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2008 Monaco Grand Prix

The 2008 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race and the sixth round of the 2008 Formula One season. It took place on 25 May at the Circuit de Monaco in the Monte Carlo and La Condamine neighbourhoods of Monaco. The race was won by Britain's Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes, with Polish driver Robert Kubica second for BMW Sauber and Felipe Massa in third for Ferrari. The race was the first wet race of the season and was originally scheduled for 78 laps, but was ended after 76 laps as the two hour time-limit had been reached.

Report

Practice

Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen was the fastest driver in the first of the two practice sessions during the Thursday session with Lewis Hamilton second. The Brit, however, was fastest for a majority of a session that was stopped midway through after officials noticed a loose drain hole cover. Hamilton was soon more than a match for the Finn's Ferrari with a fastest time in the second session, just under three quarters of a second faster than Räikkönen with only Williams' Nico Rosberg lapping a time that was half a second behind the McLaren. Hamilton's teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, was fastest for the final session of the weekend, but the Finn crashed into a barrier soon afterwards and damaged his rear suspension. The sister McLaren of Hamilton was second, half a second behind, and Räikkönen a further tenth of a second behind.

Qualifying

First session

The session started with Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Vettel learning that he would serve a five place grid penalty for changing the gearbox in his car. The reason for this was because the gearbox he used for the previous event in Turkey, which had only ran in two events, could not be fitted to the new STR3. The German was soon joined by Giancarlo Fisichella who received a similar penalty for changing his gearbox.

Felipe Massa took the fastest time in the first session with the two McLarens of Hamilton and Kovalainen in second and third respectively. At the back Sébastien Bourdais, Nelson Piquet Jr., Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella, celebrating his 200th Grand Prix, were eliminated after posting the four slowest lap times.

Second session

Once again Massa took the fastest time of the session with Rosberg lapping closely behind and then the two McLarens. This time Timo Glock; Jenson Button; Nick Heidfeld; Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello were eliminated. This was the first time in that Heidfeld had qualified out of the top ten, "Unfortunately I don't have much to say: my qualifying result is disappointing" he told reporters, "Here in Monaco I can't heat up the tyres quickly enough". At the end of the session, Red Bull's David Coulthard suffered a violent crash at the exit of the tunnel, which meant he took no part in the third session, despite having qualified for it.

Third session

In the final session to decide the top ten, both Ferraris of Massa and Räikkönen took the front row of the grid with the Brazilian in pole position. "I still cannot believe that I am on pole. It is unbelievable." Massa said in the post–qualifying press conference, "I was pushing very hard to learn how to drive here because it was the place where I struggled every time I came here". The two McLarens made up the second row, with Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber following. David Coulthard, who completed the top ten, was the only driver not to set a time in the third session, due to the damage to his car from the crash at the end of the second session.

Race

Weather was a particular concern of the race, as rain fell just before the start of the race, and continued for twenty minutes. Thus all drivers started the race with wet tyres.

At the start of the formation lap, Kovalainen's engine stalled on the grid. He started his race from the pitlane instead of fourth on the grid. At the start Hamilton took the chance to overtake Räikkönen's Ferrari and into P2, with Massa leading the pack into turn 1. The end of lap 2 saw Button run into the back of Heidfeld, damaging his nose cone and forcing him to pit.

Lap four saw two more drivers damaging their front wings; Nico Rosberg in the Williams, and Timo Glock in his Toyota just past the pitlane entry. As a result, Glock was forced to do another lap before coming in for another nose. On lap six Hamilton slid his rear end into a barrier at the swimming pool section, puncturing his rear tyre and forcing him to pit. He returned to the race in fifth, dropping only three places because of the large spacing between the top six cars. This eventually would work out to his advantage as McLaren put enough fuel in his car to take him through to a dry tyre window.

On lap 8 Fernando Alonso lost control at the Massenet corner, aquaplaning into the barrier, puncturing his right rear tyre and damaging the hub on his rear-right wheel. Shortly after, David Coulthard made the same mistake but could not reduce his speed and crashed into the barrier, destroying his front suspension and front wing. Only a couple of seconds later yet another driver, Sebastian Bourdais, aquaplaned off at Massenet and crashed into the back of Coulthard's stationary Red Bull. The safety car was deployed for 2 laps, with Alonso pitting to repair his tyre and switching to extreme wets. Alonso returned to the race in P7, gifting his P4 to Hamilton. The safety car was pulled off at the end of lap 10 reducing the gap between P1 and P7 to just over 5 seconds.

On lap 13 Räikkönen came into the pits to serve a drive-through penalty, given because his car was not fitted with tyres until after 3 minutes before the parade lap. He rejoined 4th behind Hamilton. At the front Massa was pulling away from Kubica's BMW. Later on at the Hotel Hairpin Alonso tried to force his way past Heidfeld's car but Heidfeld left no space for him and he T-boned the BMW causing it to come to a complete stop. Whilst pulling away, Heidfeld's rear left wheel ran over Alonso's front wing, causing further damage.

Massa missed the braking point on lap 15 at the first corner but was able to stop in the run-off area without damage. However, he had to give the lead to Kubica while he turned to get back on the track. Two laps later saw Heidfeld in trouble, dropping way back into the pack and allowing several cars to pass. When he pitted at the end of lap 18, the front wing and the punctured rear-left tyre were replaced. He rejoined the race in 18th place.

With the rain stopped on lap 18, most drivers were finally able to put the hammer down. The lap times started to drop from 1 minute 34 seconds in the wet condition to below 1 minute 30 seconds.

