Vettel leads Red Bull one-two at Sepang

Red Bull desperately needed a victory to get back into the world championship chase, and Sebastian Vettel delivered it in fine style in a dry Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday. And to make things even better, Mark Webber brought the sister car home second.

Vettel snatched the lead at the start from his Australian team mate, and apart from a time when McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ran second for a while before his tyre stop, they were never seriously challenged.

Polesitter Webber stayed close to Vettel until the stops, but lost two and a half seconds in his tyre stop because of a wheel-gun problem, and finally finished 4.8s behind.

Nico Rosberg was Mercedes GP’s sole finisher in third, after Michael Schumacher retired early on, and he headed home Robert Kubica who scored yet again for Renault. The Pole pushed the German hard, but was never able to challenge seriously.

The race up front wasn’t a repeat of Melbourne’s excitement, but the McLaren and Ferrari drivers provided plenty of thrills as they recovered from their lowly grid positions. Hamilton was 12th by the end of the first lap after starting 20th, but having run second, after staying out on hard rubber until the 30th lap, he was unable to pull an overtaking move on Adrian Sutil once he had switched to soft Bridgestones.

The German kept his head and drove a superb race for Force €ndia to take fifth. Hamilton pushed him very hard, but had to be content with another sixth place ahead of Felipe Massa who was Ferrari’s sole finisher after a feisty battle from the back of the grid.

McLaren’s Jenson Button took eighth, after making an early stop to switch from his soft tyres and having to make the hard replacements last a long time. He was overtaken briefly on the 55th lap by a challenging Fernando Alonso, but as the Ferrari slid wide in Turn One after braking too late Button repassed, and then immediately the Spaniard’s engine broke, dropping him back to a 13th-place finish.

Jaime Alguersuari again drove an excellent race for Toro Rosso and was rewarded with two points for ninth, with Nico Hulkenberg taking the final one for Williams thanks to Alonso’s misfortune.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was 11th from Rubens Barrichello, whose Williams bogged down so badly at the start that Alonso had to make a phenomenal avoidance.

Despite a wing-damaging brush with Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus, Lucas di Grassi brought his Virgin home 14th and best of the newcomers after a strong drive, while Karun Chandhok also beat the Lotuses on their home ground to bring his HRT home 15th ahead of team mate Bruno Senna. Jarno Trulli was 17th as Lotus’s better finisher, with Kovalainen taking 18th after a long pit stop for mechanical attention.

Vitaly Petrov ran well initially, earning Hamilton a stewards’ warning after the Briton weaved too much keeping him at bay down the pit straight, but retired his Renault with mechanical trouble. Vitantonio Liuzzi also ran well, ahead of the Russian, before his Force €ndia retired. He was classified 20th ahead of Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi, who also suffered engine trouble in his BMW Sauber.

Virgin’s Timo Glock also failed to finish after a spin which put him into Trulli, spinning the Lotus. And Pedro de la Rosa did not take the start after his BMW Sauber stopped out on the circuit on the grid formation lap.

The result dramatically closes the championship points battle. Massa now leads with 39 from Alonso and Vettel on 37, Button on 35, Hamilton on 31 and Kubica on 30. €n the constructors’ stakes Ferrari still lead with 76, but McLaren now have 66, Red Bull 61, Mercedes 44 and Renault 30.

2010 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	56	1:33:48.412	3	25
2	6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	56	+4.8 secs	1	18
3	4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	56	+13.5 secs	2	15
4	11	Robert Kubica	Renault	56	+18.5 secs	6	12
5	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	56	+21.0 secs	4	10
6	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+23.4 secs	20	8
7	7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+27.0 secs	21	6
8	1	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+37.9 secs	17	4
9	17	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	56	+70.6 secs	14	2
10	10	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	56	+73.3 secs	5	1
11	16	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	56	+78.9 secs	13
12	9	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	55	+1 Lap	7
13	8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	54	+2 Laps	19
14	25	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	53	+3 Laps	24
15	20	Karun Chandhok	HRT-Cosworth	53	+3 Laps	22
16	21	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	52	+4 Laps	23
17	18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	51	+5 Laps	18
Ret	19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Cosworth	46	+10 Laps	15
Ret	12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	32	+24 Laps	11
Ret	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	12	+44 Laps	10
Ret	3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	9	+47 Laps	8
Ret	23	Kamui Kobayashi	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	8	+48 Laps	9
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2	+54 Laps	16
DNS	22	Pedro de la Rosa	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0	+56 Laps	12

