Problem for Raikkonen hands win to Massa

2008 French Grand Prix review

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Felipe Massa took over the lead of the drivers’ championship with a fortunate win at Magny-Cours at the expense of team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

At the track where Raikkonen out-fumbled Massa via the pit stops in 2007, this year Massa capitalised on a broken exhaust on Raikkonen’s car to win.

Apart from Raikkonen’s troubles it was an easy one-two for Ferrari on a weekend where their major rivals self-destructed.

Ferraris in formation as Hamilton trips up

The talk all weekend long had been about what the weather would do – in the end rain did fall in the morning, but it dried up as the F1 cars took to the track.

The Ferraris romped off into an instant lead as Fernando Alonso blew his start from third on the grid in a very lightly fuelled Renault, falling behind Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica. He was instantly on the attack however and re-passed Kubica on the exit of the Adelaide hairpin.

Raikkonen led the field away from pole position
From 13th on the grid Lewis Hamilton’s race was destroyed within a couple of corners. Trying to pass Sebastian Vettel at the Nurburgring chicane he ran off the track but chose not to yield the place back to the Toro Rosso driver. Within a few laps he was issued with a drive-through penalty for gaining an illegal advantage.

This split opinion down the middle on the Live Blog but to my eyes it looked inevitable that Hamilton would get a penalty. Ron Dennis’s claim after the race that he’d been forced off-track was plainly inaccurate – Hamilton had just gone in too fast, as he had twice at the same corner during qualifying.

Raikkonen led the opening laps from Massa and Trulli, with Alonso looking every which way to pass his former team mate. Kubica held a watching brief in fifth with Timo Glock up to sixth after a great start.

Then came Mark Webber, Nelson Piquet Jnr and Hamilton, who first nudged then passed team mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap five. David Coulthard fell four places to 11th at the start, but moved back up to tenth when Hamilton took his penalty on lap 14.

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Alonso falls back

One lap later Alonso entered the pits having started with four laps’ less fuel than anyone in the top ten. He came out of the pits shortly in front of Hamilton, and on lap 20 Hamilton flashed past as Alonso ran wide at Estoril. But it was only temporary – Hamilton himself was back in the pits for his stop at the end of the first lap.

Hamilton endured a tough race
Now the pit stops began in earnest, with race leader Raikkonen in on lap 21. Massa ran two laps longer – impressive given that he’d all-but matched Raikkonen’s time in qualifying – but was delayed by the lapped Hamilton, allowing Raikkonen to retain in the lead after Massa’s stop.

Trulli and Kubica both ran to lap 20 and left the pits in the order they arrived, Kubica pushing Alonso one place down the order.

Piquet and Kovalainen were fuelled more heavily and came in on lap 26 from what had become third and fourth. Kovalainen took the place as Piquet hesitated at the pit lane exit was he seemed to fail to disengage his pit lane speed limiter.

After his pit stop Kovalainen now ran seventh behind Alonso and Webber. Webber had passed Alonso via the pit stops but a spin on his first lap out of the pits handed the place back to the Renault driver.

Further back the two drivers who had ten-place grid penalties crossed paths, Hamilton taking 16th off Nico Rosberg on lap 28. Rosberg did a mammoth 40-lap first stint entirely on the soft tyres, but it scarcely helped him rise up through the order.

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Advantage Massa

On lap 36 Raikkonen’s sector times began to fall off by a couple of tenths. This was the first signs of a problem with his car and it soon became clear a portion of the exhaust had worked free and was flailing around the back of the F2008.

Broken exhaust cost Raikkonen victory
Massa was able to take around a second per lap off him and drove past the Finn with little difficulty on lap 39. For a few laps Raikkonen circulated worryingly over a second per lap off the pace. But after the piece of loose exhaust worked free of its own accord (fortunately befre race control summoned him into the pits to have it removed) he began lapping more quickly and stabilised the gap to the chasing Trulli.

Alonso pitted on lap 43 for a long final stint but the strategy clearly wasn’t paying off for him. Once the next flurry of pit stops was over he was still down in seventh. Kovalainen used the final stops to jump ahead of Kubica and now began to draw in on Trulli.

After the second round of pit stops the rain finally came. It was a brief shower, but it at least spiced up the racing for a few laps. Trulli in particularly seemed to struggle and had Kovalainen and Kubica within 0.7s of him at the height of the shower. It never got bad enough to force anyone to pit for wet weather tyres, however.

