Flins-Mureaux F1 circuit design

New details about France’s potential new F1 track have emerged at Grandprix.com.

It’s being built without the aid of Hermann Tilke, who has had something of a monopoly of F1 circuit design for more than a decade.

According to Grandprix.com:

The conseil general of the Yvelines departement, which is funding the circuit, asked for tenders for the design in the autumn and has now chosen the winning bid, presented by the French firm Wilmotte, which boasts offices in London, Paris and Cannes and employs 150 designers.

Wilmotte decided to ally with Britain’s Apex Circuit Design, headed by Clive Bowen, who has a list of circuit designs behind him including the Dubai Autodrome, the Eurasia Autodrome at Domodedovo in Russia, plus ongoing projects such as the Iceland MotoPark, the Eastern Creek Raceway in Australia, Hampton Downs in New Zealand and the new Alabama Motorsports Park in the United States. Apex has also designed international kart tracks for Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

It has often been assumed that a pre-requisite from any track wanting to hold an F1 race is a visit from Hermann Tilke.

Many fans have, perhaps unfairly, criticised Tilke for a lack of imagination in modern F1 track designs, though I have often wondered whether the restrictive rules have more to do with it.

The clockwise Flins-Mureaux design (see here for another picture) departs from Tilke convention in one clear way: there are no obvious pre-arranged ‘overtaking places’ where a tight corner leads onto a long straight and then another tight corner.

Perhaps the designs have assumed that the new generation of F1 cars will be able to follow each other more closely than last year’s were, and so purpose-built overtaking zones can become a thing of the past.

At 4.5km (2.8 miles) this would be one of the shortest tracks in F1, longer only than Monte-Carlo, Interlagos and the Hungaroring.

What do you think of the Flins-Mureaux F1 track design?

Read more

• How Hermann Tilke conquered the F1 calendar, 1996-2009 (Video)
• 2009 F1 tracks compared
• Is Istanbul Park the best Tilke track?
• Don’t blame Hermann Tilke, blame the rules

The new Valencia circuit produced the least popular race of 2008

I’ve compiled the results from the 18 ‘rate the race’ polls of 2008 and crunched the numbers to find what were the most popular and least popular races of the year.

Unsurprisingly Brazil came out on top as the fans’ favourite, with the European Grand Prix at the new Valencia Circuit voted worst race. Here’s the list in full.

2008 F1 race popularity

2008 F1 race popularity (click to enlarge)

Brazil comes out easily on top with Monaco, Britain and Italy all getting similar scores. All four of the most popular races were affected by rain.

Here are the races ranked by popularity with the race winner for each.

Brazil 8.756 (Felipe Massa)
Monaco 8.177 (Lewis Hamilton)
Britain 8.164 (Lewis Hamilton)
Italy 8.153 (Sebastian Vettel)
Canada 7.809 (Robert Kubica)
Belgium 7.736 (Felipe Massa*)
Australia 7.609 (Lewis Hamilton)
Germany 7.180 (Lewis Hamilton)
Turkey 6.816 (Felipe Massa)
Japan 6.660 (Fernando Alonso)
Singapore 6.302 (Fernando Alonso)
Hungary 6.202 (Heikki Kovalainen)
Malaysia 5.738 (Kimi Raikkonen)
France 5.548 (Felipe Massa)
Bahrain 5.364 (Felipe Massa)
Spain 5.085 (Kimi Raikkonen)
China 4.446 (Lewis Hamilton)
Europe 3.977 (Felipe Massa)

*At the point at which most of the votes were cast it was not yet known that Lewis Hamilton was going to be stripped of his win.

2008 F1 race popularity – adjusted

Some races seemed to have oddly large numbers of people voting the lowest rating of ‘terrible’. They didn’t seem to be consistent to a particular driver or a particular type of race. If we filter out the ‘terrible’ votes it changes the average ratings as follows:

2008 F1 race popularity (adjusted) (click to enlarge)

Belgium and Singapore do much better. I remember Belgium picked up a lot of ‘terrible’ votes after the news of Hamilton’s penalty was announced. As for Singapore, perhaps a lot of Ferrari fans were angered by the double whammy of the Massa pit lane debacle and Raikkonen’s late crash.