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	76
2	McLaren-Mercedes	66
3	RBR-Renault	61
4	Mercedes GP	44
5	Renault	30
6	Force India-Mercedes	18
7	Williams-Cosworth	6
8	STR-Ferrari	2
9	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0
10	Lotus-Cosworth	0
11	HRT-Cosworth	0
12	Virgin-Cosworth	0

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	39
2	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	37
3	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	37
4	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	35
5	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes GP	35
6	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	31
7	Robert Kubica	Polish	Renault	30
8	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	24
9	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	10
10	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes GP	9
11	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	8
12	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	5
13	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	2
14	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Williams-Cosworth	1
15	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	0
16	Pedro de la Rosa	Spanish	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0
17	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Cosworth	0
18	Karun Chandhok	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
19	Lucas di Grassi	Brazilian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
20	Bruno Senna	Brazilian	HRT-Cosworth	0
21	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Cosworth	0
22	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
23	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	0
24	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	0

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2009

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	78	Winner	1	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	78	+7.6 secs	3	8
3	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	78	+13.4 secs	2	6
4	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	78	+15.1 secs	5	5
5	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	78	+15.7 secs	8	4
6	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	78	+33.5 secs	6	3
7	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	78	+37.8 secs	9	2
8	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	78	+63.1 secs	14	1
9	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	78	+65.0 secs	13
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	77	+1 Lap	19
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	77	+1 Lap	16
12	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	20
13	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	77	+1 Lap	18
14	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	15
15	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	76	+2 Laps	10
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	51	+27 Laps	7
Ret	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	28	+50 Laps	17
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	15	+63 Laps	4
Ret	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	10	+68 Laps	12
Ret	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	10	+68 Laps	11

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO SANTANDER D'ITALIA 2008

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	53	Winner	1	10
2	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+12.5 secs	2	8
3	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	53	+20.4 secs	11	6
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	53	+23.9 secs	8	5
5	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	53	+27.7 secs	10	4
6	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53	+28.8 secs	6	3
7	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+29.9 secs	15	2
8	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	53	+32.0 secs	3	1
9	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+39.4 secs	14
10	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	53	+54.4 secs	17
11	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	53	+58.8 secs	9
12	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	53	+62.0 secs	18
13	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	53	+65.9 secs	7
14	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	53	+68.6 secs	5
15	16	Jenson Button	Honda	53	+73.3 secs	19
16	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	52	+1 Lap	13
17	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	52	+1 Lap	16
18	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	4
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	51	+2 Laps	20
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	11	+42 Laps	12

They laughed when Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso snatched pole position in qualifying - but that turned to cheers of admiration on Sunday when the 21 year-old German became Formula One’s youngest ever winner after a brilliant wet-weather victory at Monza.

Neither Vettel nor the underdog team put a wheel wrong, as superb driving, strategy and pit work brought them home comfortably clear of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.

In Vettel’s wake, team mate Sebastien Bourdais was left on the grid as the race started behind the safety car because of the rain that started half an hour before the kick-off. But even without his wingman, Vettel never had a problem in this one. Kovalainen’s expected challenge never materialised, leaving the Finn sorely disappointed. Kubica’s single pit stop was timed to absolute perfection, as he was able to refuel and switch from Bridgestone’s extreme wets to normal wets at the same time. Both Vettel and Kovalainen stopped twice.

A long way behind them, Fernando Alonso brought his Renault home just ahead of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber, Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren. They were covered by a handful of seconds.

Hamilton drove superbly in the wet opening stages, but was forced to make an unscheduled second stop to move to standard wet tyres and lacked crucial pace towards the end. With four laps left he and Red Bull’s Mark Webber touched wheels under braking for the first chicane, but both cars survived undamaged and the Australian took the final point for eighth place.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap but could not better ninth place ahead of Renault’s Nelson Piquet, Toyota’s Timo Glock, Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, Williams’ Nico Rosberg, Honda’s Jenson Button, Red Bull’s David Coulthard, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello and Bourdais.

The two Toyotas and Rosberg were well placed until they had to stop to switch to standard wet tyres, while Nakajima collided with Coulthard on the 51st lap in Curva Grande, forcing the Scot to pit for a new nose.

The sole retirement was Giancarlo Fisichella, who crashed his Force India after also hitting Coulthard on Lap 12.

