2008 German Grand Prix

The 2008 German Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2008 ) [ 2 ] was a Formula One motor race held on 20 July 2008 at the Hockenheimring , Hockenheim , Germany . It was the 10th race of the 2008 Formula One World Championship and was contested over 67 laps. It was won by Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team after starting from pole position . Nelson Piquet Jr. finished second for Renault , with Felipe Massa third for Ferrari .

Hamilton maintained his startline advantage and led until he made his first pit stop on lap 18. As other cars made their pit stops, Hamilton regained the lead on lap 22. On lap 36, Timo Glock crashed, and the race was neutralized by the deployment of the safety car . Hamilton, on a two-stop strategy, did not stop to get more fuel during this period, while all the cars around him did. Thus, when he did eventually stop on lap 50, he rejoined the race in fifth position. In the closing stages of th...

The victory was Hamilton's second consecutive win, having won the preceding British Grand Prix at Silverstone . The win also put him ahead of his two main rivals in the Drivers' Championship , Kimi Räikkönen (who finished sixth) and Massa, who were on equal points with him before the race. After the race he was four points ahead of Massa, and seven ahead of Räikkönen. In the Constructors' Championship , McLaren drew closer to the two teams ahead of them, BMW Sauber and Ferrari. Ferrari still led...

The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers, in ten teams of two. [ 3 ] The teams, also known as " constructors ", were Ferrari , McLaren - Mercedes , Renault , BMW Sauber , Honda , Force India , Toyota , Red Bull Racing , Williams and Toro Rosso . [ 3 ] Tyre supplier Bridgestone selected the hard and medium tyres for the Grand Prix weekend. [ 4 ] Prior to the race, Lewis Hamilton , Kimi Räikkönen , and Felipe Massa led the Drivers' Championship jointly, all with 48 points. Behind them was Robert...

Hamilton had won the preceding British Grand Prix by 68 seconds from Heidfeld and Honda's Rubens Barrichello . Of his championship rivals, Räikkönen had finished fourth, Kubica had retired, and Massa had had a nightmare of a race, spinning five times and finishing 13th. [ 6 ] In the run-up to the German Grand Prix, Hamilton had tested the McLaren MP4-23 's new front wing – introduced at the British Grand Prix – extensively in the team's simulator, and then during a pre-race test session at the H...

Friday's second session was held in dry conditions. [ 12 ] Hamilton again set the fastest time. Massa and Räikkönen improved to second and third positions, pushing Kovalainen down to fourth. [ 12 ] Mark Webber set the fifth-fastest time, after earlier having electrical and clutch problems with the car. [ 13 ] Alonso, Nico Rosberg , Kubica, Heidfeld and David Coulthard made up the rest of the top ten. [ 12 ] In the final practice session on Saturday – which was held in dry conditions – Kovalainen...

Hamilton took pole position for the ninth time in his career with a lap time of 1:15.666, having beaten Massa by two-tenths of a second in his final lap of the third session. [ 16 ] Kovalainen, coming back after an error during his first run, qualified third, with Jarno Trulli taking fourth position. [ 16 ] Alonso and Räikkönen were close together in fifth and sixth positions, with just 0.004 seconds separating them. [ 16 ] Kubica took a comfortable seventh, half a second quicker in the third se...

Completing the field, Kazuki Nakajima was 16th, Nelson Piquet Jr. 17th, Rubens Barrichello 18th, whilst the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella brought up the rear of the grid in 19th and 20th positions. [ 16 ] Piquet later complained that he was blocked during his first-session run by Vettel: "During my lap, Vettel was in front of me, which unsettled me a little, although the FIA felt that he did not impede me." [ 15 ] Kovalainen was, however, penalized by the stewards and fin...

At the start, Hamilton, Massa and Kovalainen all maintained their grid positions. Hamilton quickly began to pull away from the other cars, at the rate of about half a second per lap. [ 20 ] Behind the leading trio, Kubica passed Räikkönen off the grid, and went on to pass both Alonso and Trulli at the hairpin (turn 4), when Alonso's own attempted pass on Trulli delayed both drivers. [ 21 ] The fight for fourth position continued in the early stages of the race. Kubica ran wide at the final corne...

