Monday, May 26, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 10:44 AM
Formula One Grand Prix de Monaco 2008: Race Report
Lewis Hamilton survived tricky conditions and a brush with the barriers to take an excellent and emotional victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, the jewel in the crown of Formula 1. He came home ahead of Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa, while championship leader Kimi Raikkonen finished outside the points in 9th place and consequently relinquished the lead of the drivers' championship.
Monaco always has the potential for drama, and the drama started some 15 minutes before the race began - rain began to fall. The rain was light at first, but got heavier as the start of the race approached. This naturally would have made for some complicated decisions for the team strategists, but the choice of wet tyres (as opposed to extreme weather tyres) seemed logical, at least for the start of the race. There were, however, some mad scrambles on the grid because it appeared that the rain could get worse, and some last minute decisions about tyre choice were being made.
As the formation lap got underway, it was clear that all the drivers were on the wet tyres and no one had gambled on the extreme weather tyres. Heikki Kovalainen failed to get going, however. His car had to be pushed to the pit lane, and he would start the race from there. The cars lined up and the lights went out - Kimi Raikkonen got a little bogged down at the start, and that allowed Lewis Hamilton to surge past into second place into Ste Devote. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso got a good start and vaulted into 5th place. As usual, there were some mid-pack scrambles, and both Rosberg and Button damaged the noses of their cars by running into the back of the cars ahead of the them (Alonso and Heidfeld respectively). Button pitted for a new nose, and that dropped him to the tail end of the field. Rosberg would follow suit, but not before completing another 2 laps with his front wing hanging off.
At the front, Massa began to pull away from Hamilton in the damp conditions. The conditions steadily worsened and the conditions became trickier - Timo Glock managed to spin his Toyota at the exit of Noghes on lap 5, wiping off the front wing. He had to tour round an entire lap before pitting for a replacement. Then, on lap 6 in the worsening conditions, Hamilton made a mistake and ran wide at the exit of Tabac. He clipped the barrier with his right-rear tyre, damaging the tyre and forcing it off the rim. Fortunately for him, he didn't have far to go to get back to the pits, and he pitted for new tyres and a good dose of fuel. He rejoined the race in fourth place - the field had become quite spread out due to the poor and worsening conditions.
Two laps later and the conditions had worsened further - at Massenet at the top of the hill, Fernando Alonso aquaplaned off and hit the barrier, damaging his tyre. He limped back to the pits and was able to continue. Just seconds after Alonso's incident, David Coulthard lost control in the same place and slammed into the barriers. Moments later, Sebastien Bourdais did exactly the same thing and shunted into the back of Coulthard's car. The collisions precipitated the safety car.
It was a lucky break for Hamilton. Although he had dropped to fourth place, he was a long way behind Massa after his pit stop. The safety car period allowed the field to close up, and the Hamilton recovered what time he had lost. It was also a lucky break for Alonso, who took advantage of the fact that he was allowed to pit to repair accident damage to fit extreme wet tyres. It was an unlucky break for Raikkonen though - the stewards issued a drive-through penalty because the Ferrari team had not fully fitted his tyres by the 3-minute to go signal, and the bunching of the field under the safety car exacerbated the penalty.
The safety car peeled off on lap ten, and immediately Alonso was on the move - the extreme wets were working in the poorer conditions, and he forced his way ahead of Mark Webber. However a couple of laps later, Alonso made an ill-advised stab down the inside of Nick Heidfeld at the Leowes Hairpin, and punted the German into a spin, blocking the track. This caused a bit of a traffic jam down the hill, and Webber had nowhere to go but into the back of Alonso. They all got going again, and Alonso pitted for a new nosecone, dropping him all the way back to 17th place. It wasn't smooth sailing for Massa either. He overshot Ste Devote under braking, and had to turn around in the run-off area. This allowed Robert Kubica into the lead.
Someone who was thriving in the conditions was Adrian Sutil. By lap 20 he had worked his way up from 18th on the grid to 6th in the race - he was basically avoiding all the trouble, had benefitted from the misfortunes of those ahead of him but, more importantly, was driving very quickly - at times faster than the leaders. Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne indicated that Sutil was on a 1-stop strategy, with a lot of fuel on board for a late-race stop, thus that he was in a great position to finish in the top 6.