Do you think this ranking reflects what were the best and worst races of the year?

If you want to have a play with the raw data you can download it from MediaFire:

http://www.mediafire.com/f1fanatic

See more results of F1 Fanatic polls: F1 Fanatic polls archive

Robert Kubica scored his maiden F1 win at Canada

We shared every twist and turn in the 18 Grands Prix of 2008 here on the F1 Fanatic Live Blogs.

Here’s a reminder of how each race unfolded and what we said about the most exciting moments of the year as they unfolfed before our eyes:

Australian Grand Prix

Hamilton started the year with a win at Melbourne

The season got off to a spectacular start with a hectic race at Melbourne. While Lewis Hamilton converted pole position into the win, there was plenty going on behind him.

Del: Be still my beating heart…the excitement!

Australian Grand Prix qualifying report: Lewis Hamilton on pole
Australian Grand Prix race report: Ferrari falter and Hamilton triumphs

Malaysian Grand Prix

Felipe Massa had spun at the start at Melbourne and then clashed with David Coulthard. In Sepang he lost the lead to team mate Kimi Raikkonen, then spun off trying to catch him. Not many expected him to end up leading Ferrari’s title charge. Raikkonen won, while both McLaren drivers picked up penalties in practice.

Rabi: If Massa continues this he will dropped before the end of the season.

Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying report: Massa on pole but McLarens could face penalty
Malaysian Grand Prix race report: Raikkonen routs the opposition

Bahrain Grand Prix

Massa rallied at Bahrain, winning as he pleased, but Raikkonen now led the championship. Hamilton had a horror show of a race, crashing into Fernando Alonso after making a poor start.

Rikhart: This is looking like an easy championship for Kimi, if McLaren are nowhere, he will fight with Massa mostly, who is quite worse than him.

Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying report: Insert Pole-on-pole joke here
Bahrain Grand Prix race report: Ferrari pair cruise to easy one-two

Spanish Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari 1-2 at Barcelona

A typical F1 Sunday snooze in Spain was interrupted by a heavy crash for Heikki Kovalainen. He was unhurt, but the appearance of the safety car proved rotten timing for Nick Heidfeld, whose race was ruined. It wouldn’t be the last time the ‘pit lane closure’ rules ruined someone’s race.

Ollie: The pit lane rules are so stupid. Just so stupid.

Spanish Grand Prix qualifying report: Raikkonen holds back home hero Alonso
Spanish Grand Prix race report: Raikkonen leads crushing Ferrari 1-2

Turkish Grand Prix

Raikkonen won in Spain but from this point on his form started to dip. The Istanbul round was our first experience of what would become a familiar phenomenon: Massa out-paced Raikkonen in qualifying, and though the Finn showed excellent pace in the race the shot at victory had escaped him. Massa won his third Turkish Grand Prix in a row, while Hamilton finished second.

F1Punter: That 1’26.5 shows that Kimi has pace in the car, he just hasn’t been able to deliver it consistently enough.

Turkish Grand Prix qualifying report: Hat-trick of poles for Felipe Massa
Turkish Grand Prix race report: Massa wins third consecutive race at Istanbul

Monaco Grand Prix

A wet Monaco Grand Prix provided high drama. Hamilton clipped the wall but survived with only a puncture. His early pit stop set him up perfectly to capitalise on the changing conditions later in the race, and he won from Massa. Adrian Sutil ran strongly in the points for Force India – until an out-of-control Raikkonen rammed him out of the race.

Doctorvee: What a TERRIBLE race Raikkonen has had
Gerdoner: The fastest car crashes into the slowest one
Tom: That’s really unlucky for Sutil

Monaco Grand Prix qualifying report: Ferrari shock McLaren with front row lock-out
Monaco Grand Prix race report: Ferrari mistakes let Lewis Hamilton in for win

Canadian Grand Prix

Robert Kubica scored his first ever Grand Prix win at Montreal

Raikkonen was the driver rammed out of the race in Montreal – by title rival Hamilton.

Andy: I don’t believe he wanted to do that…
Kris: Raikonnen beat him out the pits, and Hamilton took him out
Ponzonha: Disaster. Absolute disaster. I don’t mind who is responsible.

That set Kubica up for the win which he delivered – his maiden victory, at the circuit where he survived a shocking crash in 2007.

