Spain 2008
No controversies but many incidents that led to retirements galore. Being Spain, Fernando Alonso's home Grand Prix, there was no surprise to find that Renault had fuelled him lightly for Q3 in Saturday's qualifying session with the aim of getting him on pole. It almost worked but Kimi Raikkonen spoilt the party with his own first pole of the season but, nevertheless, Alonso was, at least, on the front row in 2nd place.
The first of the incidents occurred on Lap 1 when Aidrian Sutil touched David Coulthard leaving Sebastien Vettel nowhere to go except crash into Sutil's car. Sebastien must be getting frustrated - this was his third 1st lap retirement in as many races and he is the only driver who has not yet completed a full race distance!
The worst incident involved Heikki Kovalainen in a freak accident. He approached a right-hand bend at about 140 m.p.h. and just went straight on, over the gravel with no appreciable slowing, and the car ended up deeply embedded head-on in the protective tyre wall. It transpired that his front-left tyre had instantaneously deflated but, despite being air-lifted to hospital for checks, it seemed that he was not injured except for a little concussion and a sore elbow. I don't recall many cars so completely encased in the tyre-wall for a long time. The resultant safety car deployment led to Nick Heidfeld having to serve a 'drive through' penalty for pitting whilst the pit-lane was officially closed. He would have run out of fuel if he hadn't called in for more fuel.
The first 4 cars home were pretty close together, probably due to the 2 safety car incidents bunching up the field, whilst the rest of the point-scoring drivers took advantage of the high rate of attrition, including the retirement of Alonso with a blown engine.
So another Ferrari 1-2 and they now head the Constructors' Championship
STARTING GRID
| | | |
| 1.
|
Kimi Raikkonen
|
| 2.
|
Fernando Alonso
|
| 3.
|
Felipe Massa
|
| 4.
|
Robert Kubica
|
| 5.
|
Lewis Hamilton
|
| 6.
|
Heikki Kovalainen
|
| 7.
|
Mark Webber
|
| 8.
|
Jarno Trulli
|
| 9.
|
Nick Heidfeld
|
| 10.
|
Nelson Piquet
|
| 11.
|
Rubens Barrichello
|
| 12.
|
Kazuki Nakajima
|
| 13.
|
Jenson Button
|
| 14.
|
Timo Glock
|
| 15.
|
Nico Rosberg
|
| 16.
|
Sebastien Bourdais
|
| 17.
|
David Coulthard
|
| 18.
|
Sebastian Vettel
|
| 19.
|
Giancarlo Fisichella
|
| 20.
|
Aidrian Sutil
|
| 21.
|
Anthony Davidson
|
| 22.
|
Takuma Sato
|
RESULT
| |
| 1.
|
Kimi Raikkonen
|
| 2.
|
Felipe Massa
|
| 3.
|
Lewis Hamilton
|
| 4.
|
Robert Kubica
|
| 5.
|
Mark Webber
|
| 6.
|
Jenson Button
|
| 7.
|
Kazuki Nakajima
|
| 8.
|
Jarno Trulli
|
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Drivers :
| |
| Kimi Raikkonen
|
29
|
| Lewis Hamilton
|
20
|
| Robert Kubica
|
19
|
| Felipe Massa
|
18
|
| Nick Heidfeld
|
16
|
| Heikki Kovalainen
|
14
|
| Jarno Trulli
|
9
|
| Mark Webber
|
8
|
Constructors :
|
| Ferrari
|
47
|
| BMW
|
35
|
| McLaren
|
34
|
| Williams
|
12
|
| Toyota
|
9
|
| Red Bull Racing
|
8
|
| Renault
|
6
|
| Honda
|
3
|
| Scuderia Testa Rosso
|
2
|
| Force India
|
0
|
| Super Aguri
|
0
|
Race Results posted by
David Little
28th April 2008
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