2008 British Grand Prix facts and stats

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Lewis Hamilton wins his home race, Heikki Kovalainen scores his first pole position – and Kimi Raikkonen is one race away from matching a 55 year-old record.

Here are the facts at stats from the British Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton scored his seventh career victory, giving him as many as Rene Arnoux and Juan Pablo Montoya.

He is the first British driver to win the British Grand Prix since David Coulthard in 2000. Coulthard, having announced his retirement this weekend, drove his final British Grand Prix and failed to complete a lap.

Hamilton’s winning margin of 1m 8.577s is the largest since Damon Hill won the 1995 Australian Grand Prix by two laps from Olivier Panis.

Heikki Kovalainen scored his first pole position. There are 27 other drivers who have scored only one pole position in their F1 career, including Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld.

Nick Heidfeld finished second for the sixth time in his career, increasing record of most second place finishes without a victory which he holds over Stefan Johansson (four). Heidfeld is the only driver to have finished every race so far this year.

Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are tied for the lead of the drivers’ championship. The last time that happened was after the Bahrain Grand Prix last year, when Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso were tied.

Rubens Barrichello gave Honda their first podium finish since Jenson Button was third at Brazil in 2006.

Kimi Raikkonen extended his run of consecutive fastest laps to six. That puts him one short of the all-time record of seven set by Alberto Ascari 55 years ago. Raikkonen also past 500 in his all-time points tally, with 504.

Jarno Trulli finished seventh, equalling Toyota’s best finish at Silverstone by Cristiano Da Matta in 2003.

Jenson Button’s qualifying positions in the British Grand Prix in the last three years are 19th, 18th and 17th respectively.

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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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17 comments on “2008 British Grand Prix facts and stats”

  1. When was the last F1 season when the lead at the top has shifted after every race 4 races in a row between 4 different drivers and counting? Lewis took the lead of Kimi in Monaco, Kubica sneaked in and took it in Canada, Massa got the best of anyone in France and now Lewis is back again, next round Kimi?

  2. Keith, let’s not forget about Rubens Barrichello – first podium since China 2005, and Honda’s first since Brazil 2006.

  3. Pedro Andrade
    7th July 2008, 8:14

    Journeyer: actually, Barrichello’s last podium was at Indy 2005. Not a very happy podium, except for Tiago Monteiro.

  4. So… in another 16 years, Button should be on pole?

  5. Journeyer – I didn’t forget about Barrichello’s podium!

  6. Kimi keeps on getting those fastest laps! I guess he got it during the time he was rapidly catching Hamilton, before his fateful pitstop?

    I guess it shows that with a little more luck and consistency from Ferrari, Kimi has the potential speed to be on top more decisively than at present.

  7. Massa’s tally of most spins in a single race without destroying his machinery should go down in the hall of fame.

  8. i think kimi could have gotten the first place if it wasnt 4 their stupid startegy…
    he was taking it to hamilton who could have done something silly under pressure….lucky hamilton
    but anyway he drove well but still not better then barachello who had probably the one of the worst developed car..
    hopefully theyv will do better next season

  9. Captain Caveman
    7th July 2008, 12:34

    i am inclined to agree with F1freak.

    the degree of the win in my eyes was not as great as the 68 seconds would suggest. it was noted that both alonso and kimi lost easily 45 to 55 seconds due to the wrong tyre choice etc. (team and or driver choise i am not sure)

    That aside i have to accept that lewis did well in the first stint, great first corner etc. i would have loved to see how he would have coped if both he and kimi were on the same tyre startegy after the first pit stop

    But it was not to be.

  10. Kimi was reeling in Lewis, the gap went from 6.6 seconds to 0.9 at one point. The guy is so fast its ridiculous, but then again, if Kovi had not handed second place to kimi, I dont think he would have got that close to lewis, but that aint Kimi’s problem, he did the right thing and make the most of that opportunity, but Ferrari’s tactics have been a tad suspect recently. Oh well, now we got ourself a great championship at the halfway stage.

    Between the three I think its close between Lewis and Kimi. As for Massa, He can dominate anyone on “Massa tracks” ie. anticlockwise circuits, but I don’t think he’s as good an all-rounder as his Kimi or Lewis.
    But to be fair, he has improved alot, so if he can keep himself in contention until the last race, then he would probably become World Champion. For that to happen Felipe, Less spins, More wins mate…

  11. Kimi was fast but could it be because Hamilton didn’t want to push harder because of fear of another debacle? Although Kimi has had a fateful few bad runs, he would probably have had to endure a lot less pummeling than Hamilton, head the latter crashed in a bid to keep ahead of the former. If that was on Kimi’s mind as he closed in on him, it would have made him a lot more comfortable pushing knowing that Hamilton will in all certainlty step aside and settle for a podium finish than push and crash or damage the car.

  12. I doubt Kimi would have won the race, simply because it rained again. Kimi only set the fastest lap time when the track was initially drying up before the first round of pitstops. His pace during the wet portions of the race was pretty ordinary, even discounting the period when he was on the wrong set of tyres. For those who think he had his off track adventures becuase he was on used tyres, look closely he was on fresh slicks when he was losing control of the car. It is likely he could have finished in second place.

  13. I thought it was Red Bulls first front row start? I could be wrong though.

  14. Exactly how many times did Massa/Raikkonen spin and who did the best one?

  15. Massa spun five times (I believe the last time this happened was Felipe Massa in the 2002 British Grand Prix) and Raikkonen spun twice. Only three drivers had no off-track moments (Heidfeld, Alonso and Rosberg) and the latter lost half a front wing against a Toyota…

  16. About Barrichello’s podium, its his 62th, and therefore he once again joins Coulthard as the fourth driver with most podiums, only behind Schumacher, Prost and Senna…

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