Canadian Grand Prix qualifying report: Hamilton takes pole as track starts to crumble
Canadian Grand Prix race report: Kubica takes maiden win as Hamilton hits Raikkonen

French Grand Prix

With Hamilton on a ten-place grid penalty following his Montreal blunder, and Kovalainen picking up a penalty in qualifying at Magny-Cours as well, Ferrari were left to run riot. It should have been an easy win for Raikkonen – but then Wolf spotted a problem with the Ferrari:

F1Wolf: There is something flying around the car at the engine area.

It was Raikkonen’s exhaust, and as his lap times dropped off Massa took the win off him.

French Grand Prix qualifying report: Raikkonen storms to Ferrari’s 200th pole position
French Grand Prix race report: Problem for Raikkonen hands win to Massa

British Grand Prix

Heavy rain hit Silverstone and Hamilton quickly moved to the front, passing Kovalainen on the way. The crucial moment came as he and Raikkonen made their first pit stops together. McLaren and Hamilton made the correct call to put on a fresh set of wet weather tyres while Raikkonen kept his used set on.

Ollie: Hamilton pits with Raikkonen
Cyanide: No tyre change for Ferrari
Journeyer: …but Hamilton’s tyres are cold.

As fresh rain fell Hamilton left Raikkonen behind – and won his home race by over a minute.

British Grand Prix qualifying report: First pole for Kovalainen as Hamilton stumbles
British Grand Prix race report: Lewis Hamilton scores home win as Ferrari flounder

German Grand Prix

McLaren were unstoppable at a cool Hockenheimring. Despite inexlicably failing to pit Hamilton under a late safety car period, Hamilton picked off Massa and Nelson Piqet Jnr to score his second win in a row.

F1Fanatic.co.uk: My McLaren strategic blunder sense is tingling
Chaz: This really throws cat amongst the pigeons
Snoopy: No red lights to Hamilton and Kimi LOL
Doctorvee: Why on earth have they kept Lewis out?

German Grand Prix qualifying report: Hamilton beats Massa to Hockenheim pole
German Grand Prix race report: Lewis Hamilton wins despite strategy blunder

Hungarian Grand Prix

Massa trudges back to the pits after his engine failure

McLaren were expected to run away with the race at Hungary too, and when Hamilton took pole position it looked like business as usual. But Massa burst through from the second row, passed Hamilton and ran away with the lead. But cruelly, he was not to take the win…

Kris: Massa blown up
Tom: OMG that is unlucky
Doctorvee: Whoa kovy for the win!
Diseased rat: Oh poor Massa, man he deserved that win
Gerdoner: Just as the german commentators spoke about Hill’s 1997 race

Kovalainen inherited the win, becoming F1′s 100th Grand Prix winner.

Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying report: Lewis Hamilton heads McLaren one-two
Hungarian Grand Prix race report: Massa loses Hungary win to Kovalainen

European Grand Prix

There were little drama at Valencia. Massa took a straightforward lights-to-flag win, but he escaped a penalty for being un-safely released in the pits.

Chaz: will massa get a drive through penalty
Journeyer: Nothing will come out of it. A fine at most.
Tom: Well I hope he does get a drive-through, hopefully that should put a stop to all that because it has been going on repeatedly and it IS dangerous

European Grand Prix qualifying report: Felipe Massa pips Lewis Hamilton to pole
European Grand Prix race report: Felipe Massa scores flawless win at Valencia

Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix... for a few hours

A late shower in the Belgian Grand Prix transformed the race. Hamilton and Raikkonen scrapped furiously for the lead, and Hamilton seemed to have done enough to earn the win, passing Raikkonen before the Finnish driver crashed out. When it was announced that the stewards were investigating the battle, it wasn’t immediately clear why.

Diseased rat: LOL at people thinking Hamilton cut the chicane, he quite obviously gave the place back after doing so.
Doctorvee: Stewards investigating incident between Lewis and Kimi – is that when Lewis cut the bus stop? Or when they crashed at La Source?

Eventually we learned Hamilton was to be stripped of his win, and victory was handed to Massa.

