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