Felipe Massa Wins 2008 French GP

Felipe Massa led teammate Kimi Raikkonen home for Ferrari’s third 1-2 finish of the year at today’s French Grand Prix. Raikkonen would almost certainly have won had it not been for a broken exhaust part flailing around behind his head for the second half of the race but it was still a good day for both Ferrari drivers.

McLaren’s weekend went from bad to worse when Lewis Hamilton–starting 13th thanks to his 10 grid-position penalty for rear-ending Raikkonen in Canada–was given a drive-through penalty for cutting the chicane while passing Sebastian Vettel on the first lap of the race. Heikki Kovalainen also received a five place penalty for impeding Mark Webber during qualifying.

Jarno Trulli held off Kovalainen to score Toyota’s first podium finish of the year.

Nelson Piquet finished in front of his vastly more experienced teammate to score his first points for Renault. This couldn’t have come soon enough as various sources had him losing his ride within a couple of races if he didn’t improve. I wonder if beating a two-time world champion will be enough of an improvement.

Complete GP of France results.

Posted: Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Hamilton And Rosberg Penalized

After today’s Canadian Grand Prix the stewards penalized both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for their avoidable collisions. They will both be demoted 10 grid positions after qualifying for the French Grand Prix in two weeks time.

Posted: Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Robert Kubica Wins 2008 Canadian GP

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld scored a one-two finish in today’s Canadian Grand Prix and achieved a number of firsts… Kubica’s first Grand Prix win, BMW’s first Grand Prix win as a constructor, BMW’s first one-two finish and the first Grand Prix win for a Polish driver.

McLaren-Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had started from the pole and quickly established a comfortable lead over Kubica but a safety car period to remove Adrian Sutil’s stranded Force India from the track brought Hamilton and most of the leaders into the pits for service. Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari was the first to head back towards the track but the red light at pit exit was on and so he stopped at the line and waited. Kubica pulled up alongside him and then, inexplicably, Hamilton smashed into the back of the Ferrari. It appears that he had been concentrating on the cars in front of him and had not seen the red light. His team warned him on the radio but by then it was too late to stop and both cars were too damaged to continue.

Nico Rosberg must have been doing the same thing as a moment later his Williams ran into the back of Hamilton. He was able to continue but had to make an extra stop for a new front wing which effectively put him out of contention after a good qualifying performance.

Not to be outdone in the error department Ferrari had a problem with the fuel on Felipe Massa’s car and he had to make another stop.

Series veteran David Coulthard finished third having driven a steady race and avoided the problems which befell so many of the usual front-runners.

Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli both scored for Toyota. Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Toro Rosso) and Rubens Barrichello (Honda) both finished in the points for the second straight race.

After an impressively consistent run of podiums and top-five finishes, it was only a matter of time before Robert Kubica won his first Grand Prix but it seems karmically fitting that it should come in Canada where he had such a horrendous crash last year.

Complete GP of Canada results.

Posted: Sunday, June 8th, 2008