2008 Australian Grand Prix

The 2008 Australian Grand Prix was the first race of the 2008 Formula One season, and was won by McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. The race was notable for being the first since the 2001 season without traction control, resulting in a number of incidents, and only seven cars finishing the race (with one of those disqualified). The race resulted in Hamilton and McLaren taking an early lead in the drivers' and constructors' championships respectively.

The Grand Prix was held from 14–16 March at Albert Park Lake, Melbourne, Australia. It was the 13th race at the circuit, and the 24th Formula One race in the country. 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen had won the previous year's race, and no major changes had been made to the circuit since the previous race.

The race saw the debut of the Force India F1 team, who had bought Spyker at the end of the 2007 season. Two drivers also made their debut at the Grand Prix, in triple world champion Nelson Piquet's son, Nelson Piquet, Jr. and four time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais. GP2 champion Timo Glock also made his return to Formula One with Toyota.

Report

Practice

Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time with his Ferrari in the first free practice session of the race weekend on Friday, with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa of Ferrari second and third. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen set the fourth-fastest time, with the other teams and drivers further off the front-running pace.

In the second practice, Hamilton was fastest, almost a second ahead of second-placed Mark Webber. Massa and Kovalainen were third and fourth. Räikkönen was sixth, but his time in first practice was faster than Hamilton's fastest in second.

In the sole free practice session on Saturday, the two BMW Sauber drivers were fastest, with Robert Kubica leading Nick Heidfeld. Fernando Alonso was third for Renault, with Nico Rosberg (Williams) behind in fourth. After an unpredictable sixty minutes, the Ferrari and McLaren drivers were all further down the order than on Friday.

Qualifying

Hamilton in his McLaren-Mercedes took pole in the first qualifying session of 2008 after both his 2007 rivals, Räikkönen and Alonso, failed to make it into the top-10 shoot-out.

Session One

The new rules for 2008 extended the first qualifying session by five minutes, but still eliminated the six slowest drivers as it had in previous seasons. Super Aguri drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson failed to advance to the second session, as did both Force India drivers and newcomers Sebastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet, Jr.. Reigning World Champion Kimi Räikkönen suffered fuel pressure problems on his second flying lap and coasted to a halt in the pit lane entrance. He was prohibited from contesting the second session as the marshalls, and not his Ferrari mechanics, had to push his car back to the Ferrari garage.

Session Two

A further six drivers were eliminated from the second session of qualifying. Following Räikkönen's problems, he was eliminated by default and consequently only five drivers would not progress to the next round. Australian Mark Webber had an accident on his flying lap after a front right brake problem, and the session was temporarily stopped. Honda drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello also failed to advance, as did Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and former World Champion Fernando Alonso.

Session Three

The new rules for the season shortened the third session to ten minutes, as well as requiring drivers to start the race with whatever fuel they had left at the end of the session, rather than deciding on their race strategy and allowing them to refuel in advance. This was a decision designed to stop drivers from going through a "fuel burn" phase where they did not set competitive lap times in an effort to make their cars lighter and therefore set faster times on their flying laps. Polish driver Kubica briefly held fastest time, despite an off-track excursion, but was demoted to second place by 2007 championship runner-up Hamilton moments later. Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel also failed to set a lap time due an oil problem, leaving him in tenth place.

Race

At the start Kubica failed to capitalise on his second place start, while Sebastian Vettel was slow away from the line. Nelson Piquet Jnr made contact with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella at the first corner, putting Fisichella out of the race. Felipe Massa spun and grazed the wall, forcing him to pit for a new front wing. In another incident at turn three Mark Webber, Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel came together, putting all three out of the race. The safety car was deployed in response to the accidents. At the front Lewis Hamilton took the early lead, followed by Kubica and Rosberg. Massa's team mate Räikkönen elevated himself from fifteenth to eighth on the first lap.

The safety car came in on lap three and Hamilton quickly opened up a lead from Kubica in second. Räikkönen was stuck behind Rubens Barrichello, finally passing him lap 19 for sixth place. During the first set of pit stops Toyota driver Jarno Trulli was forced to retire due to electrical problems.

On lap 26 Massa attempted to pass David Coulthard. The two collided; Coulthard retired from the race with serious damage to his car. This brought the safety car out for the second time. Massa retired on lap 29 with Ferrari's first engine failure of the race. Räikkönen, who had been about to pit, had to stay out. Despite this he did not pit when the pit was re-opened two laps later, preferring to move up the field as other drivers pitted.

The race re-started on lap 30. Räikkönen braked very late while trying to pass Heikki Kovalainen for second place and went right off the track, losing several places. Another mistake two laps later forced him back to last of the 11 cars left on the track. He went off the track again on lap 42.

On lap 44 Timo Glock ran wide onto the grass and the bottom of his car hit two substantial bumps, the second of which caused it to briefly fly up in the air and land with force sufficient to break the suspension, leaving the monocoque in contact with the ground and unable to be stopped, resulting in a sizable accident. Glock spun twice and came to rest against the wall further down the track. He was forced to retire and the safety car came out for a third time. On the same lap, due to a false signal from the chief mechanic, Barrichello left a pit stop before the fuel hose had been removed from his car. Several mechanics suffered minor injuries. He would also serve a ten second penalty for this pit stop as it was taken while the pit lane was closed. Ultimately he was disqualified for exiting the pitlane while it was closed.