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s deserved first F1 victory thus came from the team he put up for sale earlier in the season. It means Vettel is now ninth in the driver standings, while Toro Rosso edge ahead of Red Bull Racing in sixth.

At the top of the drivers’ table Hamilton now has a single point lead over Massa, 77 to 76, pending McLaren’s Belgian appeal. Kubica has 64 and Raikkonen 57. In the constructors’ championship McLaren close still further on Ferrari, with 129 points to the Scuderia’s 134.

Hamilton takes hard-fought win in German Grand Prix

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton scored the fourth victory of his 2008 season here at Hockenheim on Sunday - and he did it the hard way. For the first 34 laps he ran away and hid from his pursuers, led by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, but then Timo Glock ran hard into the pit wall after the right-rear suspension of his Toyota appeared to fail, and all hell broke loose.

The safety car was deployed as the shards of debris were cleared, and the moment the pit lane opened there was a rush to refuel for the final stints. In came everyone, apart from Hamilton, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Nelson Piquet had just been in when Glock crashed.

Suddenly, the complexion of the race had changed totally, for Hamilton was still stuck behind the safety car and the rest had a clear run at him and a pit stop in hand. But his trump card was the presence of Heidfeld in second place and Piquet third, ahead of his sternest challenger, Massa.

By the 50th lap Hamilton had opened a lead of 15.7s over Massa in fourth place, but it was far from enough. He needed 23. As he finally refuelled he fell to fifth place, behind Heidfeld, Piquet, Massa and McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen.

Kovalainen soon succumbed, on lap 52. Then Heidfeld stopped to refuel on lap 53. So now it was Piquet leading, with Hamilton thirsting after Massa. Down came the gap, from just under four seconds to virtually nothing, and on the 57th lap the Brazilian fell prey to the Englishman as they braked for the hairpin. He fought back valiantly two corners later, but Hamilton was not in any mood to be denied, and now only Piquet stood between him and victory.

Lap by lap he hunted down his old GP2 adversary, until the inevitable happened, again at the hairpin. By the flag he was 5.5s clear, and four points ahead of a resigned Massa in the title stakes - 58 to 54.

Piquet clung on to the place fortune had gifted him - for the first half of the race he was down in 14th place - and Massa fended off Heidfeld in the closing stages to take the final podium position.

Kovalainen clung on for fifth ahead of fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen, whose subdued sixth place earned him three points after he had overtaken BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and left him third overall on 51 points. Kubica has 48, for fourth.

The final point went to Sebastian Vettel after a feisty run for Toro Rosso saw him see off the likes of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Renault’s Fernando Alonso, who were ninth and 11th after the latter spun at the hairpin late in the race. Nico Rosberg was 10th for Williams, embroiled in the fight late in the race.

Sebastien Bourdais was also close to Alonso by the finish in the second Toro Rosso, and the Frenchman was followed home by Red Bull’s David Coulthard, who made a poor start and later survived a brush with Rubens Barrichello which resulted in the Honda’s demise. Giancarlo Fisichella was 14th for Force India, ahead of Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Honda’s Jenson Button, who ran into mechanical trouble and finished last.

Mark Webber’s Red Bull lost its engine as the safety car was deployed, and Glock was taken to hospital for precautionary checks after his heavy backward impact with the pit wall, but is okay.

What had looked set to be a low key race literally exploded into life due to Glock’s crash and McLaren’s gamble in keeping Hamilton out when everyone else pitted. Luckily for McLaren, Hamilton had the ability to make sure the gamble paid off.

GERMANY GRANDPRIX RESULT

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	67	1:31:20.874	1	10
2	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	67	+5.5 secs	17	8
3	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	67	+9.3 secs	2	6
4	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	67	+9.8 secs	12	5
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	67	+12.4 secs	3	4
6	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	67	+14.4 secs	6	3
7	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	67	+22.6 secs	7	2
8	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	67	+33.2 secs	9	1
9	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	67	+37.1 secs	4
10	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	67	+37.6 secs	13
11	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	67	+38.6 secs	5
12	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	67	+39.1 secs	15
13	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	67	+54.9 secs	10
14	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	67	+60.0 secs	16
15	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	67	+69.4 secs	19
16	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	67	+84.0 secs	20
17	16	Jenson Button	Honda	66	+1 Lap	14
Ret	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	50	Accident damage	18
Ret	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	40	Oil leak	8
Ret	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	35	Accident	11