On lap 26 some drivers started to pit for tyres and fuel. Most had been staying on standard wet tyres. At the front Räikkönen made a mistake at the first corner and damaged his front wing. His stop had been particularly long for fuel, possibly suggesting that he was on a long second stint. He rejoined sixth behind Sutil in the Force India.

On lap 33 Massa pitted for tyres and fuel, allowing Hamilton to take the lead. Massa rejoined ahead of Kubica. Several laps later, Fisichella's Force India developed gearbox trouble and he retired on lap 38.

As the track began to dry up, the drivers started to consider using dry tyres for the remainder of the race. Alonso took the gamble first and switched to dry tyres on lap 46, with Webber and Piquet soon following suit. The race did not finish well for Piquet though, who retired after smashing into the barrier on lap 47.

Lap 61 saw Nico Rosberg run wide onto the wet patches on entering the swimming pool section, crashing into the barriers in the process. This accident left a lot of debris across the track, forcing the safety car to come out for the second time. During the safety car period, both Kovalainen and Heidfeld took several laps before unlapping themselves.

The race restarted on lap 68 but at the exit of the tunnel, Räikkönen lost control of his car and ploughed into the back of the unfortunate Adrian Sutil who was running in fourth after starting from 18th on the grid. Sutil was forced to retire in the pits with a broken diffuser and rear suspension but Räikkönen continued to finish, after a second nose change, in ninth place and clock the fastest lap.

Eventually the race came to an end after passing the two hour time-limit. Hamilton took the flag after finishing the 76th lap, with Kubica and Massa finishing in the minor podium positions. Nine drivers finished on the same lap, the last being Räikkönen, with the remainder classified at least a lap down.

Post–race

The Grand Prix was the first time since the Australian Grand Prix that Ferrari had not won and was Hamilton's second win of the season, the opening round in Australia being his first. There was much controversy over the incident between Räikkönen and Sutil, in an interview with ITV, Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne said that if the roles had been reversed, Sutil hitting Räikkönen, then the team would expect to get a two race ban, "We did ask the stewards immediately to look at it – they should do because [Räikkönen] needlessly took someone out [of the race]". The stewards took no action against the Ferrari driver, "after hearing the explanation of both the competitors' representatives and the drivers, decided that the incident requires no further action" read a statement released by Monaco officials on Sunday evening.

The Finnish driver later apologised for the accident, "Basically I just think my brakes were a bit too cold and I locked the rear. I nearly lost the car but unfortunately I hit him – and it is sad for them because they are not very often in the position to finish in the points. So, I feel a bit sorry for him – but I could not do anything. I tried to slow down but there was nowhere to go and nowhere to slow down – and I lost fifth place" he said in an interview with Jonathon Noble.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Name	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:15.190	1:15.110	1:15.787	1
2	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:15.717	1:15.404	1:15.815	2
3	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.582	1:15.322	1:15.839	3
4	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.295	1:15.389	1:16.165	4
5	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:15.977	1:15.483	1:16.171	5
6	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:15.935	1:15.287	1:16.548	6
7	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:16.646	1:15.827	1:16.852	7
8	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:16.306	1:15.598	1:17.203	8
9	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.074	1:15.745	1:17.343	9
10	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.086	1:15.839	No time³	15
11	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:16.285	1:15.907		10
12	16	Jenson Button	Honda	1:16.259	1:16.101		11
13	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:16.650	1:16.455		12
14	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:16.756	1:16.479		13
15	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:16.208	1:16.537		14
16	14	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.806			16
17	6	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	1:16.933			17
18	15	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.955			19¹
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:17.225			18
20	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:17.823			20²

Sebastian Vettel demoted five place grid penalty for fitting its new gearbox with the debut of the new STR3.
Giancarlo Fisichella demoted five place grid penalty for changing a new gearbox before qualifying section.
David Coulthard hit the wall in the second qualifying and was unable to continue within the session. He then took a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox during repairs.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	76	2:00:42.742	3	10
2	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	76	+3.064	5	8
3	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	76	+4.811	1	6
4	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	76	+19.295	9	5
5	15	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	76	+24.657	19	4
6	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	76	+28.408	14	3
7	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	76	+30.180	13	2
8	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	76	+33.191	4	1
9	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	76	+33.792	2
10	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	75	+1 Lap	7
11	16	Jenson Button	Honda	75	+1 Lap	11
12	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	75	+1 Lap	10
13	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	75	+1 Lap	8
14	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	72	+4 Laps	12
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	67	Collision	18
Ret	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	59	Accident	6
Ret	6	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	47	Accident	17
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	36	Gearbox	20
Ret	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	7	Accident	15
Ret	14	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	7	Collision	16

Notes

Lap Leaders: Felipe Massa 22 (1-15, 26-32), Robert Kubica 10 (16-25) and Lewis Hamilton 44 (33-76)
This was Giancarlo Fisichella's 200th Grand Prix start, having previously driven for Minardi, Sauber, Jordan, Renault and its predecessor Benetton; he drove in Monaco for Force India.
This race marked Frank Williams' 600th race as an entrant.
Sebastian Vettel scored his first points in 2008 with the new STR3.
Rubens Barrichello scored his first points since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Adrian Sutil, who had started second to last, was in 4th place when he was hit in the rear by Kimi Räikkönen at the Nouvelle Chicane. Sutil had to retire in the pits, thus he and his team were denied points while the World Champion had the nose of his car repaired and went on to clock the fastest lap.
Kazuki Nakajima finished in 7th place and became the first Japanese driver to take a point in the Monaco Grand Prix.
The race was Ferrari's first 1-2 on the grid at Monaco since .
Mark Webber had his 5th points scoring race in a row, setting a personal record.