Results of the 2008 Italian F1 Grand Prix
History was made twice at Monza as Sebastian Vettel became the youngest winner of an F1 Grand Prix ever and the youngest pole sitter. In wet conditions he drove a flawless race and never gave up the lead, while all the title contenders battled way back in the pack. Heikki Kovalainen finished second ahead of Robert Kubica.
It was a remarkable result for the Torro Rosso team which three seasons ago was essentially the wooden spoon Minardi outfit. And he showed up the likes of Felipe Massa (6th), Lewis Hamilton (7th) and Kimi Raikkonen (9th). Instead there were less familiar drivers in the points as Fernando Alonso again finished fourth, ahead of Nick Heidfeld while Mark Webber landed the final point.
The race was started under safety car laps due to the rainy conditions. Hamilton and Raikkonen had the biggest challenge, starting in 15th and 14th, and though Raikkonen failed to impress, Hamilton soon passed him and worked his way up through the field ruthlessly as he tried to minimise the loss to Massa. Unfortunately his planned single pit stop strategy was unable to catapult him onto the podium when he and others were forced to change to intermediate ‘wets’ as the track dried out in the last 10 laps. Luckily there were no serious collisions and Giancarlo Fisichella was the only one to retire.
But undoubtedly the day belonged to Vettel who, at 21 years of age, handled the wet perfectly and built up a lead of seven seconds. It was a stunning record for a team that is usually lucky just to scored points.
Hamilton now only has a single point lead over Massa with four races remaining, but McLaren have again reduced the deficit and are now just five points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’Championship. With Raikkonen a full 21 points behind Hamilton his bid is effectively over.
Result after of Italian Grand Prix
- Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 hr 26:47.494 sec
- Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 12.512 behind
- Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 20.471
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 23.903
- Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 27.748
- Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 28.816
- Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren 29.912
- Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull-Renault 32.048
- Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 39.468
- Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault 54.445
- Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 58.888
- Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota 1:02.015
- Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:05.954
- Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:08.635
- Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:13.370
- David Coulthard (GB) RedBull-Renault 1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1 lap
- Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 lap
- Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 2 laps
Retired:
Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari 42 laps