Results of the 2008 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix
Ferrari put their poor start to the season well behind them with a commanding one-two victory that blew McLaren off the circuit. Felipe Massa, beaten into second place on the starting grid by Robert Kubica in the final qualifying lap, snatched back the lead at the first corner and never looked back, claiming his first victory and points of the season.
His teammate, Kimi Räikkönen finished 3.339 seconds behind him, followed by the two BMWs of Robert Kubica (+4.998) and Nick Heidfeld (+8.409). McLaren managed a fifth from Heikki Kovalainen, but their championship leader, Lewis Hamilton suffered his worst ever finish - 14th, after rear-ending Fernando Alonso at the start which confined him to an early pit stop.
The biggest winners and losers where at the start. Hamilton’s car appeared to sit on the third place on the grid while cars swarmed around him, he got boxed in disastrously and eventually found himself in ninth. Meanwhile his teammate, Kovalainen jumped from fifth to third, stealing a march on Räikkönen but losing it again within the lap. They were no match for the Ferarris and the McLarens showed a worrying lack of pace as the BMWs soon overhauled Kovalainen.
Meanwhile, there were various collisions at the beginning forcing the eventual retirement of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button who was doing well in the top 10. Nelson Piquet Jnr was the only other retiree, but several other drivers where left a lap down from incidents requiring unscheduled pitstops. One of them was Hamilton, who was simply out of luck when he banged into the back of Alonso who braked suddenly on the straight. He needed a new nose cone and it ruined his race, eventually being lapped by the top drivers. Jarno Trulli picked up more points for Toyota in sixth, while Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg picked up the rest.
The results mean McLaren’s significant early lead in the championship has evapourated, handing BMW the lead for the first time ever (30 points), Ferrari are a point behind and McLaren two. Räikkönen is the new drivers’ leader (19), while Hamilton sits at third, two points behind Nick Heidfeld (16), and tied with both Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen. It’s the first time since his F1 career began 21 races ago that he has not lead the points log.
Results of Bahrain Grand Prix after 57 laps of Sakhir circuit on 6 April, 2008:
- Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 31 minutes 6.970 seconds
- Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) Ferrari +3.339 secs
- Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +4.998
- Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +8.409
- Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.789
- Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +41.314
- Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +45.473
- Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +55.889
- Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +1:09.500
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +1:17.181
- Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda +1:17.862
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
- Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
- Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
- Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
- Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
- Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
- David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
- Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari two laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 40 laps completed
R Jenson Button (GB) Honda 19 laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps