A Look Back To Chinese Grand Prix
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Oct 17, 2008
Toyota Racing
Last year in Shanghai McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was poised to be become the youngest ever world champion. With a 12-point advantage over team mate Fernando Alonso and a 17-point margin over Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, then as long as Raikkonen didn’t win, all he needed to do was to finish ahead of Alonso.
But though the crown was within his grasp, Hamilton was under a great deal of pressure. His victory in Japan the previous week had come at a price, with the British driver under investigation after suggestions he drove erratically behind the safety car. There was a very real threat he could be served with a grid penalty.
In the end the stewards decided not to penalise him, but the issue was an unwanted distraction and it was Raikkonen who capitalised to set the initial pace on Friday morning, with Alonso, Felipe Massa and then Hamilton following behind. After lunch, the Ferraris and McLarens were almost inseparable, with just 0.023s splitting Raikkonen, Alonso and Massa, while Hamilton was only another two-tenths adrift. It was good day for Toyota too, with Ralf Schumacher seventh and Jarno Trulli an even stronger fifth.
In qualifying it was Hamilton who had the edge, clinching his sixth pole of the season. Raikkonen joined him on the front row, a tenth down, with Massa and fourth-placed Alonso behind. The biggest surprise of the day was Coulthard, who took a worthy fifth place, immediately ahead of Schumacher and Red Bull team mate Mark Webber. Heidfeld and Kubica were eighth and ninth respectively, while a surprised Jenson Button completed the top ten in strong form for Honda.
Victory was thus Raikkonen’s, the Finn leading home Alonso and Massa to keep his title chances alive. Sebastian Vettel made up for his mistake at the previous Fuji round (where he ran into the rear of Mark Webber’s Red Bull under the safety car) to take a well-deserved fourth, after using his one-stop strategy to its best advantage, ahead of fifth-placed Button for Honda and Toro Rosso team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi. Heidfeld finished seventh for BMW Sauber, with the final point taken by Coulthard.
