Lewis Hamilton Wins 2008 British GP

A steady drive on a rainy, English Sunday afternoon gave Lewis Hamilton the win at his home Grand Prix today. Heikki Kovalainen started from the pole and led the first four laps but after that it was Hamilton’s race as he passed his teammate and headed off into the distance.

Both of the Ferraris and Fernando Alonso’s Renault started strongly but they gambled on the weather improving and didn’t change tyres during their first pit stops. Unfortunately — for them anyway — the weather worsened and they were left skating around the soaking track on their old rubber.

Nick Heidfeld had a good weekend and was, surprisingly, better than his BMW teammate in both the wet and the dry. It certainly won’t hurt his chances of keeping his seat next year if he is able to repeat this performance in future races.

Strange things happen in the rain and Rubens Barrichello, who drove a great race, avoided making the same mistakes as many of his colleagues and finished on the podium for the first time in several years.

Complete GP of Great Britain results.

Posted: Sunday, July 6th, 2008

British GP On The Move

The good news is that the British Grand Prix will remain on the World Championship calendar for the foreseeable future. The “other” news is that it will be moving to Donington Park in 2010.

Posted: Friday, July 4th, 2008

David Coulthard To Retire

David Coulthard has announced that he will retire from F1 at the end of this season. He will remain involved in the sport as a consultant to Red Bull, focussing on testing and development. Coulthard stated that he will most likely race again in some other form of motorsport but he did not elaborate.

Posted: Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

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

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

Felipe Massa Wins 2008 Turkish GP

For the third year in a row Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix from the pole this afternoon. Although Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren was in his mirrors for much of the race Massa’s victory was never seriously in doubt. Hopefully this win, his second along with a second-place in the last three races, will silence the persistent rumours that his future at Ferrari may be in doubt.

Apart from a brief period behind the safety car after Giancarlo Fisichella tried to drive over Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams on the first lap the race was fairly processional and attrition was light with only Sebastien Bourdais joining these two in the DNF category. Probably just as well as the starting grid was already depleted by the mid-week announcement that Super Aguri was folding its tent.

Depending on who you listen to, Rubens Barrichello may have set a new record today by competing in his 257th Grand Prix. Others are saying that he hasn’t “competed” in quite that many yet as he didn’t actually start a couple of the races that he was entered in during his long career. Either way, if he hasn’t already, he should break the record long before the end of this season and he’s already talking about extending his run to 300.

Complete GP of Turkey results.

Posted: Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Change In Qualifying Format After Super Aguri Folds

Since the demise of Super Aguri there will only be 20 cars on the grid for the rest of the season and so the first two knockout sessions will eliminate five instead of six cars in order to leave 10 cars in the final qualifying session.

Posted: Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Super Aguri Calls It Quits

To the surprise of… absolutely nobody, Super Aguri has withdrawn from the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship and ceased operations after failing to find a buyer / backer with deep enough pockets to keep it going and pay off its debts.

The writing has been on the wall for a while and the proposed change in rules to forbid “customer cars” in 2010 probably meant that it wasn’t worth Honda’s while to bail them out just to have to drop them again after next year.

Posted: Tuesday, May 6th, 2008