Belgian Grand Prix qualifying report: Lewis Hamilton on pole position at Spa
Belgian Grand Prix race report: Lewis Hamilton is moral victor in Spa thriller

Italian Grand Prix

Another wet race, but this time Hamilton didn’t win as he’d picked the wrong tyres in qualifying and started 15th. Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso called the race beautifully, winning from pole position, making Vettel the youngest winner and pole sitter.

Journeyer: Vettel’s lead down to 9.5s, but still has a comfy gap.
F1Wolf: So Vettel for the win

Italian Grand Prix qualifying report: Sebastian Vettel on pole as Massa leads title rivals
Italian Grand Prix race report: Sebastian Vettel brushes title rivals aside to win

Singapore Grand Prix

Massa was leading the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix comfortably when disaster struck at his first pit stop.

Franton: Massa ripped out the fuel hose
Darren: Massa ran over mechanic
SpareTomato: Massa nearly hit a Force India there too

With Massa not scoring, Hamilton settled for third behind Alonso and Nico Rosberg. Raikkonen crashed out of the race in the dying stages, his fourth consecutive no-score of the season. But the untimely arrival of the safety car ruined Kubica’s race and effectively ended his title hopes.

Singapore Grand Prix qualifying report: Felipe Massa takes pole by huge margin
Singapore Grand Prix race report: Fernando Alonso’s bad luck turns good for win

Japanese Grand Prix

Felipe Massa scored two valuable points at Fuji

More controversy in Fuji. It started with Hamilton’s lurid out-braking move at the hairpin, for which he was handed a penalty. Massa bundled Hamilton into a spin and got a penalty himself. After the race, Bourdais was given a penalty for angle with Massa – but at first many thought Massa was the one at fault.

Osama: Massa’s move will be invstigated
Chunter: What the hell good does a penalty on Bourdais do?
MacademiaNut: Massa will be given a 25 second advantage instead of a drive through for Bourdais

Alonso capitalised on the mayhem to score his second win on the trot.

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying report: Lewis Hamilton on pole again at Fuji
Japanese Grand Prix race report: Alonso wins as Hamilton and Massa stumble

Chinese Grand Prix

After being heavily criticised for his Fuji performance, Hamilton hit back by dominating the Chinese Grand Prix weekend. Only in FP3 did anyone displace him at the top of the times sheets. Raikkonen led Massa and had to make way for his team mate late in the race – though he took his time over it.

Snoopy: Well…proof that Kimi is team player
Chaz: Come on FIA do something about these team orders
Brendan: About as blatant as Kovalainen at Hockenheim
Tom: You could hear Kimi lift there
Zerogee: Ha, did you hear Kimi’s engine?
Sumedh: No mechanics celebrating Massa’s pass

Chinese Grand Prix qualifying report: Lewis Hamilton on pole in China
Chinese Grand Prix race report: Lewis Hamilton on cusp of F1 title after dominant win

Brazilian Grand Prix

We won’t forget the heart-stopping title decider in Interlagos any time soon. Hamilton looked to have thrown it all away when he was passed by Vettel late in the race. But the pair overtook a slow Glock on the final tour and Hamilton clinched the championship. The live blog went into

Eugene: Glock just went from hero to zero in brazil
Journeyer: What a season. For all the right and wrong reasons.
Scott Joslin: In my life I have never experienced drama like it!
F1Fanatic.co.uk: Staggering. I’m almost in shock.
Svaeyens: I’m exhausted….
Robert McKay: That was unreal. Unreal.
Journeyer: Keith, shock is an understatement.
NDINYO: Best F1 season of all time!
DanD: Didn’t see that one coming at all
David Watkins: My face is burning my heart is at about 200. And Hamilton is champion!

Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying report: Felipe Massa takes pole for title decider
Brazilian Grand Prix race report: Lewis Hamilton is champion in epic climax to final race

F1 will not race at Magny-Cours in 2009

The French Grand Prix has been cancelled for 2009 in a surprise move by the event organisers, the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile. The FFSA issued the following statement:

After examining the economic situation, the FFSA renounces to be the financial promoters of a Formula One Grand Prix. As a result, and as long as a promoter capable of succeeding the FFSA has not been identified, the French Grand Prix will not be able to feature on the FIA international calendar in 2009.

The news comes just eight days after the Canadian Grand Prix was dropped from the 2009 F1 schedule with no warning.