By lap 20 the rain had stopped, and the conditions started to improve, although the track was still extremely wet. Felipe Massa set fastest lap in the improving conditions, whilst Fernando Alonso was dropping back on his extreme wets. As the track started to dry out a little, the first round of scheduled pit stops took place - Kubica surrendered the lead and came out just as Raikkonen was approaching. It looked like it would be close between the two but incredibly the world champion made a mistake under braking for Ste. Devote and ran straight on, damaging his nose cone in the process. He was forced to pit for a replacement. A long stop ensued due to difficulty in doing up the retaining lugs on the wing, and he dropped to 6th place - behind Adrian Sutil! Force India probably couldn't believe that they were actually racing a Ferrari for position, although Mike Gascoyne was coy about it and said that they were really racing against Jarno Trulli in 7th (because Raikkonen had already made his stop; Sutil had yet to make his). Trulli was slow though - he was on the extreme wets in drying conditions, and was really holding up the people behind him.
After his earlier dramas, Hamilton had been steadily plugging away in third place, and then second after Kubica's stop. Shortly before half distance he began to up the tempo, setting a fastest lap in the process. On lap 33 Felipe Massa pitted from the lead, and took on more wet tyres. Hamilton inherited the lead, and began to put the hammer down. He and Massa traded fastest laps (although Adrian Sutil then beat the pair of them!). McLaren and Hamilton seemed to think that Massa had made his one and only stop of the day - if he was going to win, Hamilton would need a gap of around 26 seconds before making his one and only stop. Thus what followed was an absolute demonstration drive from Hamilton - on a clear track he was over a second quicker than Massa. Through traffic Hamilton was slowed only marginally, whereas Massa seemed to lose more time- on occasions Hamilton was three seconds per lap faster!
The track continued to dry and it was looking like it would be worth gambling on a switch to dry tyres. On lap 46, Fernando Alonso (who was mired down in 15th) pitted and took on Primes - a bold move. However, it was still a little premature - he struggled for the first three or four laps out of the pits, as did Webber who also changed to Primes. However, as the track dried more, the dry tyres came good - Alonso was able to match Hamilton's sector times, then on lap 56 set fastest lap. It was time to switch. This was the cue for the McLaren crew - to bring in Kovalainen. He was running well out of the points in 11th, and they used him as a guinea pig for Hamilton. It was clear that dry tyres was the way to go though.
So on lap 55, Hamilton pitted from the lead. He had built up a lead of over 30 seconds in the changeable conditions - an incredible drive - and his pit stop came at the perfect time for dry tyres. It was quite fortuitous - that was only possible after his earlier collision with the barrier and subsequent strategy change. Hamilton emerged from his stop and retained the lead. On the same lap, Adrian Sutil pitted from fourth place, dropping to 5th. It was one place better than Mike Gascoyne had anticipated, and it would only get better because both Ferraris were still running on the wet tyres and had to pit. Sutil's stop came at the perfect moment and unlike Hamilton, it was by design (although the timing was still lucky).
Both Ferraris had to pit for the dry tyres - Massa took on Option tyres, and got very squirrelly coming out of the pit lane. This allowed Robert Kubica to rocket past the Brazilian into 2nd place. The strategy hadn't worked in Massa's favour. A lap later, Raikkonen pitted from fourth place, dropping him to fifth place - behind Adrian Sutil! Force India probably couldn't believe that they were in a Prancing Horse sandwich and racing the world champion for position. It looked like it could be a great result for the tail end team. The race was not over yet, though.
On lap 62, Nico Rosberg lost control of his car under braking for Piscine - he slammed into the right hand side barrier, then pinballed into the left hand barrier. The remains of his car came to rest in the middle of the track, with a huge debris field around it. Rosberg hopped out apparently uninjured, and the safety car came out for the second time. This bunched the field up, and negated Lewis Hamilton's advantage, which was over 40 seconds by the time the safety car came out. With the field under control, the signal for lapped cars to pass was issued by race control, but bizarrely Kovalainen and Heidfeld didn't seem to get the message and toured around in the pack for two laps when they could have assumed position. The confusion seemed to delay the restart, and by the time it came, there was only 11 scheduled laps of the race to go (but due to the slow pace, the race would hit the 2 hour mark before then - about 7 laps worth of racing).
