|
Felipe Massa
was the only Ferrari driver to see the chequered flag at
the end of a Belgian Grand Prix that saved most of its
excitement for the final handful of laps. The Brazilian
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver was classified second
at first, but inherited the win, as Lewis Hamilton,
first past the flag was given a penalty for passing
Raikkonen by cutting the chicane, which drops him to
third behind second placed Nick Heidfeld. Kimi Raikkonen
had made a brilliant start in his F2008 from fourth on
the grid, to swallow up Kovalainen, his team-mate Massa
and pole man Hamilton by lap 2. From then on, the man
who has won the last three races here controlled the
race, only losing the lead during the two pit stop runs.
However, with a couple of laps remaining, rain threw the
race into confusion and in a controversial move,
Hamilton cut the chicane to go into the lead. Shortly
after that, trying to regain the lead, the Ferrari man
spun and ended his race in the barrier. Hamilton still
heads the Drivers' classification but is now only 2
points ahead of Felipe. Ferrari still heads the
Constructors' championship, as the series heads to Monza
next weekend for the Italian Grand Prix.
It had rained on and off throughout the morning and the
majority of cars went out onto the grid on rain tyres,
but with the clouds moving off, the switch to dry
weather rubber began before the start, with Felipa Massa
in second place alongside pole sitter, Lewis Hamilton
and Kimi Raikkonen in the other F2008 lining up behind
his team-mate, with Heikki Kovalainen in the second
McLaren-Mercedes as his neighbour. All runners were on
the softer of the two types of tyre, apart from Piquet's
Renault that was fitted with the harder ones.
Hamilton got a good start from pole, but Felipe was a
bit slow away, allowing Kimi, who had got the better of
Kovalainen, to pass him on the straight, with Bourdais
briefly fourth before being passed Alonso. Kimi was
flying and took the lead, while Kovalainen spun at La
Source hairpin.
After five of the 44 laps had been completed, Kimi led
Hamilton by 1.1 seconds with Felipe 3.5 behind the
Englishman. Fourth was Alonso, followed by Bourdais,
Webber, Kubica, Kovalainen, Piquet and Heidfeld
completing the top ten. Eleventh was Vettel, followed by
Glock, Rosberg, Trulli, Barrichello, Sutil, Coulthard,
Button and Nakajima. Fisichella was last. On lap 9,
Kovalainen and Vettel both moved up a place to seventh
and tenth respectively.
Out in front, Hamilton was 1.2 behind Kimi and Massa was
5.5 behind in third. Kovalainen's charge up the order
after his spin got a set back when he tried to go down
the inside of Webber, spinning the Australian around.
The Finn was given a drive-through penalty for causing
the accident. Hamilton was the first to pit, stopping
for 6.8 seconds on lap 11 and Kimi came in next time
round, for a 7.1 stop. Felipe came in on lap 13 (7.6
seconds.) Bourdais pitted from second place on lap 15,
coming out just ahead of Kubica who had also come in on
the same lap. Vettel was the last of the leading bunch
to refuel on lap 17, so that one lap later the order was
now, Kimi, 5.7 ahead of Hamilton, Felipe in third at a
distance of 9.5 from his team-mate, followed by Alonso,
Bourdais, Kubica, Vettel and Heidfeld in the last of the
points scoring positions, eighth. Kimi then put in a
fastest race lap to extend his advantage to 6.1s.
The two leaders made their final pit stops together on
lap 25, the McLaren man's marginally shorter than the
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver, but Kimi was still
ahead, although Felipe was the temporary race leader.
Alonso brought his Renault in from fourth place on lap
27 and Felipe came in next time round, stopping for 7.9.
The meant the Kimi was back at the head of the field,
but his lead over Hamilton had been reduced to 2.4 and
then 1.9 on lap 29, with Felipe 4.1 further back in
third, all three of them now doing the obligatory race
stint on the harder Bridgestone tyre. Bourdais pitted
from fourth on lap 32, while the gaps between the top
three barely changed as the race came down to its final
ten laps. Kubica came in on lap 33 as did Vettel, the
German overtaking the Pole, by beating him out of pit
lane.