Kovalainen had one final attempt to pass Trulli on the entry to Imola, but had to cut across the corner after Trulli squeezed him almost unacceptably close.

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Win gives Massa championship lead

While that was going on Massa was rounding the final corners to take a fortunate win that puts him on top of the drivers’ championship: the first time for a Brazilian since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Raikkonen did well to bring his ailing Ferrari home second.

Third was a strong result for Toyota on a weekend when the team ran with black bands on their cars, acknowledging the death of former team boss Ove Andersson.

Kovalainen led Kubica home with Webber sixth. Piquet capitalised on a late mistake by Alonso to pinch eighth off his team mate, bringing back memories of Trulli in his Renault days losing third place to Rubens Barrichello at the end of the 2004 race.

Coulthard was ninth ahead of Hamilton on a second miserable weekend for the McLaren driver in a row. Next came the three German drivers: Glock falling out of the points but Vettel beating an utterly unimpressive Nick Heidfeld who struggled all weekend.

Rubens Barrichello, Kazuki Nakajima, Rosberg, Sebastien Bourdais, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil were the final finishers. Only Jenson Button failed to make the flag, dropping out on lap 18 having lost his front wing.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Problem for Raikkonen hands win to Massa”

  1. Lady Snowcat
    22nd June 2008, 16:43

    Don’t forget Kimi was on a much faster lap which he aborted as he had pole… so fuel correction on Felipe’s last qualy lap was not a true reflection…

    And Kimi was 6.9 seconds in front before the problem so without the faulty exhaust he had Massa “on toast” much like Canada…

    So the luck has fallen all Felipe’s way this year so far…

    Bring on Silverstone…

    And what was Alonso on?….

    Not what we expected at all….

  2. Raikkonen was surely the driver of the day: his first stint dominance over Massa wasn’t only due to different fuel loads, and the finn once again scored the fastest lap. Unfortunately for him, fastest laps aren’t really important for race wins, it’s only necessary to be faster than your direct opponent in crucial moments, like pit stops in and out laps, regardless of how close it is from the fastest lap time.

    Fortunately for Felipe, Kimi had a problem that handed him an otherwise impossible win, in a race where he only did enough to deserve it, by not making mistakes and keeping a respectable, if slower than Raikkonen’s, pace, but still the finn was the best on track, bringing a damaged car home in second…

  3. Still, luck is part of the game, and it played a decisive role in Kimi’s 2007 title, just as Felipe had many bad luck moments throughtout his Ferrari carreer…

  4. Felippe has been plagued by bad luck in the past, now it has changed. He drove a good race, but the makings of a good driver is to be able to admit when you are beat and luck is on your side! Fair play to him….LH on the other hand, as I commented previously, he cant cope with pressure and he puts the pressure on himself….great example today ITV showed him saying that ‘anyone can win from the front, but only a legend can do it from the back’….maybe he should concentrate on knowing the length of his own car…and stop nudgin ppl outta his way.

  5. ya Kimi won due to sheer luck..
    and penality to hamilton was unfair..so Hamilton was unlucky this time

  6. While others drivers are just getting on with the job in hand, Hamilton has the need to talk himself up – he’s just adding fuel to the fire. After that “legends can do it from the back” line, then messing up the race, he’s only going to get more negative press leading up to the British GP.

    Just get on with the job in hand, Lewis. Let your driving do the talking.

    On another note, supreme dominance by the Ferraris today, and Trulli really punched above his weight today, great drive by him, its good to see Toyota on the podium again.

  7. looking at the ITV onboard video online, Hamilton was well past Vettel before he went off, so I think the penalty must be on the basis that going off meant he overtook and got advantage by just not braking.

  8. we are just now getting the race in states (fox sports sucks) but, it looked to me like he had passed vettel- so far no replay-but to hold the position he could neither brake nor keep on line. i guess the penalty was correct. he really does need to keep his mouth shut though. when he screws up (and honestly, i don’t think this was a real screw-up. i thought he might have pulled it off)the stupid stuff he says just makes people want to jump all over him. i gotta admit, i am one of those who likes to laugh at him.

    senna would have finished on the podium. to paraphrase one of our politicians: you, mr hamilton are no senna.

  9. I am still impressed by the hole in the Raikkonen’s Ferrari. No surprise why mechanics have to wear those suits…

  10. Kudos to Trulli… Great drive by Kimi and a testament to the fact that he could make his machinery last. Where are all those who said he destroys the same??? Massa finished the job, when presented with an opportunity, so well done again. Lewis, am one who prefers to laugh at his antics(and am not the only one), and here ‘am once again. Penalty was fair, as one must relinquish any advantage gained(as the rule says) and Lewis didn’t. Piquet for once did his name some justice by bringing the car home in points.