Fisichella originally finished 14th, but had 25 secs added to his race time for illegally unlapping himself under the safety car

CURRENT TEAM POSITION

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	105
2	BMW Sauber	89
3	McLaren-Mercedes	86
4	Toyota	25
5	Red Bull-Renault	24
6	Renault	23
7	Williams-Toyota	16
8	Honda	14
9	STR-Ferrari	8
10	Force India-Ferrari	0
11	Super Aguri-Honda	0

Note - Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

CURRENT DRIVER POSITION

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	58
2	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	54
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	51
4	Robert Kubica	Polish	BMW Sauber	48
5	Nick Heidfeld	German	BMW Sauber	41
6	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	McLaren-Mercedes	28
7	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Toyota	20
8	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull-Renault	18
9	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Renault	13
10	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Honda	11
11	Nelsinho Piquet	Brazilian	Renault	10
12	Nico Rosberg	German	Williams-Toyota	8
13	Kazuki Nakajima	Japanese	Williams-Toyota	8
14	David Coulthard	British	Red Bull-Renault	6
15	Sebastian Vettel	German	STR-Ferrari	6
16	Timo Glock	German	Toyota	5
17	Jenson Button	British	Honda	3
18	Sebastien Bourdais	French	STR-Ferrari	2
19	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italian	Force India-Ferrari	0
20	Takuma Sato	Japanese	Super Aguri-Honda	0
21	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Ferrari	0
22	Anthony Davidson	British	Super Aguri-Honda	0

Note - Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Massa terpantas, Fisichella terbabas

Petikan: Utusan Online

LONDON - Pemandu Ferrari, Felipe Massa telah mencatat masa terpantas kelmarin dalam sesi latihan terakhir Formula Satu (F1) bagi persiapan Grand Prix Jerman minggu depan di Hockenheim, sementara Giancarlo Fisichella yang memandu untuk Force India terlibat dalam kemalangan.

Ketika ini, pemandu dari Brazil itu, mengumpul 48 mata bersama juara dunia yang juga rakan sepasukannya Kimi Raikkonen dan pemandu McLaren, Lewis Hamilton dalam separuh perlumbaan musim ini dan merupakan satu-satunya pemandu yang mencatatkan masa 1 minit 15 saat, manakala masa terbaik ialah 1 minit 14.989 saat.

''Ia merupakan hari yang paling baik. Kami telah melakukan banyak percubaan dan saya perlu mengatakan bahawa kereta berada dalam keadaan terbaik. Ini bermakna kami juga mampu untuk memberi saingan di dalam litar ini, yang juga menjadi sasaran utama bagi pesaing kami,'' kata Massa.

Massa yang memenangi tiga perlumbaan musim ini, telah mendahului senarai pemandu keseluruhan sebelum perlumbaan minggu lepas di Gran Prix Britain di Litar Silverstone di mana dia terbabas sebanyak lima kali di atas permukaan litar basah dan menamatkan perlumbaan di tempat yang ke-13.

Pemandu Britain, Jenson Button yang memandu jentera Honda telah mencatatkan masa kedua terpantas 1 minit 15.081 saat dalam cuaca yang cerah dan panas, sementara pemandu McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen mencatat masa ketiga terpantas, 1 minit 15.289 saat.

Sesi tersebut terpaksa dihentikan selepas pemandu Itali, Fisichella, yang terlibat dalam pelanggaran pada sesi ujian di Silverstone bulan lepas, melanggar dinding.

''Bahagian belakang kereta mengalami masalah dan saya hilang kawalan terus melanggar dinding litar.

''Kereta saya telah melintasi litar dan tiada ruang untuk saya mengelak dari terus melanggar dinding. Saya tidak mendapat sebarang kecederaan tetapi kereta mengalami kerosakan yang teruk,'' katanya.

Pasukan Toyota yang berada ditempat keempat untuk kategori pengeluar selepas perlumbaan di Silverstone, telah menguji enjin 'sirip jerung' terbaru sebelum menukarkannya kepada enjin standard.

- Reuters

Flawless Hamilton triumphant at sodden Silverstone

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton gave his adoring fans exactly what they came to see at a sodden Silverstone on Sunday. A brilliant British Grand Prix victory in often treacherous conditions lifted him right back into contention for the world championship, on a day when Kimi Raikkonen failed to shine and Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica were the ones who came home pointless.

