2008 Italian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix, after dominating the race from start to finish, in wet conditions.
Report
Practice
Adrian Sutil set the fastest time in the first practice session ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella with torrential rain. The rain was so heavy that several cars failed to set a time. By the afternoon the track had dried out and Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time ahead of the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. It rained again during the practice session on Saturday, and Timo Glock set the fastest time ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.Qualifying
It rained so heavily in qualifying that predicting the pole-sitter would prove to be extremely difficult. Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time in Q1 with Lewis Hamilton just behind. Adrian Sutil, Jenson Button, Nelson Piquet, Jr., Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello failed to make it into Q2, and for the first time a Force India made it into the second Qualifying Session.Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in Q2 ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica all struggled to find grip and speed. Felipe Massa narrowly made it through to Q3, Hamilton was extremely slow, after being out on the intermediate wet tires, rather than the full extreme-wets at the wrong time, and qualified in 15th one-and-a-half seconds slower than 14th placed Raikkonen. Kubica nearly made it into Q3 and David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella were eliminated as well.
Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time early on in Q3, but was beaten by Sebastian Vettel, whose time remained unchallenged for the rest of the session. Felipe Massa struggled and qualified sixth. Mark Webber qualified third place, ahead of Vettel's teammate Sébastien Bourdais.
Race
The rain continued to fall on Sunday before the race, and with treacherous conditions and standing water in places on the track, the race was started behind the Safety Car. Jenson Button and Kazuki Nakajima elected to start from the pit lane. Sébastien Bourdais stalled on the grid, and by the time his pit crew had managed to restart his car, he was already a lap down. On Lap 3 the Safety Car pulled off and the race began proper, with Sebastian Vettel opening up a two-second advantage over Heikki Kovalainen after one green-flag lap. After ten laps, the gap had increased to seven seconds.
On Lap 13, Giancarlo Fisichella rear-ended David Coulthard when attempting to pass at the first chicane, damaging his front wing. The front wing broke off just before the Parabolica, getting stuck underneath the car, and sending Fisichella across the gravel into the tyre barriers. Vettel was the first to pit, on Lap 23. By this time Lewis Hamilton had passed Räikkönen, Fisichella, Coulthard, Kubica, and Glock; and benefitting from his one-stop strategy, he moved to third place after the first round of pit stops from the two-stoppers. After he made his first stop he dropped back to seventh.
The rain stopped about halfway through the race, and soon afterwards it became necessary to change from extreme-wets to intermediate tyres. All the two-stoppers changed to intermediates at their second stops, and nearly all the one-stoppers had to pit for a second time to change to intermediates, which ended not only Hamilton's chance at victory, but also the chances of some drivers to score points, such as Rosberg and Jarno Trulli.. However, those who had left their stops a little later such as Kubica & Alonso timed the switch to intermediates perfectly with their scheduled stops and rocketed up the order as a result.
Hamilton began to lose pace towards the end of the race, having excess tyre wear, and had to defend against Webber for 7th place. Two laps before the end of the race, Nakajima and Coulthard clashed at the Parabolica leaving debris from Coulthard's front wing across the track, which Massa ran over on the next lap. Vettel had a twelve-second advantage over Kovalainen when he crossed the finish line to earn his, and Toro Rosso's, first ever Formula One victory.
Classification
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Name | Constructor | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:35.464 | 1:35.837 | 1:37.555 | 1 |
| 2 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.214 | 1:35.843 | 1:37.631 | 2 |
| 3 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:36.001 | 1:36.306 | 1:38.117 | 3 |
| 4 | 14 | Sébastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:35.543 | 1:36.175 | 1:38.445 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:35.485 | 1:35.898 | 1:38.767 | 5 |
| 6 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:35.536 | 1:36.676 | 1:38.894 | 6 |
| 7 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:35.906 | 1:36.008 | 1:39.152 | 7 |
| 8 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:36.297 | 1:36.518 | 1:39.751 | 8 |
| 9 | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:35.737 | 1:36.525 | 1:39.787 | 9 |
| 10 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:35.709 | 1:36.626 | 1:39.906 | 10 |
| 11 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:35.553 | 1:36.697 | 11 | |
| 12 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 1:36.280 | 1:36.698 | 12 | |
| 13 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 1:36.485 | 1:37.284 | 13 | |
| 14 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:35.965 | 1:37.522 | 14 | |
| 15 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.394 | 1:39.265 | 15 | |
| 16 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:36.510 | 16 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | Renault | 1:36.630 | 17 | ||
| 18 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:36.653 | 18 | ||
| 19 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:37.006 | 19 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 1:37.417 | 20 |
Race
* Kazuki Nakajima and Jenson Button started the race from the pit lane.
Notes
- Lap Leaders: Sebastian Vettel 49 (1-18, 23-53), Heikki Kovalainen 4 (19-22)
- All three podium finishers are drivers who won their first Grands Prix and took their first pole position during 2008.
- The weekend saw Toro Rosso and Vettel both claim their first pole position and win.
- Vettel displaced Alonso as the youngest polesitter, youngest Grand Prix winner and youngest Podium finish ever. He achieved both feats at the age of 21 years, 72 and 73 days respectively.
- The podium was the youngest ever seen with an average age of 23 years and 350 days.
- Toro Rosso is the first Italian team, apart from Ferrari, to have won a Formula One Grand Prix since 1997. The last non-Ferrari team with an Italian licence to win was Benetton in 1997. The last non-Ferrari team based in Italy to win was Maserati in 1957.
- Toro Rosso also became the first non manufacturer-backed constructor to win a Formula One Grand Prix since Giancarlo Fisichella won the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix in a Jordan.
- This is the first win for a customer Ferrari engine, i.e. one which is not mounted on a Ferrari.
- Force India made it to Q2 for the first time with Fisichella qualifying 12th in the treacharous conditions.
- In his two-year career, this is the first time Lewis Hamilton failed to reach the Third Qualifying Session and therefore only the second time he started outside the top 10. (The other was due to a grid position penalty at the 2008 French Grand Prix).
- It is also the first time Kimi Räikkönen has qualified outside the top 10 after setting a time in Qualifying 2 since the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix whilst he was with McLaren.
- Sébastien Bourdais becomes the first Frenchman to qualify in the top 5 of a Grand Prix since Olivier Panis qualified 4th for the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix.
- Sebastian Vettel becomes the first German to win a Grand Prix since Michael Schumacher won the wet 2006 Chinese Grand Prix.
- This is the second race of the season where there has been only one retiree, Giancarlo Fisichella. Jenson Button was the only retiree in the French GP.
- The shape of the trophies given to three podium finishers was an imitation of the logo mark of Banco Santander, the title sponsor of the event. It was criticized to seem to have contravened the Formula One sporting regulations that requires Grand Prix promoters to present trophies "in the form of traditional cups.
- After the completion of this race, all teams which had scored the points also scored at least one podium for a season.
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday October 04, 2008 at 06:50:45 PDT (GMT -0700)
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