    @Daniel

    Kimi’s luck was more others lack of ability to work together. His opponents worked against each other. He was also helped by silly mistakes of the championship leader just as well, but no more luck. Sheer grit, the determination to hang in there, till the flag it dropped. Any objections to that, anyone???

  11. @Sri:

    Oh please, the only reason Kimi was able to bring the car home and still come second was because the Ferrari was so dominant. Anyone could have done the same.

  12. @Internet

    Ferrari was good no doubt, but it was a second or so slower(Kimi’s race pace on most laps since the incident)… What Kimi did, was preserve the car. He raced more than 30 laps with a broken exhaust. I believe F1 cars can also turn off the cylinders, which is what could have been done, to minimise damage… However, that does not take anything away from his accomplishment.

  13. @Sri

    I don’t see what’s so special about what Kimi did. Kimi wasn’t preserving the car. His last stint wasn’t what you would call slow.

    http://www.fia.com/francegp/documents/FRA_08_Race_Lap_Analysis.pdf

    Praise Ferrari for making a solid car and not Kimi for his “accomplishment”.

  14. Lady Snowcat
    22nd June 2008, 22:52

    If Kimi hadn’t been 6.9 seconds up on his team mate at the time the problem occured he’d have never finished 2nd but probably 6th…

    The Ferrari was great but Kimi was greater today…

    Also when the rain came for a brief moment he was fastest on track and 2 to 3 seconds a lap faster than Massa in a damaged car as he was mega on the greasy track…. I am just sorry that it didn’t last….

    Sorry Internet but Kimi was very special today…

  15. disappointing to see Massa win, hopefully Kimi gets the luck at Silverstone as he surely deserves.

  16. Also, I don’t remember Felipe getting any bad luck, none more than Kimi. Most of Felipe’s problems come from his mistakes.

  17. i think massa and kimi both did a great job and it will be interesting to see if massa can hang on to his current focus, but good man, jarno! i’m amazed no one has started the trulli to nascar rumour yet.

  18. Terry Fabulous
    23rd June 2008, 2:33

    Felipe is doing what he needs to do.

    1. Taking wins when he is the fastest, (Turkey, Bahrain)
    2. Minimising the damage on tracks he dislikes and when luck is against him (Monaco, Canada) and
    3. Accumulating as many points as he can when Kimi is on it. (France, Spain).

    Kimi has fastest laps in the last 5 races but he just doesn’t appear to be as ‘on it’ as Felipe has.

    The championship is Kimi’s to lose, just as last years was Lewis’s.

  19. I’m surprised Kubica and Alonso didn’t get on the podium but it’s about time Toyota got something.

    I think Raikkonen should have been ordered to pit and remove the loose exhaust piece. Yes, such a ruling would have ruined his race, and when it broke finally, it was inconsequential, but had another car broken on it or had a thousand degree piece of metal landed in a spectator’s lap we’d be telling a different story right now.

  20. sChUmAcHeRtHeGrEaTeStEvEr
    23rd June 2008, 9:16

    i think the penalty on hamilton was abit harsh, what i was mnore dissapointed with was the fact that in the early laps, despite having a relativley light fuel load, he was unable to get past his team mate who was heavy, but then piquet who was also havy.

    i dont know how many times iv heard james allen recount the story of istanbul in gp2 and hamilton finishing 2nd from last place but in f1 hes yet to really do anything when the chips are down.

    im not a hamilton basher by the way, im a huge fan, im just noticing that every time he is put under pressure he dioes seem to make mistakes.

    Ferrari were untouchable this weekend, so you can pretty much guarantee the same result at silverstone.

    Although hamilton on home soil may want to make an impression (and he needs to ) swo maybe he will go light and get pole and hope he can maybe split the ferrari’s.

  21. Terry, Yes Felipe is doing what he has to, He is a good driver indeed. But what you’ve written – ‘The championship is Kimi’s to lose, just as last years was Lewis’s’ – is totally unacceptable and unfair. What made you to draw such a worthless conclusion when the championship is still open?

