay out longer than his competitors before his second stop. This turned out to be the winning move as he set a fast pace and built up enough of a gap that he retained the lead after his next stop.

As is normal at Monaco, especially when it is wet, passing was difficult unless someone made a mistake and there were plenty of those on the slick pavement. A few crashes and a couple of safety car periods later there were some unexpected names in the top 10 and several of the favourites were running behind them.

Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) scored his first points of the season as did Rubens Barrichello (Honda). Adrian Sutil (Force India) looked likely to finish fourth and score the first points for both himself and his team but his season-long run of bad luck continued when Kimi Raikkonen hit a wet patch on the drying track, lost control and careered into the back of him. Raikkonen was able to continue after a stop for a new nose and front wing but it was game over for Sutil.

Complete GP of Monaco results.

Posted: Sunday, May 25th, 2008