2008 MONACO GRAND PRIX

Background

The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers, in ten teams of two. The teams, also known as " constructors ", were Ferrari , McLaren - Mercedes , Renault , Honda , Force India -Ferrari, BMW Sauber , Toyota , Red Bull -Renault, Williams -Toyota and Toro Rosso -Ferrari. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought four different tyre types to the race: two dry-weather tyre compounds, the softer marked by a single white stripe down one of the grooves, and two wet-weather compounds, the extreme wet a...

Race

Ferrari had responded to Hamilton's win in the opening round of the season in Australia by winning each of the subsequent four races, giving them a commanding lead in the Constructors' Championship. Ferrari's dominance had been highlighted by two one-two finishes: Massa ahead of Räikkönen in Bahrain and Räikkönen's win over Massa at the following round in Spain . A strong drive despite an unfavourable strategy had helped Hamilton to split the Ferrari drivers on the podium in Turkey ,... Toro Rosso's main 2008 car, the STR3 , was also introduced that weekend; the team had used a modified version of their 2007 car, the STR2 , for the opening five races. Originally due to be introduced at the previous race in Turkey, a crash in testing had left the team short of spare parts, delaying the car's race debut. As the STR3 used a different transmission than that used in the STR2, Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel was forced to take a five-place penalty on the grid for an ... On Sunday morning Coulthard became the third driver to incur a gearbox penalty, after changing his transmission following his crash during qualifying. The penalty moved him from 10th to 15th on the grid. In contrast to Saturday's dry qualifying session, frequent showers soaked the track on Sunday morning, making racing slippery and potentially hazardous. Although the showers subsided by early afternoon, they resumed 20 minutes before the start, the changeable conditions forc... Massa held his lead into the first corner at Sainte Devote, while behind him Hamilton used the pit lane exit to pass Räikkönen down the inside. Kovalainen's vacated fourth position was filled by Kubica, as Alonso moved into fifth, passing Rosberg. The latter made a pit stop soon after for a new front wing after making contact with Alonso at the hairpin , promoting Trulli to sixth. These positions were maintained for several laps, but the distances between the cars increased,... Massa's lead – 12 seconds over the second-placed Räikkönen by lap six – was reduced to nothing when the safety car was deployed on the eighth lap. Coulthard and Bourdais had crashed into the barriers at Massenet just seconds apart, requiring the marshals to separate the cars and lift them off the track. When the safety car pulled off after three laps, Massa consolidated his lead over his teammate. Räikkönen, however, was called into the pit lane for a drive-through penalty after to... As a dry line appeared on the track, Hamilton extended his lead over Massa, from 13 to 37 seconds, by the time he made a pit stop for the second time on lap 54. His timing proved fortunate, as he changed to dry tyres just as such a strategy emerged as the strongest, and he emerged 13 seconds ahead of Massa. The Ferrari's own pit stop two laps later dropped Massa behind Kubica. Hamilton's lead was reduced when the safety car once again deployed on lap 62 after Rosberg crashed... The safety car was withdrawn on lap 68. Later on the same lap, Räikkönen lost control of his car under braking out of the tunnel, and by the time he regained control his speed was too great to avoid a collision with Sutil. The Ferrari damaged its front wing and made a pit stops for a replacement before resuming, but the damage to Sutil's rear suspension led to his retirement. Webber benefited from the incident and moved to fourth place, while Räikkönen dropped back to ninth.... This has got to be the highlight of my career and I am sure it will continue to be the highlight for the rest of my life. I remember on the last few laps I was just thinking that Ayrton Senna won here a lot of times and to win here would be amazing ... [From] the last corner onwards, I was screaming my head off basically, making sure the radio was off, but just so happy that I was able to pull it off. The top three finishers appeared in Prince Albert II of Monaco's Royal box to collect their trophies. In the subsequent press conference Hamilton said that conditions early in the race made driving difficult: "When the weather is like this, when it starts to rain and we had an idea it was going to start to dry, the important thing is to keep it on the track but I can't explain how difficult it was for all of us. You were aquaplaning all the time and you were tip-toeing almost." Ham... I can't believe it, it was so close. It feels like a pain in my heart. It is like a dream gone to a nightmare – suddenly you are in the car and it looks all fantastic, then you have to accept it is not going to happen ... It was after the restart after the final safety car that Kimi had a problem under braking and crashed into the back of my car. The race was over and it was a real shock. A few tears came out as the adrenaline was high – I just can't explain it. Räikkönen apologised to Sutil for their collision, blaming cold brakes for his loss of control. Mike Gascoyne , Force India's technical chief, called for the stewards to investigate the incident, but after deliberation no action was taken. "The frustration is that if that was a Force India driver hitting a world champion we'd expect to get a one or two-race ban, but the other way round nothing ever seems to happen" said Gascoyne. Sutil was called to the stewards' room... Hamilton's win was praised by Jackie Stewart , a three-time winner of the Monaco Grand Prix . "At his age, Lewis can win this race many times," he said. "This is the first, I hope, of many victories for him in Monaco so that he can join the greats of Formula One." Damon Hill , the 1996 World Champion , said Hamilton "did very well indeed. I was most impressed, and the race as a whole was also a great advertisement for what F1 should be about." McLaren would not win the race again u...

Qualifying

Incredible! I have got pole on a track where I have always struggled. Now I am beginning to like it a bit more ... I managed to do a perfect lap with a great car: this result shows that, if you work hard and with attention to detail, you can do it everywhere ... Starting at the front means I have the best possible conditions, but we will have to do everything perfectly. We worked a lot on the set-up to improve on the situation compared to past years and I think this decision has paid off. Massa clinched his third pole position of the season with a time of 1:15.787, and was joined on the front row by teammate Räikkönen. Hamilton took third place on the grid, with a qualifying time just 0.052 seconds slower than Massa's. Kovalainen edged out Kubica to take fourth, the latter struggling to get heat into his tyres for his final run. Rosberg's attacking style took him to sixth; Renault driver Fernando Alonso , Trulli and Red Bull driver Mark Webber occupied the ne...

External links

43°44′5″N 7°25′14″E / 43.73472°N 7.42056°E / 43.73472; 7.42056