The drama was far from over. Adrian Sutil was driving the race of his life and had not made a single mistake all day. He looked set for an excellent fourth place finish if he could just bring the car home. However, it just wasn't to be. Under braking for the chicane, Kimi Raikkonen (who was behind Sutil) dramatically lost control, and fought with his writhing car before slamming into the back of the young German. It was a silly and avoidable mistake from the world champion - he was just pushing too hard. Although he was able to crawl back to the pits for his second nose change of the afternoon, he dropped out of the points. It was even more costly for Sutil though - his car was too damaged to continue. He had done absolutely nothing wrong the entire race, a race which had seen world champions and previous Monaco winners fling it off the road and into the barriers. Sutil was heartbroken and inconsolable. Mike Gascoyne did his best to temper his anger, but you could hear the frustration in his voice: "If a Force India driver hit the world champion, we'd expect a one or two race ban".
The retirement of Sutil promoted Sebastian Vettel into 5th place - he was another driver who had done nothing wrong all day, but had driven a more anonymous race than Sutil. In the end, anonymity - that is staying out of trouble - was an advantage.
In the closing stages of the race, Hamilton rocketed away from Robert Kubica, setting fastest lap in the process. Cheekily, Kimi Raikkonen snatched that glory away from Hamilton in a vain effort to catch and pass Heikki Kovalainen, who had endured a difficult race and was running in the last points paying position in 8th. But it was Hamilton who took the ultimate glory - victory in Monaco. The race hit the two hour mark, and on lap 76 he cruised across the line to take a stunning and emotional victory, emulating his hero Ayrton Senna. Robert Kubica came home an excellent 2nd - his star is surely rising - and Massa held on for third place, ahead of Webber, Vettel, Barrichello, Nakajima, and Kovalainen. Each one of the drives from the top 8 drivers is a story in itself, but suffice it to say that those who avoided trouble did the best on the day, and experience also counts! Rubens Barrichello will be especially pleased at his first points of the season.
Hamilton's unbridled joy as he leapt from the car then embraced his father and brother was a wonderful sight, and it shows how much victory in Monaco means - to all the drivers. It was a hard earned victory as well, although there was a healthy dose of luck involved. The plaudits should also be shared by the McLaren team as well - an excellent strategy call got them a superb race victory, and they have now moved ahead of BMW in the constructors' championship. Furthermore, Hamilton now assumes the lead of the drivers' world championship as he heads for Canada - the scene of his first F1 victory.
It's all too easy to invoke the name and legacy of Ayrton Senna when talking about victories in Monaco. Indeed, Hamilton did it himself after the race. It seems fashionable to call Hamilton's victory "Sennaesque". But it wasn't. It was "Hamiltonian" - a style all of its own. It's time for Hamilton to stop comparing himself to legends and become one himself. Besides, Senna would never have made victory in Monaco look that difficult.
Monaco always has the potential for drama, and the drama started some 15 minutes before the race began - rain began to fall. The rain was light at first, but got heavier as the start of the race approached. This naturally would have made for some complicated decisions for the team strategists, but the choice of wet tyres (as opposed to extreme weather tyres) seemed logical, at least for the start of the race. There were, however, some mad scrambles on the grid because it appeared that the rain could get worse, and some last minute decisions about tyre choice were being made.
As the formation lap got underway, it was clear that all the drivers were on the wet tyres and no one had gambled on the extreme weather tyres. Heikki Kovalainen failed to get going, however. His car had to be pushed to the pit lane, and he would start the race from there. The cars lined up and the lights went out - Kimi Raikkonen got a little bogged down at the start, and that allowed Lewis Hamilton to surge past into second place into Ste Devote. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso got a good start and vaulted into 5th place. As usual, there were some mid-pack scrambles, and both Rosberg and Button damaged the noses of their cars by running into the back of the cars ahead of the them (Alonso and Heidfeld respectively). Button pitted for a new nose, and that dropped him to the tail end of the field. Rosberg would follow suit, but not before completing another 2 laps with his front wing hanging off.
At the front, Massa began to pull away from Hamilton in the damp conditions. The conditions steadily worsened and the conditions became trickier - Timo Glock managed to spin his Toyota at the exit of Noghes on lap 5, wiping off the front wing. He had to tour round an entire lap before pitting for a replacement. Then, on lap 6 in the worsening conditions, Hamilton made a mistake and ran wide at the exit of Tabac. He clipped the barrier with his right-rear tyre, damaging the tyre and forcing it off the rim. Fortunately for him, he didn't have far to go to get back to the pits, and he pitted for new tyres and a good dose of fuel. He rejoined the race in fourth place - the field had become quite spread out due to the poor and worsening conditions.
Two laps later and the conditions had worsened further - at Massenet at the top of the hill, Fernando Alonso aquaplaned off and hit the barrier, damaging his tyre. He limped back to the pits and was able to continue. Just seconds after Alonso's incident, David Coulthard lost control in the same place and slammed into the barriers. Moments later, Sebastien Bourdais did exactly the same thing and shunted into the back of Coulthard's car. The collisions precipitated the safety car.