  22. Mani – take it easy, it might have just been a typo.

  23. Massa is probably to most underated driver in the grid these days. He is the lucky one while kimi is all talent and grit. Right. Just to refresh some peoples memory, Felipe’s engine blew up in Australia, when he was ahead of kimi (who had just messed up trying to overtake Kovi. He would mess it up again trying to overtake Glok). Then, in Monaco, Felipe’s radio went off which prevented him to have his pitstop at the right time to keep Kubica at bay. Finnaly, in Canada, the team screws up and he has to make an extra stop for fuel, right after the safety car has left, which put him dead last (17 secs behind the end of the pack) – and he still overtook half of the field to arrive 5th.
    He has been lucky this time – finally.

  24. Should Kimi have been black flagged? He was driving around with a hot and dangerous part flailing about, which was always going to come off… I’m sure there’s something in the rules about this.

  25. The driver of the day, for me, was indisputably Jarno Trulli – who has surely now laid to rest the notion that he can’t race as well as the rest of them. On his day, Jarno is as good as they come, and yesterday was proof of that. He pushed like hell in the final stint, and his defence of third against Kovalainen was beautifully judged. It’s hard to be surprised however – Montreal apart, he has driven a superb season, and has been one of the few drivers (along with Kubica and perhaps Webber) to genuinely wring the maximum result out of his machine at each GP. Toyota would do well to hang onto him for another few seasons yet – if they could finally deliver him the car, I am sure that Jarno would open the door to the success he richly deserves.

  26. I can see where sChUmAcHeRtHeGrEaTeStEvEr is coming from – seen from the sidelines Lewis’ result yesterday doesn’t look great. I think when the odds are against him he drives beyond the limit – and when you put the car in that situation you are either going to get away with it, or not, and there will be no in between. Schumacher had a similar mentality, as did Senna. However, I was watching the lap-times closely throughout and what killed the race stone dead for Lewis was the drive-through. Bear in mind that he was ahead of Kovalainen when he took the penalty and that Kovalainen almost nicked third away from Trulli at the end. Without the penalty, a good solid points finish was a virtual certainty and the bottom step of the podium was a possibility. We can debate the rights and wrongs of the penalty all day – I have to say that I thought it was marginal. I also find it frustrating that the stewards didn’t (as they have done in the past in similar situations) insist immediately that Hamilton gave the place back, rather than deliberating for 17 laps – by which time the only thing that they could do was to inflict a penalty that more or less ended his race there and then. We say that we want racing, and that we want drivers to take chances and make passes – Hamilton makes an incredibly brave and skilful one, and we penalise him for it. Ho hum.

  27. Go Felipe’ ! At some tracks , he is slightly slower than Kimi , but at some faster. Consistent too , looking more and more like a future world champion. Lewis’ penalty , very fair in my mind. He just braked too late , passed as a result , but then couldn’t make the chicane. But all credit to him for always trying , when you are in that position you have to try even harder , somtimes it pays off (his move on Massa at Monza last year) , but in this case not. Great drive by JT , hard and fair , a very well deserved podium. I wonder with Kimi , if he was not hitting the curbs too hard which caused the exhaust failure ? There are some nasty ones at Magny-Cours , which can send the car almost 1/2 metre up ? Maybe not , but it’s the first failure of that kind they’ve had this year .

  28. Keith/Terry, I apologize for what I’ve written (comment 21). A little harsh, but that was what I felt at that moment. :) I read your posts regularly, but I hardly participate in the discussions. Partisan statements annoy me too much, and that is why!

  29. Nick: apart from his mistakes in the first two races (and don’t forget that in Melbourne his engine blew up, otherwise he would have scored a few points), Felipe has been almost perfect this season, except for that spin in Monaco, where all drivers but Kubica, including the eventual race winner, made worst mistakes.

    Well, I’ll only agree with you that Massa wasn’t unlucky if you account Ferrari’s pit stop mistakes in Monte Carlo and Montreal as HIS mistakes…

  30. Kimi also had a failure during qualifying in Australia, had Hamilton run into the back of him and now an exhaust failure, as well in Monaco a drive through penalty because his tire nut was stuck on.

  31. For sure, I’m not disputing which Ferrari driver was plagued the most, I’m only saying that luck is an unavoidable part of the game

  32. George i agree whole hartedly no indy style drive through (burgers anyone) for F1
    The Stewards should have made Hamilton give the position back, right on the next lap!
    Looks kinda suspicious though, ‘to penalize or not to penalize, what is the verdict?’ kina thing.

  33. Drive through penalties are unfair as no two pit lanes are the same length.

  34. Another dismal race for McLaren despite getting a car in the points. At Ferrari, I’m wondering how long before the team sees Massa as it’s best bet to win the title this season. Kimi’s second place was through no fault of his own, but if Kubica picks up the pressue, do the men in red give Felipe priority in order to have their best chance at the title.