The 2009 F1 calendar, which originally had 19 events on it, is now reduced to 17.

France has held a round of the F1 world championship every year since the series began in 1950, except in 1955, when it was cancelled following the Le Mans disaster. The first Grand Prix was held in France in 1906.

Bernie Ecclestone threatened to cancel the French Grand Prix this year and reinstated it. He did the same with the 2009 race as well, and it is public knowledge that he is looking for alternative hosts for the race. At least four potential venues have been rumoured.

Is the Magny-Cours round F1′s first victim of the credit crunch? Or is this an inevitable consequence of Bernie Ecclestone pushing race fees ever higher?

2009 F1 season
2009 F1 calendar

The first details of the 2009 F1 calendar were published today with the F1 schedule set to return to 19 races – a high it has only reached once before, in 2005.

As was expected the French Grand Prix is remaining at Magny-Cours. The Australian Grand Prix also appears as a provisional fixture.

However there is still no slot for a United States Grand Prix. For the second year in a row F1 will have only one race in North America – the Canadian Grand Prix. Full details below.

Provisional 2009 F1 calendar

Changes on the 2009 F1 calendar

The season starts later than usual, with the Australian Grand Prix on March 29th – it was on March 16th this year. However the season also ends later than usual.

Among the other changes is the return of the Turkish Grand Prix to its original late summer slot. It was held in May this year in unusually cool conditions.

The calendar does not give details of venues but the German and Japanese Grands Prix are expected to rotate locations with the German round being held at the Nurburgring (possibly under a different title) and the Japanese back at Suzuka after two years at Fuji Speedway.

The British Grand Prix has moved in front of the French Grand Prix and the Belgian in front of the Italian.

A slot at the end of the season has been found for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This is where it was originally expected to appear.

It will be the first time the F1 season has ended at an all-new circuit since the 1985 Adelaide Grand Prix. The race will be held on 15th November, the latest conclusion to a season since 1987.

2009 F1 calendar
2009 F1 season

Here are 21 pictures from Sunday’s French Grand Prix including the Ferraris romping off at the start, jarno Trulli scoring an emotional podium for Toyota, and McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen pictured with a 1908 Benz Grand Prix car.

Click once for preview and click again for high-resolution version.

For copyright owners see detail on image.

What has been the biggest talking point on the Live Blogs during the past three races?

Plenty has been said about the state of Lewis Hamilton’s driving and Max Mosley’s libido, but I think the most popular question is this:

“Is it going to rain?”

We’ve had three race weekends of uncertain weather: brief drizzle at Magny-Cours yesterday, the thunderstorm that came too late at Montreal, and early shower that without doubt made Monaco the race of the year so far.

It seems almost everyone wants to see wet weather during Grands Prix and it’s no secret why. Rain equals action. Rain equals drama. Above all, rain equals racing.

When the track got damp at Magny-Cours yesterday we could see a procession transform into a real race before out eyes. Suddenly Heikki Kovalainen pounced on Jarno Trulli, and Robert Kubica caught up to within a second of them.

As the track dried, that exciting three-car battle stretched out into the familiar, dismal sight of F1 drivers stuck one second apart from each other, unable to get close because of the aerodynamic disturbance from the car in front.

The effect that a few drops of rain has on reducing grip levels and allowing cars to race more closely is so dramatic that some have even suggested – with varying degrees of seriousness – the F1 should look into artificially dampening tracks.

Although it would make the racing better I don’t think it would be good for the sport. Never mind the unnecessary cost and questionable environmental implications, other racing categories prove that it is possible to have good racing in all conditions, and for an example of that once again we need look no further than GP2.

F1’s attempted solution to the difficulties of racing in dry weather is slated to arrive next year in the form of massively reduced wings and other aerodynamic devices, proper racing slick tyres to replace grooved tyres, and a ban on tyre warmers.

Yesterday’s race, which was five more minutes of rain away from being a thriller, was a reminder of how badly these changes are needed.

The French Grand Prix went about as badly as it possibly could for Lewis Hamilton – and he has nobody to blame but himself for it.

From the moment he got back behind the wheel of the McLaren at Magny-Cours it looked as though he was still working out the frustration from his humiliating crash at Montreal. And the outcome was inevitable.

