French Grand Prix Round 8, 22/06/08

[MikeLane]

French Grand Prix

Massa wins whilst Raikkonen has a problem, but Ferrari still dominate with a one, two in France.

Magny Cours, France – June 22nd, 2008 – Round 8.

By

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent.
…………………………………………………………………..

McLaren’s woes continue as Hamilton takes a 10 place penalty to 13th on the grid and his team-mate, Kovalainen also gets a 5 place penalty for supposedly impeding Webber in the first qualifying round. This drops Kovalainen to 10th place for the start.

Maybe this was a bit petty in view of the Red Bull driver making it through to the final qualifying session with no problem. If it had happened on the last lap of the final session that would have been different or if Webber had been eliminated in the first session.

Anyway that was the decision as we lined up for the start of potentially the last F1 Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

The grid order was:-

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)……………………2.Felipe Massa (Ferrari).
3. Fernando Alonso (Renault)…………………..4.Jarno Trulli (Toyota).
5. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)……………….6 Mark Webber (Red Bull)
7. David Coultard (Red Bull). ………………….8.Timo Glock (Toyota)
9. Nelsinho Piquet (Renault) ………………….10. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren).
11. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)………………12.Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).
13. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)…………………14.Sebastien Bourdais(ToroRosso).
15. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams)………………..16.. Jenson Button (Honda).
17. Rubens Barrichello (Honda)………………...18.Giancarlo Fisichella (ForceIndia).
19. Adrian Sutil (Force India) .…………….….…20. Nico RosbergWilliams).


As the red lights went out for the start of this race, Alonso in the Renault and the two Red Bull cars were slow away. Hamilton got a good start and was up to 10th very quickly but then whilst trying to pass Vettel in the Toro Rosso on the outside of the chicane he was forced to go across the chicane to hold his place. It was marginal but he seemed to have passed before having to cut the chicane.

He was to be penalised for that incident with a ‘drive-through’ penalty.

On lap 5 Button in the Honda came in for a new nose after being involved in a collision. It is unfortunate but the Englishman does seem to have been involved in his fair share of shunts this season. This has been uncharacteristic as he is one of the smoothest drivers in F1.

On lap 7 Hamilton was chasing Piquet hard and was less than half a second behind but within six laps he had to come in for his ‘drive through’ penalty, which effectively was going to spoil his afternoon’s effort.

As he emerged from the pit lane he was in 13th place back where he had started. Meanwhile, the two Ferraris were romping away at the front in dominating form with Raikkonen in the lead.

The race order at this stage was Raikkonen, Massa, Trulli, Kubica, Glock, Webber, Piquet, Kovalainen and Coultard.

At this stage Kovalainen was chasing Piquet whilst Hamilton pursued Alonso, giving us a double McLaren v Renault battle.

Meanwhile Button in the Honda retired having suffered serious damage in his earlier shunt.

On lap 20 Hamilton took his first pit-stop only 7 laps since he had served his penalty. When he emerged he was already one lap down on the Ferraris and now with little prospect of any points.

We were now coming into the pit window and within the next four laps both Ferraris had made their pit-stops with Raikkonen retaining the lead.

Webber also pitted from third spot and emerged back onto the track ahead of Alonso.

As Kovalainen resumed after his pit-stop he overtook a struggling Piquet who seemed to be unable to accelerate down the end of pit lane.

By lap 31 the two Ferraris were some 30 seconds ahead of 3rd place man, Trulli, with Kubica in 4th.

The Ferraris were stamping their dominance on this race and it was a very different situation from Montreal two weeks ago.

From lap 36 Massa began closing in on Raikkonen and by lap 38 he was right behind. It became clear that Raikkonen had a problem, which turned out to be a broken exhaust on one bank of the Finn’s engine.

Raikkonen was powerless to resist his team-mate and Massa swept into the lead. It was going to be a challenge to get Raikkonen to the finish.

