This post will review the results from the European Grand Prix from Valencia, Spain on August 23, 2008. If you do not want to know the results, do not read this post.





It was somewhat of an uneventful race in Valencia. Felipe Massa was just plain dominant. Lewis had nothing on him. It was interesting to find out that Lewis nearly pulled out of the race due to illness (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70055). No excuses though. Massa was simply better today. He ran nearly a perfect race. He now has 4 wins on the season - and but-for the engine faiure in Hungary he would have 5. He is making it very difficult to take the Vettel/Alonso rumors too seriously.

I am not sure what is wrong with Kimi Raikonnen. Even before his engine failure he was just not showing the pace we are used to. Maybe he is seriously entertaining retirement even though he has resigned for next year. His contract for next year may be gamesmanship by Ferrari to keep the press guessing as to what their next move will be. With his retirement today he slips to 3rd in the WC race. But never - and I mean never - count out the Iceman. That accident in the pit is like salt in the wound.

Lewis ran a good, solid race. He stayed with Massa during the first stint but could not keep up with him in the second stint. Once Lewis put Kubica away I never got the feeling that he was really pushing to catch Massa. It wouldn't have done any good. Massa was too quick today. But the McLaren was very stable under very hard braking and seemed to be running well. We'll have to see what happens in Spa and those nice elevation changes. Lewis widens the gap in the WC race by a point. He is not safe yet.

Kubica remerges and once again puts BMW in the Grand Prix picture. Even though he did snag a podium, he was over 30 seconds behind Lewis. Despite his fine performance it is still just a two-team race in F1. I liked Kubica's poise when he caught the debris in his intake early on. He didn't let it throw him. His pit stops were quick and the tire changes were smart. Good race overall for Kubica.

The real kudos of the day go to Trulli, Vettel and Glock all finishing in the top 10. Toyota is coming on like gainbusters. It is good to see. Vettel is getting so much positive press. He has eclipsed Sutil as the best up-and-comer in F1.

I thought it was sad when over half the crowd left after Alonso retired on the first lap. That was an expensive ticket too!

Not really a classic race today. It will draw a lot of discussion in the press but the top 10 finishers were basically the top 10 qualifiers. Any race where most - if not all - of the action takes place in the pits is not a classic Grand Prix.

Can't wait until Spa!

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 57 1:35:32.339 1 10
2 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 57 +5.6 secs 2 8
3 4 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 57 +37.3 secs 3 6
4 23 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 57 +39.7 secs 5 5
5 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 57 +50.6 secs 7 4
6 15 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 57 +52.6 secs 6 3
7 12 Timo Glock Toyota 57 +67.9 secs 13 2
8 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 57 +71.4 secs 9 1
9 3 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 57 +82.1 secs 8
10 14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 57 +89.7 secs 10
11 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 57 +92.7 secs 15
12 10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 56 +1 Lap 14
13 16 Jenson Button Honda 56 +1 Lap 16
14 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 56 +1 Lap 18
15 8 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 56 +1 Lap 11
16 17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 56 +1 Lap 19
17 9 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 56 +1 Lap 17
Ret 1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 45 Engine 4
Ret 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 41 Accident 20
Ret 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 0 Accident damage 12

 

Congrats to Felipe! He had a great race and didn't make a single mistake (except for his little "incident" in the pits). Any word on the fuel guy that Kimi ran over? I hope he's alright...

I for one thought the race was a bit of a bore. For being a new circuit, and a street circuit at that with 25 turns, there really wasn't a whole lot of action. I actually almost felt like I wasted my time getting up at 6:30am. I'm much, much more excited for Singapore when they'll be racing at night!