    Piquet pulled his tale out of the fire a bit, huge weekend for him. But in terms of drivers under pressue, dose anyone here think Heikki isn’t quite performing as good as he was billed as at McLaren? He hasen’t exactly bene bad- and Trulli is no pushover- but woulden’t a McLaren driver be expected to get into third in a race such as this weekend?

  35. as an admitted tifosi (the t-shirt kind, not the tattoo kind):
    1) agreed on inconsistent actions by the stewards, race to race – several constructors have been affected by this so far this year –
    2) agreed on drive-through penalties – the effect is too variable
    3) agreed Massa is coming into his own, now that he’s not putting the car off all the time :)
    4) re: Kimi: much to be said for him, and some legitimately against him, but wow, how he can drive these cars, and I don’t think his position on the all-time list of fastest laps is irrelevant at all – in any one race, it’s not the point, sure, but overall…

  36. If Kimi doesn’t walk (not just win) Silverstone, there’s something very wrong in F1 this year. He should have easily won in Canada and France. Massa is good on a few tracks (Bahrein, Turkey) but no match for Kimi over an 18-race season. Of the current drivers, only Alonso in a Ferrari could give Kimi a run for his money.

  37. Terry Fabulous
    25th June 2008, 3:21

    @ Mani

    Gday Mate. Didn’t mean to stir you up! Sorry about that. I guess I look at this year’s title and if every driver has no break downs and drives to their ability in the car they are in, I THINK that Kimi is in the box seat. Just as at the end of last year, if he had no break downs and drove to his ability in the car he was in, it would have been Lewis’s title.

    But no matter, F1 history is full of drivers who have taken a title away from someone who should have got it.
    Have a good one!

  38. Re: felipe and his ability to do well sometimes but not necessarily always…one of the national newspaper journos made a good point when he said that Massa was able to do well at circuits where the track wasn’t like the usual F1 tracks, where it had been built so that even if drivers went slightly off line they could maintain their speed (like Malaysia), but on the more usual F1 tracks where doing well is down to superior handling of the car (because going off line costs time), Raikkonen was much better. The journo was saying that was why Raikkonen would do better over the season because he doesn’t have the edge in terms of car control on proper circuits where the skill level needed is just that bit higher.

    Interesting point and it explains why Massa isn’t really being ‘consistent’ with his results so far. He’s done well at the easier tracks and is more inclined to come in second or further down the field – unless, that is, the leader like at France this time has a car that goes kaput.

    Re: Raikkonen’s luck, it’s true that this year he’s had little of this. He’s lost a LOT of points through car failures that are simply nowt to do with him. In the ill-fated Australian GP, he was online to get a few points if his car hadn’t failed. (Thus the Ferrari head’s comment about it being unacceptable that the Ferrari had failed mechanically.) (He was at least online for those points after Massa had made far worse mistakes by the way that left him out of contention – incidentally.)

    I think it was in Malaysia where his gearbox blew after 1 lap in the first practice session, losing him the entire morning – no less than 25% of his preparation time before qualifying, and clearly setting Kimi back as you could tell from his slightly unsettled sounding comments about the event. His race weekend was vitally compromised.

    In Canada he had an excellent chance of victory at the time of Hamilton’s blunder. He’d passed Hamilton in the pit lane (and indeed his car was slightly ahead of Kubiza’s at the track re-entry spot). If not victory, second or third (8 or 6 points) were the likelihood.

    In France as we all know he lost 2 sure points.

    SO – that’s about 12-15 points lost to mechanical error and an extraordinary error by one of his rivals; and that’s without even taking in to account Malaysia where his weekend was compromised.

    Without these non-Kimi-related problems he would be some way ahead of Massa by now then. Massa has simply been the benefactor of Kimi’s mechanical problems, as well as Hamilton’s mistakes.

    The bookies are right to have Raikkonen more likely to win than Massa – there’s pure class there and unless bad luck simply continues then it has to reign in the end.

    But ferrari’s standards have slipped since their team changed a couple of years ago with the departing Schumacher – they make more errors in the pitlane and the parts fail more often. They don’t seem to have noticed the drop in standards either, or at least, they’re trying to pretend they’re not happening.

    And isn’t the difference between down-to-earth, sensible, MODEST Raikk’s comments (in the face of bad luck and being behind at many points over the last two seasons so far) and Hamilton’s posturing attitude and self-comparisons to Senna, rather notable?

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