So with ten laps to go the order was Kimi still leading,
with a 2.2 advantage over Hamilton, while Felipe trailed
by 3.3. Alonso was fourth and with Bourdais and Vettel
fifth and sixth respectively in the Toro Rosso cars, it
meant Ferrari had four engines in the top six. With 6
laps remaining a few drops of rain began to fall, but
not enough to require rain tyres and one lap later the
gaps at the front were 0.9 between Kimi and Hamilton,
with Felipe 6 behind, but comfortably 33.5 ahead of
fourth placed Alonso.
But with two laps to go, Hamilton closed right up to
Kimi and got past him but only by cutting across the
chicane. Kimi was in front again going past the pits but
again Hamilton got ahead. Further down the road, Rosberg
was recovering from a spin, Hamilton braked very heavily
and Kimi nearly got the upper hand again, but moments
later, the Finn spun off and his race ended in the
barriers. He was classified eighteenth.
The McLaren man was first past the flag, followed by
Felipe and the BMW of Nick Heidfeld, who had stopped to
change onto intermediate rain tyres. Also adopting this
tactic was Alonso and it helped the Renault man to move
up to fourth, ahead of Vettel and Kubica who both
managed to get ahead of Bourdais, who suffered the most
of this group in the difficult conditions. The remaining
point went to Timo Glock until he was penalised for
overtaking under yellow flags, handing the point to Mark
Webber. Then Hamilton was penalised by the Stewards
which handed the victory to Felipe.
This was Felipe's tenth career win and brings the
Scuderia's total to 208 from 771 Grands Prix entered.
The Brazilian is now second in the Drivers'
classification, two points down on the leader, while
Kimi is third, 19 down. Ferrari maintains its lead in
the Constructors' classification with a lead of ten
points over its nearest competitor."
Stefano Domenicali: "I have often said that the
race is not over until the official results are
published and that was the case today. As usual, Ferrari
will not comment on the Stewards' decision. After the
race, we were called to the Stewards and we explained
our position. We are very disappointed for Kimi, who had
driven a great race and deserved the win, especially at
this rather difficult time. This result is obviously
very important for our Championship hopes: now we must
maintain maximum concentration and prepare as well as
possible for the forthcoming races, starting at Monza
where we will be racing in front of our home fans. We
will also need their support at such a delicate point in
the season."
Felipe Massa: "This was a very strange race, with
the start and finish taking place in rather difficult
conditions. After the start I thought Eau Rouge might be
wetter and so I was a bit cautious. Kimi attacked and
managed to get by. From then on I realized it would be
hard to pass the two guys ahead of me, even if the lap
times were quite similar. I tried to manage the
situation, especially towards the end. When it started
to rain, I had a pretty good margin over my closest
pursuers and I preferred not to take any risks,
especially given what was going on in front of me. Today
the car wasn't perfectly balanced. On Saturday morning,
we had slightly reduced the aerodynamic downforce, as
you usually do for the race here, but today's track
conditions definitely did not suit this choice. The hard
tyres? They were definitely slower than the soft ones
and lacked grip, which made the car a bit inconsistent
in terms of balance."
Luca Baldisserri: "This was a very intense
weekend, which only ended two hours after the chequered
flag. Kimi drove a very nice race and it's a real shame
it wasn't crowned with a deserved win after he attacked
all race long. Felipe drove in a very calculating
fashion, without taking unnecessary risks when the
conditions were really critical. The soft tyres worked
very well, while the hard ones struggled a bit,
especially with Kimi: we need to establish what caused
this. As for the rest, the F2008 proved to be very
competitive and the team worked in impeccable fashion
throughout the race. Now we must continue to push
because we absolutely want to reach our objectives."
Race Details
F. Massa:
1st 1:22.59.394 - 44 laps chassis 269
K. Raikkonen: 18th 1:17.42.833 DNF 42 laps chassis 271
Weather: air temperature 16 C, track temperature 17 C,
overcast, rain in the final laps.
|