The race started on a damp track, with the promise of more rain to come. Hamilton touched wheels with pole-sitting team mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap one at Copse after making a terrific start, and edged ahead of him at Becketts on the fifth lap. Thereafter it was his race to lose, and the most crucial point came when both he and Raikkonen, an apparent threat at this stage, pitted on the 21st lap. But where McLaren gave their man another set of standard wet-weather Bridgestones, Ferrari kept theirs on the same set. Hamilton rocketed away from the red car, and Raikkonen slipped steadily down the order as strong mid-race performances from Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica put BMW Sauber into the frame for podium finishes.

Heavy rain in the middle of the race created further havoc, however, as driver after driver slipped and slid off the road. This was where clever strategic thinking by Ross Brawn at Honda saw the team risk bringing in both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button for extreme wet tyres on the 35th lap. The Brazilian made great use of them and was able to push up into second place until a late switch back to intermediates. As Heidfeld clung on to a good second place, after making the right call for fresh intermediates at his first stop, Barrichello recovered to a podium finish that was a great boost to the Japanese team.

Behind them, Raikkonen finally fought his way out of a late-race battle with Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Kovalainen to finish fourth.

That means that Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen now lead the world championship fight with 48 points apiece, with Kubica fourth on 46!

Kovalainen fought his way past Alonso in the closing stages for fifth, as Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli closed in on them. On the last lap the Japanese racer’s attempts to pass the Spaniard dropped him a place, as Trulli saw an opening and pounced.

Nico Rosberg was ninth after a terrible race, in which he started from the pit lane and later damaged yet another nose and front wing after rear-ending Timo Glock’s Toyota. Mark Webber also had a terrible day, spinning on the opening lap after starting from the front row. He spun several more times on his way to 10th, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais, Glock and Massa. All of them spun at least once, with Massa talking the award for the most spins (around six) and the dizziest driver by the end.

The extreme wet tyres did not turn the trick for Button, who ended his day off the road in the second Honda, as did Renault’s Nelson Piquet after a decent run. Both Force Indias also spun out of contention. And Sebastian Vettel’s mistake on the first lap helped to put David Coulthard out of his last British Grand Prix.

“That,” Hamilton said afterwards, “was the toughest win of my career, but definitely the best.”

2008 FORMULA 1 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	60	1:39:09.440	4	10
2	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	60	+68.5 secs	5	8
3	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	60	+82.2 secs	16	6
4	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	3	5
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	59	+1 Lap	1	4
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	59	+1 Lap	6	3
7	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	59	+1 Lap	14	2
8	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	59	+1 Lap	15	1
9	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	59	+1 Lap	20
10	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	59	+1 Lap	2
11	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	13
12	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	59	+1 Lap	12
13	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+2 Laps	9
Ret	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	39	Spin	10
Ret	16	Jenson Button	Honda	38	Spin	17
Ret	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	35	Spin	7
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	26	Spin	19
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	10	Spin	18
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	0	Spin	8
Ret	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	0	Spin	11

Current Team Positions

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	96
2	BMW Sauber	82
3	McLaren-Mercedes	72
4	Toyota	25
5	Red Bull-Renault	24
6	Williams-Toyota	16
7	Renault	15
8	Honda	14
9	STR-Ferrari	7
10	Force India-Ferrari	0
11	Super Aguri-Honda	0

Current Driver Position

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	48
2	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	48
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	48
4	Robert Kubica	Polish	BMW Sauber	46
5	Nick Heidfeld	German	BMW Sauber	36
6	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	McLaren-Mercedes	24
7	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Toyota	20
8	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull-Renault	18
9	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Renault	13
10	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Honda	11
11	Nico Rosberg	German	Williams-Toyota	8
12	Kazuki Nakajima	Japanese	Williams-Toyota	8
13	David Coulthard	British	Red Bull-Renault	6
14	Timo Glock	German	Toyota	5
15	Sebastian Vettel	German	STR-Ferrari	5
16	Jenson Button	British	Honda	3
17	Sebastien Bourdais	French	STR-Ferrari	2
18	Nelsinho Piquet	Brazilian	Renault	2
19	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italian	Force India-Ferrari	0
20	Takuma Sato	Japanese	Super Aguri-Honda	0
21	Anthony Davidson	British	Super Aguri-Honda	0
22	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Ferrari	0