It was a lucky break for Hamilton. Although he had dropped to fourth place, he was a long way behind Massa after his pit stop. The safety car period allowed the field to close up, and the Hamilton recovered what time he had lost. It was also a lucky break for Alonso, who took advantage of the fact that he was allowed to pit to repair accident damage to fit extreme wet tyres. It was an unlucky break for Raikkonen though - the stewards issued a drive-through penalty because the Ferrari team had not fully fitted his tyres by the 3-minute to go signal, and the bunching of the field under the safety car exacerbated the penalty.
The safety car peeled off on lap ten, and immediately Alonso was on the move - the extreme wets were working in the poorer conditions, and he forced his way ahead of Mark Webber. However a couple of laps later, Alonso made an ill-advised stab down the inside of Nick Heidfeld at the Leowes Hairpin, and punted the German into a spin, blocking the track. This caused a bit of a traffic jam down the hill, and Webber had nowhere to go but into the back of Alonso. They all got going again, and Alonso pitted for a new nosecone, dropping him all the way back to 17th place. It wasn't smooth sailing for Massa either. He overshot Ste Devote under braking, and had to turn around in the run-off area. This allowed Robert Kubica into the lead.
Someone who was thriving in the conditions was Adrian Sutil. By lap 20 he had worked his way up from 18th on the grid to 6th in the race - he was basically avoiding all the trouble, had benefitted from the misfortunes of those ahead of him but, more importantly, was driving very quickly - at times faster than the leaders. Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne indicated that Sutil was on a 1-stop strategy, with a lot of fuel on board for a late-race stop, thus that he was in a great position to finish in the top 6.
By lap 20 the rain had stopped, and the conditions started to improve, although the track was still extremely wet. Felipe Massa set fastest lap in the improving conditions, whilst Fernando Alonso was dropping back on his extreme wets. As the track started to dry out a little, the first round of scheduled pit stops took place - Kubica surrendered the lead and came out just as Raikkonen was approaching. It looked like it would be close between the two but incredibly the world champion made a mistake under braking for Ste. Devote and ran straight on, damaging his nose cone in the process. He was forced to pit for a replacement. A long stop ensued due to difficulty in doing up the retaining lugs on the wing, and he dropped to 6th place - behind Adrian Sutil! Force India probably couldn't believe that they were actually racing a Ferrari for position, although Mike Gascoyne was coy about it and said that they were really racing against Jarno Trulli in 7th (because Raikkonen had already made his stop; Sutil had yet to make his). Trulli was slow though - he was on the extreme wets in drying conditions, and was really holding up the people behind him.
After his earlier dramas, Hamilton had been steadily plugging away in third place, and then second after Kubica's stop. Shortly before half distance he began to up the tempo, setting a fastest lap in the process. On lap 33 Felipe Massa pitted from the lead, and took on more wet tyres. Hamilton inherited the lead, and began to put the hammer down. He and Massa traded fastest laps (although Adrian Sutil then beat the pair of them!). McLaren and Hamilton seemed to think that Massa had made his one and only stop of the day - if he was going to win, Hamilton would need a gap of around 26 seconds before making his one and only stop. Thus what followed was an absolute demonstration drive from Hamilton - on a clear track he was over a second quicker than Massa. Through traffic Hamilton was slowed only marginally, whereas Massa seemed to lose more time- on occasions Hamilton was three seconds per lap faster!
The track continued to dry and it was looking like it would be worth gambling on a switch to dry tyres. On lap 46, Fernando Alonso (who was mired down in 15th) pitted and took on Primes - a bold move. However, it was still a little premature - he struggled for the first three or four laps out of the pits, as did Webber who also changed to Primes. However, as the track dried more, the dry tyres came good - Alonso was able to match Hamilton's sector times, then on lap 56 set fastest lap. It was time to switch. This was the cue for the McLaren crew - to bring in Kovalainen. He was running well out of the points in 11th, and they used him as a guinea pig for Hamilton. It was clear that dry tyres was the way to go though.
So on lap 55, Hamilton pitted from the lead. He had built up a lead of over 30 seconds in the changeable conditions - an incredible drive - and his pit stop came at the perfect time for dry tyres. It was quite fortuitous - that was only possible after his earlier collision with the barrier and subsequent strategy change. Hamilton emerged from his stop and retained the lead. On the same lap, Adrian Sutil pitted from fourth place, dropping to 5th. It was one place better than Mike Gascoyne had anticipated, and it would only get better because both Ferraris were still running on the wet tyres and had to pit. Sutil's stop came at the perfect moment and unlike Hamilton, it was by design (although the timing was still lucky).