When he needed to limit damage, he threw caution to the wind, ruined his race within a couple of corners, and came away with nothing.

Driving errors

The expectation before the race was that Hamilton would use an aggressive strategy and fuel lightly to try to make up the disadvantage of losing ten places on the grid.

This included reducing his rear wing angle below the optimum to get the best straight line speed possible to have a chance of overtaking into the Adelaide hairpin.

But although he usually revels in a car with a touch of oversteer he seemed to have taken it way too far. He struggled at the right-hander at Estoril in practice. Then in Q3 he spoiled both his laps with oversteering moment at the fast Nürburgring chicane.

Another penalty

That same corner was the scene of his error during the race. He lined up Sebastian Vettel neatly to pass around the outside but went into the corner carrying far too much speed and cut across the tarmac apron inside the kerb.

There have been occasions where drivers have passed each other while cutting the track and not been penalised. But Hamilton was never going to get away with this one. The onboard camera was a total giveaway – he was heading way too fast into the corner.

Later Hamilton said there had been no conversation with the team about the move. Obviously they made a mistake in not telling him. Arguably he was in a place to judge for himself that he had done something wrong, although often a driver will leave such things up to his team as they have the benefit of being able to see more than they can.

Hamilton’s explanation is a little confusing (emphasis added):

I went into the corner. I believe I was ahead on the outside and I couldn’t turn in on the guy otherwise we would have crashed so I took the outside line, lost the back on the marbles and went over the kerb. I continued because I don’t believe I overtook him by going over the kerb, I actually took him before that.

This sounds like a contradiction to me – if he had completed the overtaking move then he could have turned into the corner without fear of colliding with Vettel. He hadn’t completed the overtaking move, so he had to go wide and cut the corner.

Nor did he only use the kerb – he was completely over it and on the tarmac apron.

State of mind

An element of paranoia crept into Hamilton’s language afterwards:

I kept pushing. There’s nothing you can do that can distract me. You can keep on giving me penalties and whatever you want to do and I’ll keep battling and try and come back with a result.

What I want to know is, who is he addressing? When he says ‘you’ is he talking to the media? Or – much more dangerously – the stewards? Asked about his feelings towards the media Hamilton answered:

I feel cool. It’s all good. Racing is racing. I’m still here, there’s nothing you can do to get me out of it.

Again, who is he talking to? And where is this idea that someone wants him out of racing coming from?

I can’t vouch for the odd things Hamilton is saying, but as after Montreal these don’t sound like the words of someone who realises he’s made a mistake and is going to learn from them (as Doctorvee pointed out recently).

And with the pressure cooker environment of his home race coming up next, I’m starting to wonder if Hamilton is mentally tough enough to cope with the weight of expectation and a dire need to end his two-race point-less streak.

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 fumbles

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.

From 13th on the grid Lewis Hamilton’s race was destroyed within a couple of corners. Trying to pass Sebastian Vettel at the Nürburgring 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 Lewis 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Nelson Piquet Jnr 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.

It’s also the first time a Brazilian driver has led the championship in 15 years, since Ayrton Senna topped the table after the 1993 Monaco Grand Prix. There was more good news for another Brazilian driver, Nelson Piquet Jnr, who finally scored his world championship points.

Ferrari, who dominated today’s race, now have a 17 point lead over BMW in the constructors’ championship.

Drivers’ championship

Felipe Massa 48
Robert Kubica 46
Kimi Raikkonen 43
Lewis Hamilton 38
Nick Heidfeld 28
Heikki Kovalainen 20
Jarno Trulli 18
Mark Webber 18
Fernando Alonso 10
Nico Rosberg 8
Kazuki Nakajima 7
David Coulthard 6
Rubens Barrichello 5
Timo Glock 5
Sebastian Vettel 5
Jenson Button 3
Sebastien Bourdais 2
Nelson Piquet Jnr 2

Not scored

Anthony Davidson
Giancarlo Fisichella
Takuma Sato
Adrian Sutil

Constructors’ championship

Ferrari 91
BMW 74
McLaren 58
Red Bull 24
Toyota 23
Williams 15
Renault 12
Honda 8
Toro Rosso 7

Not scored

Force India
Super Aguri