At the first round of pit stops, Hamilton had a lead of nearly 20 seconds over Massa, and fuelled longer than all the other drivers in the points-scoring positions when he pitted on lap 18. Coming out of the pits, Hamilton made an error and was passed by Trulli. The two drivers then nearly collided at the hairpin, with Hamilton holding back for the rest of the lap waiting for Trulli to pit. [ 22 ] Trulli's teammate Glock stayed out on the track longer than all of the other drivers except Barrich...

On the 36th lap, Glock's right-rear suspension failed coming out of the final corner. [ 22 ] He spun through 180 degrees before hitting the pit wall with a strong rearward impact, with debris flying across the track. [ 21 ] The car, pointing the wrong way, rolled to a stop on the grass. A dazed Glock extracted himself before being treated at the medical centre. The safety car was deployed after the accident. [ 22 ] When the pit lane opened on lap 38, most drivers headed in, including all of the ...

When the safety car came in on lap 42, Hamilton led, while Heidfeld and Piquet were running second and third. [ 22 ] Behind them were Massa, Kubica, Kovalainen, Trulli, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Rosberg and Räikkönen. [ 20 ] Webber's Red Bull had been dripping oil for a couple of laps after picking up debris from Glock's crash, and on lap 40 he pulled out of the race. [ 22 ] [ 25 ] Räikkönen quickly passed Rosberg, and then overtook the squabbling Vettel and Alonso on the way down to the hairpin, ...

Hamilton's speed allowed him to quickly catch Massa in second position, with Piquet in the lead by a further three seconds. On lap 57, Hamilton passed Massa at the hairpin. Massa appeared to have the inside line covered, but he was not fully committed to the line into the braking zone, giving Hamilton the chance to take second position. [ 21 ] Three laps later, he used a similar overtaking move to overtake Piquet, although the Renault driver put up a greater fight than Massa had. [ 21 ] Hamilton...

Hamilton took the chequered flag first, while Piquet enthusiastically celebrated his drive from 17th to second, just 5.5 seconds behind. [ 22 ] Massa held on to take third ahead of Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, and Kubica. [ 22 ] Vettel secured eighth – the last points-scoring position – for Toro Rosso, ahead of Trulli in ninth, and Rosberg in 10th. [ 22 ] Alonso finished 11th, ahead of Bourdais. [ 22 ] Coulthard was 13th, Fisichella 14th, Nakajima 15th, Sutil 16th and Button was last of the ...

Following the podium ceremony, in which two Brazilian drivers participated for the first time since the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix , [ 24 ] the top three finishers appeared in the obligatory press conference. Hamilton said that the decision to not make a pit stop during the safety car period was the team's decision: "We had two very comfortable, two very decent stints and the team opted for me to stay out. I guess they thought I could pull out a gap but it was a 23 second gap I needed and I only ha...

Ron Dennis , McLaren's team principal, also commented on the pit stop decision:

The deployment of the Safety Car presented us with a difficult decision: should we or should we not bring Lewis in for a pitstop? We decided that, since he still had quite a lot of fuel on board, we would leave him out until lap 50. We'd expected the track to be cleared of debris a little faster than it was, which would have allowed the Safety Car to come in a bit earlier. As a result, Lewis was unable to rejoin the race in the lead. [ 23 ]

Although Piquet's result was fortuitous, Renault Engineering Director, Pat Symonds , subsequently praised him for stepping up to the job of staying with the leaders in the final stint of the race. [ 30 ] Meanwhile, Massa commented that his car was not in good order during the race: "It was just slow with difficult stability and also on braking I think I had a little problem as well and lost a lot of performance. I didn’t have the car to fight. I tried but it was not possible." [ 28 ] Teammate Rä...

Fisichella was penalised 25 seconds for unlapping lead cars during the safety car period, which dropped him from 14th to 16th position. [ 31 ] The stewards issued the following statement about the decision: "While the safety car was deployed, the driver of car 21 [Fisichella] chose to enter the pits before 'Lapped cars may now overtake' was shown on the timing monitors. Having done so the driver of car 21 on leaving the pitlane should then not have unlapped himself." [ 31 ]

The treatment of Glock after his crash caused Toyota some concern. [ 32 ] Toyota did not think that normal FIA procedure had been followed. After crashes, drivers are normally taken out of the car in their seat, whereas Glock was unstrapped and then hauled out by the marshals. [ 32 ] Glock stayed in hospital overnight for observation, but was released the next day with no injuries. Toyota subsequently confirmed that the failed suspension component had already completed a full race distance at t...

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