Both Ferraris had to pit for the dry tyres - Massa took on Option tyres, and got very squirrelly coming out of the pit lane. This allowed Robert Kubica to rocket past the Brazilian into 2nd place. The strategy hadn't worked in Massa's favour. A lap later, Raikkonen pitted from fourth place, dropping him to fifth place - behind Adrian Sutil! Force India probably couldn't believe that they were in a Prancing Horse sandwich and racing the world champion for position. It looked like it could be a great result for the tail end team. The race was not over yet, though.
On lap 62, Nico Rosberg lost control of his car under braking for Piscine - he slammed into the right hand side barrier, then pinballed into the left hand barrier. The remains of his car came to rest in the middle of the track, with a huge debris field around it. Rosberg hopped out apparently uninjured, and the safety car came out for the second time. This bunched the field up, and negated Lewis Hamilton's advantage, which was over 40 seconds by the time the safety car came out. With the field under control, the signal for lapped cars to pass was issued by race control, but bizarrely Kovalainen and Heidfeld didn't seem to get the message and toured around in the pack for two laps when they could have assumed position. The confusion seemed to delay the restart, and by the time it came, there was only 11 scheduled laps of the race to go (but due to the slow pace, the race would hit the 2 hour mark before then - about 7 laps worth of racing).
The drama was far from over. Adrian Sutil was driving the race of his life and had not made a single mistake all day. He looked set for an excellent fourth place finish if he could just bring the car home. However, it just wasn't to be. Under braking for the chicane, Kimi Raikkonen (who was behind Sutil) dramatically lost control, and fought with his writhing car before slamming into the back of the young German. It was a silly and avoidable mistake from the world champion - he was just pushing too hard. Although he was able to crawl back to the pits for his second nose change of the afternoon, he dropped out of the points. It was even more costly for Sutil though - his car was too damaged to continue. He had done absolutely nothing wrong the entire race, a race which had seen world champions and previous Monaco winners fling it off the road and into the barriers. Sutil was heartbroken and inconsolable. Mike Gascoyne did his best to temper his anger, but you could hear the frustration in his voice: "If a Force India driver hit the world champion, we'd expect a one or two race ban".
The retirement of Sutil promoted Sebastian Vettel into 5th place - he was another driver who had done nothing wrong all day, but had driven a more anonymous race than Sutil. In the end, anonymity - that is staying out of trouble - was an advantage.
In the closing stages of the race, Hamilton rocketed away from Robert Kubica, setting fastest lap in the process. Cheekily, Kimi Raikkonen snatched that glory away from Hamilton in a vain effort to catch and pass Heikki Kovalainen, who had endured a difficult race and was running in the last points paying position in 8th. But it was Hamilton who took the ultimate glory - victory in Monaco. The race hit the two hour mark, and on lap 76 he cruised across the line to take a stunning and emotional victory, emulating his hero Ayrton Senna. Robert Kubica came home an excellent 2nd - his star is surely rising - and Massa held on for third place, ahead of Webber, Vettel, Barrichello, Nakajima, and Kovalainen. Each one of the drives from the top 8 drivers is a story in itself, but suffice it to say that those who avoided trouble did the best on the day, and experience also counts! Rubens Barrichello will be especially pleased at his first points of the season.
Hamilton's unbridled joy as he leapt from the car then embraced his father and brother was a wonderful sight, and it shows how much victory in Monaco means - to all the drivers. It was a hard earned victory as well, although there was a healthy dose of luck involved. The plaudits should also be shared by the McLaren team as well - an excellent strategy call got them a superb race victory, and they have now moved ahead of BMW in the constructors' championship. Furthermore, Hamilton now assumes the lead of the drivers' world championship as he heads for Canada - the scene of his first F1 victory.
It's all too easy to invoke the name and legacy of Ayrton Senna when talking about victories in Monaco. Indeed, Hamilton did it himself after the race. It seems fashionable to call Hamilton's victory "Sennaesque". But it wasn't. It was "Hamiltonian" - a style all of its own. It's time for Hamilton to stop comparing himself to legends and become one himself. Besides, Senna would never have made victory in Monaco look that difficult.
Labels: Formula 1, Grand Prix, Monaco
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