British GP: Hamilton Rules The Waves

Sunday 6th July 2008

Lewis Hamilton produced the drive of his career to score an impressive win in the rain and showers of Slverstone.

On an afternoon when all his fellow World Championship contenders looked distinctly amateur the Brit drove virtually an error-free race to claim victory ahead of Nick Heidfeld and a very popular Rubens Barrichello.

Raikkonen finished in fourth place, giving F1 a three-way tie for the driver's title with Raikkonen, Hamilton and Felipe Massa, who had a dismal race, equal on 48 points.

Grand Prix Report
With a wet track and the prospect of more rain soon, there was no other choice of tyre on the grid than intermediates. The ambient temperature ata blustery Silverstone was just 16C with the track at 17C. There was not enough water to call for a Safety Car start, but it was still going to be a tricky opening lap.

When the lights went out, Heikki Kovalainen got a good start from pole. P2, Mark Webber, had been slow off the line in France and so it proved again. Thus Lewis Hamilton was able to take a flying run down the inside of the Red Bull into Copse and almost took the lead off Kovalainen.

The Finn put his rear tyre on the white line on the exit of the corner and almost spun in front of Lewis as Raikkonen also steamed past Webber for 3rd place. The cars piled through Maggots and Beckets and suddenly Mark Webber's afternoon went from bad to worse as he spun in front of the field.

Felipe Massa then embarked on an afternoon of spinning by losing control of his Ferrari from 7th place at the exitof Abbey, ending up last on the opening lap - though that would only be 18th after David Culthard tried a move on Sebastian Vettel into Priory that didn't work out, taking them both into the gravel and retirement.

So the order after Lap 1 was Kovalainen, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Piquet, Alonso, Trulli, Kubica, Glock, Barrichelo, Sutil and Button

Though he had already tried on the opening lap, on Lap 2 Lewis showed signs of wanting to get past his team-mate in a hurry, pulling alongside Kovalainen in the tight twisty infield section. By Lap 3 Alonso was ahead of Piquet and charging after 4th placed Heidfeld.

On Lap 4, Massa spun again at Woodcote and he would go on to spin at least five times, together with sundry off-track excursions.

Lewis Hamilton got by his team-mate in the braking zone to Stowe on Lap 5 and set about establishing a gap. Immediately he was quicker, putting in a 1:34.9 compared to Kovalainen's 1:37.1 and Raikkonen's 1:36.4. Alonso was also on a charge, setting the fastest lap of the race so far and easing his way past Heidfeld into 4th place.

On Lap 6 the order was Hamilton, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Piquet, Trulli, Kubica, Glock, Barrichello, Button and Sutil.

Lewis set about lowering the fastest lap time and the first stint was all about opening a gap to his team-mate - though that soon became Raikkonen after Kovalainen spun at Abbey allowing his fellow Finn through, along with Alonso.

Once clear of Kovalainen, Raikkonen started to reduce the gap down to the leader. On Lap 10 Lewis had a six second advantage, by Lap 14 it was down to 3.8 seconds courtesy of some fast laps by the Ferrari driver.

On Lap 11 Adrian Sutil flew into retirement, his car losing control on the run down to Abbey then snapping sideways and launching itself low and sideways across the corner and into the gravel.

Hamilton was still the fastest man in Sector 1, but with the Ferrari kinder on its rear tyres, Raikkonen was able to close in considerably on the grippier, slow Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote section of the lap.

The gap was down to as litle as 2.3 seconds on Lap 18 when the much-predicted rain came. At the end of Lap 19 Kovalainen pitted and rejoined in front of the Kubica/Trulli battle. By Lap 21 Hamilton's lead was less than a second and both Hamilton and Raikkonen pitted at the same time.

In the pits, the Ferrari was stopped momentarily quicker than the McLaren, but the Mclaren team kept their nerve and allowed Lewis out just in front of Raikkonen.

They emerged from the pitlane in 2nd and 3rd with just Heidfeld ahead of them on track and still to stop.

Given a new set of tyres Hamilton set about a devastating charge in the rain. The Ferrari team hadn't changed Raikkonen's intemediate tyres and it was a mistake that would soon cost them dear.

On Lap 22 Nick Heidfeld pitted for fuel and tyres, he rejoined behind Trulli and Alonso and on Lap 23 in a most glorious overtaking move into Woodcote, overtook both of them together - one on the outside and one on the inside.

In front of him, in the space of just two laps,Hamilton had opened up a 4.7 second gap. By Lap 24 it was 9.8 seconds. Incredibly Hamilton put in a 1:34.655 against Raikkonen's 1:39.919.

This wasn't a temporary aberration, though. On Lap 35 Lewis was two seconds quicker than Raikkonen in the first sector alone - at the end of the lap the gap was 15.1 seconds (a 1:34.9 for the leader compared to a 1:40.2 for Raikkonen.)

Alonso, like Raikkonen, hadn't changed his tyres and was falling back, overtaken in quick succession by Timo Glock and team-mate Nelson Piquet Junior. Glock now 5th and Piquet 6th.