The race was a bit processional as we have come to expect in France but there were good individual scraps taking place throughout the field. Of course it is always difficult to assess where particular drivers actually are until all the pit-stops are out of the way, and this was the case as we completed the 55th lap and Massa took his final fuel and tyres. He put on the softer compound tyres, as he was obliged to do, having used the hard compound for the rest of the race so far.

On lap 58 it started to rain and there was a variation in lap times for the various drivers with some gaining and others losing time. Hamilton overtook Glock for 10th place and Trulli started to struggle in his Toyota. This car is not good in the wet, as Trulli had alluded to before the race. This immediately began to put Trulli under pressure as Kovalainen closed in with a much better handling McLaren.

For a while it looked like we might have a shake up in the points scoring positions but by lap 61 the rain had stopped without any cars needing to change to wet tyres.

Trulli had held on and just needed to keep it together for the first podium finish for Toyota for a long time.

In the dying stages of the race Alonso made a mistake allowing his young team-mate, Piquet, through for 7th place. This was a much better performance by the young Renault driver who has been under some pressure to keep his drive after a lack lustre season so far.

Kovalainen tried a desperate passing move on Trulli in the last lap at the same place Hamilton had tried on the first. Like his team-mate, Kovalainen was forced to cut the chicane and gained a place but unlike Hamilton, Kovalainen immediately conceded the advantage back to Trulli.

As Massa took the chequered flag and Raikkonen nursed his sick Ferrari home in 2nd spot Trulli was the hero for Toyota as he gained his well deserved podium place in third.


Massa won the race in 1hr31min50.245secs with a faultless performance, although he did have the luck go his way with Raikkonen’s trouble.

The final race order was:-
1st Massa……………. 1hr31:50.245
2nd Raikkonen …………+17.9s
3rd Trulli ………………+28.2s
4th Kovalainen ………..+28.9s
5th Kubica …………….+30.5s
6th Webber ……………+40.3s
7th Piquet ……………...+41.0s
8th Alonso …………….+43.3s
9th Coultard……………+51.0s
10th Hamilton …………+54.5s
11th Glock …………….+57.7s
12th Vettel ……………+58.0s
13th Heidfeld …………+62.0s
14th Barrichello……….+1 lap
15th Nakajima ………..+1 lap
16th Rosberg …………+1 laps
17th Bourdais …………..+1 laps
18th Fisichella …………+1 laps
19th Sutil …………+1 laps
20th Button ……………+54 laps

After eight rounds the Driver’s championship looks like this:-
Massa …………………48 points
Kubica ………………..46
Raikkonen ……………43
Hamilton ……………..38
Heidfeld……………….28
Kovalainen…………….20
Trulli ………………….18
Webber ………………..18
Alonso…………………10
Rosberg……….………..8
Nakajima……………….7
Coultard ……………….6
Glock ………………….5
Vettel ………………….5
Barrichello …………….5
Button …………………3
Piquet ………………….2
Bourdais ……………….2
Fisichella ………………0
Sato ……………………0
Davidson ………………0
Sutil ………….………...0

The Constructor’s championship looks like this:-

Ferrari…………91 points
BMW Sauber….74
McLaren………58
Red Bull……….24
Toyota…………23
Williams………15
Renault………..12
Honda…………..8
Toro Rosso……..7
Force India……..0
Super Aguri…….0


This was a dominant display by Ferrari who even managed 2nd place with a sick car.

Trulli had an outstanding race for Toyota and got his third place on merit not default.

The BMW’s failed to impress here although Kubica managed to punch above his weight for 5th spot.

Red Bull had mixed results with a 6th for Webber and a 9th for Coultard.

McLaren failed to close the gap on Ferrari and BMW Sauber after Hamilton proved too racy when trying to make up places.

It does seem that McLaren are having more than their fair share of decisions against them on marginal calls but maybe Lewis needs to take the long view with his race strategies. I applaud his aggression on the track but sometimes maybe a wait and see policy might be better. If he wants any confirmation of that just remember the master, Michael Schumacher.

Many hope this will be the last race at Magny Cours as it is in the middle of nowhere and produces processional racing. I am afraid today was another of those occasions.

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent – Home Base - England