Results of the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix
Ferrari did it again at the Circuit de Catalunya, with a one-two finish for the second race in a row to cement their title chances. But it wasn’t the dominant finish of before as the top four drivers all finished within five seconds of each other, with Kimi Räikkönen finishing 3.288 seconds ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, and third placed rival Lewis Hamilton less than a second back. Robert Kubica was also tailing them to the chequered flag in his BMW Sauber.
Räikkönen lead from pole, having surprisingly shared the front row with Fernando Alonso’s Renault. But the Spaniard’s car could not reliably compete at that pace and suffered an engine faliure. Hamilton took some time to pass Kubica, but the rest of the field slipped more than half a minute behind, lead by Mark Webber who finished a encouraging fifth for Reb Bull racing, followed by another surprising points finish for Jenson Button’s Honda. Kazuki Nakajima also picked up his first points for Williams and Jarno Trulli was in eighth.
But it was an eventful race in which half the field failed to finish, most notably Heikki Kovalainen who slammed into a wall and had to be airlifted to hospital but was later declared unhurt. The safety car was deployed several times, affecting the race strategy of some drivers. In all seven different teams finished in the top eight.
The results now catapult Räikkönen into a comfortable nine point lead over Lewis Hamilton who is on 20. Robert Kubica now claims a career best third on 19 while Felipe Massa has recovered from his disastrous start to accumulate 18 points. McLaren are now third in the constructors championship on 34, one point behind BMW Sauber, while Ferrari have surged to a 12 point lead.
Result of Spanish Grand Prix:
- Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) Ferrari one hour 38 minutes 19.051 seconds
- Felipe Massa (Brz) (Ferrari) 3.228 seconds behind
- Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes at 4.187
- Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber at 5.694
- Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault at 35.938
- Jenson Button (GB) Honda at 53.010
- Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota at 58.244
- Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 59.435
- Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 1:03.073
- Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
- Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota one lap
- David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
- Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
R Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 41 laps completed
R Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 34 laps
R Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 34 laps
R Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 21 laps
R Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda eight laps
R Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari seven laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault six laps
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India no laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari no laps