On Lap 26 the gap was a massive 21.8 seconds to Raikkonen who was now falling into the clutches of Heikki Kovalainen, as Lewis Hamilton lapped the struggling Felipe Massa.

Kovalainen was clearly much quicker than Raikkonen (about five seconds a lap quicker) but was tentative in getting past him. On Lap 27 he finally managed to take 2nd place from the Ferrari going through Woodcoate, just as Nick Heidfeld arrived on the scene to take 2nd place off both of them. It was another stellar move by the German, the overtaking performance of the season.

Despite his tyre disadvantage Raikkonen refused to pit. The positions on Lap 26 were Hamilton, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Piquet, Kubica, Barrichello, Glock., Trulli and Fernando Alonso. At this stage Raikkonen was putting in 1:43 laps while Kubica was lapping in 1:35s.

On Lap 31 he pitted to be fuelled to the finish. He rejoined 87.6 seconds behind the leader, although Kovalainen was also 18.4 seconds behind second placed Nick Heidfeld.

On Lap 32 Timo Glock took time out to wave his fist at Felipe Massa for blocking him - Massa being a lap down on the Toyota driver.

Heikki Kovalainen's afternoon got worse on Lap 34 when both Robert Kubica and Nelson Piquet passed him for 3rd and 4th places. Rubens Barrichello, who stars in mixed conditions, was now up to 6th place for Honda.

The rain returned with a vengeance on Lap 36 and caught a lot of drivers out as the water built up on the track and tyres aquaplaned. Nelson Piquet threw away a great result away by sliding off the road into the gravel at Abbey as both Hondas pitted together.

The Honda crew were going to gamble on the full wet tyres. Unfortunately for Rubens, his fuel rig wasn't fully ready while Jenson queued behind him, and he would have to come in again.

90,000 hearts then missed a beat as leader Lewis Hamilton skipped across the grass at Abbey on Lap 37, while Robert Kubica also had an off-track moment and Massa had yet another spin. A lap later and Kimi Raikkonen survived an off-track moment, rejoining unscathed.

Armed with full wets, Rubens Barrichello set about carving his way back through the field as Lewis Hamilton pitted for the final time. Hamilton and the two BMW drivers would all opt for Inters for the final stint despite the level of water on track.

To prove how difficult it was, Kimi Raikkonen spun his car at Woodcote, travelling a long way backwards before coming to rest without contacting any hard surface.

Through all the spins and midfield mayhem Lewis Hamilton calmly picked up speed. On Lap 41 Lewis put in a 1:44.515, Heidfeld a 1:48.065 and Rubens (on full wets) a 1:41.058.

Also on Lap 41 Kubica lost control of his BMW and ended his race in the Abbey gravel.

Lewis was now 46 seconds clear of Heidfeld and such was Barrichello's closing speed that by Lap 42 it was him in second place not the BMW driver.

The rain started to fade away, with the race order on Lap 44 of: Hamilton, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Trulli, Alonso, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Nakajima and Webber. Barrichello had to pit again on Lap 46 because of his fuel problem in the pit-stop, but such was his position that he was able to swap 2nd for just 3rd place.

Kovalainen was right behind Fernando Alonso and much quicker, and got past him with a wonderful overtaking move on the outside of the Spaniard at Bridge on Lap 46 for 5th place.

Trulli had to pit again and surrendered his 4th place to Kovalainen on Lap 48, but the Finn was keen to hand it on to other drivers and a spin on Lap 50 handed places to the pursuing Alonso and Raikkonen. Raikkonen was past Alonso (Lap 54) for an amazing 4th place (given his troubles) but Kovalainen found it more troublesome getting the Renault for a second time. The pair ran side by side through the final complex many times before the McLaren finally nailed the Renault into Luffield on Lap 58, much to the delight of the crowd.

For Hamilton the closing stages had been all about not driving too quickly and making a mistake but keeping the heat in the tyres at the same time. He finished a lap ahead of fourth placed Raikkonen and sixty seconds ahead of second place.

He took the chequered flag to the roars from the crowd, who also lauded the achievements of the battling Rubens Barrichello who brought his Honda home third behind Nick Heidfeld's BMW.

Raikkonen took an extremely fortunate fourth place in front of Kovalainen, Alonso, Trulli and Nakajima (the Japanese losing out to the Toyota in the final few laps).

It had been an epic.

Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39:09.440
02 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:08.500
03 R. Barrichello Honda + 1:22.200
04 K. R�ikk�nen Ferrari + 1 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1 laps
06 F. Alonso Renault + 1 laps
07 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 laps
08 K. Nakajima Williams + 1 laps
09 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
10 M. Webber Red Bull + 1 laps
11 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota + 1 laps
13 F. Massa Ferrari + 2 laps
Did not finish
14 R. Kubica BMW + 21 laps
15 J. Button Honda + 22 laps
16 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 25 laps
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 34 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 50 laps
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 59 laps
20 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 59 laps