The Italian Grand Prix 2008 took place only a week after the Spa race. Ferrari took heart from the fact that Massa was declared the eventual winner of the Belgian Grand Prix while McLaren weren’t too happy after Lewis was stripped of a victory. Whether or not Lewis tried to push the limits of the rulebook will be debated for days to come. That’s his style and the aggression which some fans love while others love to hate. However, he was all set to conquer Italy.
The weathermen at the Italian circuit were busy throughout the entire weekend and the track was all wet during the qualifying session. All the top runners struggled in the deteriorating track conditions. While Felipe Massa was able to manage 6th on grid, his team-mate and world champion, Kimi Raikkonen didn’t even make it to the last round in qualifying. He had to be content with 14th place on the grid. If Ferrari were struggling, McLaren were no better.
Lewis Hamilton also failed to make it to the last qualifying round after making a wrong tyre call. He finished the session in 15th but his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen was able to extract something more out of the car. He was able to secure the second place on the grid along with a surprise pole position holder, Sebastian Vettel of Torro Rosso. While everyone else was struggling, Vettel managed to pull off a set-up that could beat even the best in business.
The race took place in all wet condition and was supposed to be straight forward. Everyone was expecting Vettel to have a lot less fuel than the McLaren alongside him. Heikki Kovalainen had that victory in his pocket but Torro Rosso and Vettel had other plans. As the lights went off, Vettel did some outstanding laps one after another and opened up a good enough gap to Heikki. The McLaren driver seemed to have no answer to Vettel’s performance.
Towards the back end of the grid - Kimi, Kubica and Hamilton were trying their best to come up the order. While Kimi’s Ferrari was struggling to overtake other cars, Lewis’ McLaren was in a league of its own. It was quite visibly the fastest car on track at that time. Lewis did some great overtaking maneuvers, not all of them clean as a whistle. His aggressive driving style was on full display and he was passing cars left, right and center.
It wasn’t long before he caught Massa’s Ferrari which started the race some ten places ahead of him. At that time, it seemed as if McLaren had started to lose put on performance and Ferrari started to gain the upper hand. Massa was easily able to defend from Lewis and even started to open up a gap. Around the same time, Kimi started to deliver a string of fastest laps announcing his presence in the race. By that time, however, it was too late.
Vettel was able to maintain his lead throughout the race and was able to claim the first victory of his career. With this, he becomes the youngest ever driver to score an F1 race win. Heikki came in second for McLaren. Robert Kubica scored an impressive 3rd owing to his wonderful strategy after he started 11th on the grid. Fernando Alonso finished 4th for Renault, ahead of Nick Heidfeld in BMW. Felipe Massa finished the race in 6th with Lewis Hamilton in 7th. The full race results are as -
1 - Sebastian Vettel - STR-Ferrari - 53 - 1:26:47.494
2 - Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes - 53 - +12.5 secs
3 - Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber - 53 - +20.4 secs
4 - Fernando Alonso - Renault - 53 - +23.9 secs
5 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber - 53 - +27.7 secs
6 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 53 - +28.8 secs
7 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 53 - +29.9 secs
8 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 53 - +32.0 secs
9 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 53 - +39.4 secs
10 - Nelsinho Piquet - Renault - 53 - +54.4 secs
11 - Timo Glock - Toyota - 53 - +58.8 secs
12 - Kazuki Nakajima - Williams-Toyota - 53 - +62.0 secs
13 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 53 - +65.9 secs
14 - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 53 - +68.6 secs
15 - Jenson Button - Honda - 53 - +73.3 secs
16 - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 52 - +1 Lap
17 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 52 - +1 Lap
18 - Sebastien Bourdais - STR-Ferrari - 52 - +1 Lap
19 - Adrian Sutil - Force India-Ferrari - 51 - +2 Laps
Ret - 21 - Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India-Ferrari - 11 - Accident