The race re-started on lap 47 and one lap later Kubica was forced out of the race after a collision with Kazuki Nakajima. Fernando Alonso was able to move up the field as a result of the high number of retirements and overtaking of Kovalainen and Räikkönen in a single move, and was fifth with eight laps left. However Kovalainen threatened to pass him in the last few laps. Räikkönen retired with Ferrari's second engine failure of the race on lap 54, after driving slowly into the pit lane.

Sébastien Bourdais's first Formula One race ended on lap 56 after suffering an engine failure (Ferrari's third of the race). He was running 4th place in the Scuderia Toro Rosso at the time and had completed his final pit stop. With just over one lap to go Kovalainen finally passed Alonso into fourth, but Alonso regained the place on the straight shortly afterwards later when Kovalainen accidentally hit the pit lane speed limiter, slowing the car momentarily.

Seven cars finished the race, but Barrichello was later disqualifed for passing a red light at the pit lane exit. Lewis Hamilton won, having led all but 5 laps of the race. Nick Heidfeld came second and Nico Rosberg recorded his first podium in third. Kazuki Nakajima was the final car to finish, but was later given a ten-place grid penalty for the next race after hitting Kubica under safety car conditions.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Name	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:26.572	1:25.187	1:26.714	1
2	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:26.103	1:25.315	1:26.869	2
3	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.664	1:25.452	1:27.079	3
4	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:25.994	1:25.691	1:27.178	4
5	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:25.960	1:25.518	1:27.236	5
6	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:26.427	1:26.101	1:28.527	6
7	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:26.295	1:26.059	1:28.687	7
8	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:26.381	1:26.063	1:29.041	8
9	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:26.919	1:26.164	1:29.593	191
10	15	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:26.702	1:25.842	no time2	9
11	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:26.369	1:26.173		10
12	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:26.907	1:26.188		11
13	16	Jenson Button	Honda	1:26.712	1:26.259		12
14	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:26.891	1:26.413		13
15	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:26.914	no time3		14
16	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:26.140	no time4		15
17	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:27.207			16
18	14	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:27.446			17
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:27.859			225
20	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:28.208			18
21	6	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	1:28.330			20
22	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:29.059			21

• Timo Glock was demoted to 19th place due to two five-place grid penalties, for a gearbox change and for impeding Webber during qualifying.
• Sebastien Vettel suffered an oil pump problem and did not take part in Q3.
• Mark Webber suffered a right front brake failure and was unable to continue with the session after spinning into the gravel.
• Kimi Räikkönen suffered a fuel pressure problem in Q1 and was barred from the rest of session for stopping on-track.
• Adrian Sutil started the race from the pitlane after he was forced to change chassis after severe damage during qualifying.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1:34:50.616	1	10
2	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	58	+5.478	5	8
3	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+8.163	7	6
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+17.181	11	5
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+18.014	3	4
6	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	57	+1 lap	13	3
7	14	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	55	Engine	17	2
8	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	Engine	15	1
Ret	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	47	Collision	2
Ret	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	43	Accident	18
Ret	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	32	Transmission	19
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	30	Clutch	20
Ret	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	29	Engine	4
Ret	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	25	Collision	8
Ret	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	19	Electrical	6
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	8	Hydraulics	22
Ret	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	0	Collision	14
Ret	16	Jenson Button	Honda	0	Collision	12
Ret	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	0	Collision	21
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	0	Collision	9
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	0	Collision	16
DSQ	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	58	Disqualified	10

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	10
2	Nick Heidfeld	8
3	Nico Rosberg	6
4	Fernando Alonso	5
5	Heikki Kovalainen	4

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	McLaren–Mercedes	14
2	Williams–Toyota	9
3	BMW Sauber	8
4	Renault	5
5	Toro Rosso–Ferrari	2

Notes

• First Race: Sébastien Bourdais, Nelson Piquet Jr.
• First Podium: Nico Rosberg
• First Points: Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Bourdais
• First Fastest Lap: Heikki Kovalainen
• Lap Leaders: Lewis Hamilton (50: 1-17, 22-42, 47-58) and Heikki Kovalainen (8: 18-21, 43-45)
• Rubens Barrichello was disqualified from 6th place for ignoring a red light at the pit exit. He also received a stop-and-go penalty during the race for refuelling when the pit lane was closed during a safety car period.
• Only six cars finished the race (with Barrichello disqualified). This was the lowest number of drivers to finish a Grand Prix since the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, where only three cars finished the race, and tied the result at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where only six cars competed due to safety issues revolving around the Michelin tyres.
• This was the first Grand Prix since the 1994 Portuguese Grand Prix featuring neither of the brothers Michael and Ralf Schumacher.
• Kazuki Nakajima was handed a 10 place grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix for the collision with Robert Kubica
• This race marked the equal best result at the time for BMW Sauber with Nick Heidfeld's second place. The other race being the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
• For the first time ever, the top three finishers are former champions of the International F3000 series or GP2 series.

References

External links

• Official Australian Grand Prix results from FIA website from Formula 1 website
• Detailed Australian Grand Prix results