Not only did the 2008 season produce the most dramatic conclusion to a title fight in history, it also gave us plenty of memorable race wins and performances to savour from a grid headlined by an exciting new generation of drivers.

So to round off our season review package, we asked expert analyst Mark Hughes to select the top 10 drives, in either a qualifying session or a race, which stood out for their skill, speed, determination or just sheer brilliance during the course of the year.


1. Silverstone – Lewis Hamilton

This was a sustained demonstration of wet-weather driving genius comparable to those of Michael Schumacher at Barcelona in 1996 or Ayrton Senna at Donington 1993.

There was a point when Hamilton was lapping three seconds faster than team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on the same tyres, and he was the best part of a lap clear of the second place man at the end.

In his final stint his McLaren team were radioing him to take it easy and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was taking it easy; any slower and he’d go off through lack of concentration.

He was locked in his very own groove that day, and it was way deeper than anyone else’s.


2. Fuji – Fernando Alonso

Once Lewis Hamilton had triggered carnage at the front within seconds of the race start, Fernando Alonso was locked onto victory like a heat-seeking missile.

He came out of the first turn second only to Robert Kubica’s BMW, weighed up his opponent and realised his Renault was in far better shape than the BMW.

With the various McLarens and Ferraris all tangled up with each other far behind him, all he had to do was sort out the BMW. He’d do it at the first stops.

But it was more complex than that. Alonso had understood the pattern seen throughout the weekend that the lap time lost to tyre wear was, unusually, greater than that gained by the decreasing fuel load.

He radioed the team that it was okay to bring him in a few laps early, that all they had to do was get him out ahead.

His engineer wasn’t convinced, and questioned him. Don’t worry, said Fernando, just do it, we’ll win – and they did.

Directing strategy calls whilst driving the car flawlessly on the limit – that was a classy performance beyond the reach of anyone else out there.


3. Monaco – Robert Kubica

Only the ironic good fortune of Lewis Hamilton’s early wheel-damaging off putting him onto the most suitable fuel strategy denied Kubica a great victory here.

On merit, his was the drive of the day, and one of the drives of the season.

The BMW was not in the same leaue as either the McLaren or Ferrari around here – just one look from trackside at its awkward understeering behaviour told you that.

Yet not only did Kubica get right in there with Hamilton and Felipe Massa, he also avoided making a single error on a day where poor visibility and a treacherous surface made them almost unavoidable – as both Massa and Hamilton showed.

His insistent correction of the team’s intended tyre choice into the second stops was also instrumental in his defeat of Massa.


4. Singapore qualifying – Felipe Massa

This was the qualifying lap of the season.

The Ferrari was well suited to the new street circuit, dealing with the bumps more effectively than the rival McLaren, but even so Massa was devastating in how he used it – skimming the walls, braking hard and late, inch-perfect everywhere.

It was a demonstration of great confidence and commitment and he was a massive 0.8s faster than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, only around 0.2s of which could be accounted for by Kimi’s greater fuel load.


5. Magny-Cours qualifying – Kimi Raikkonen

On a circuit with long-duration fast corners, the Ferrari’s frequent problem of getting its front tyres up to temperature quickly enough for a good qualifying lap disappeared. As did its qualifying understeer characteristic.

As such, for one of the few times all season, Kimi Raikkonen found himself in a car he could drive as he naturally likes to – and the devastatingly fast Kimi we saw so regularly at McLaren reappeared.

He was 0.6s faster than Massa on a comparable fuel load and abandoned a lap that was going to be faster still, once he was informed that Massa had failed to beat his own first time.


6. Hungary first corner – Felipe Massa

Through the practice sessions and qualifying it had looked like the McLaren had a small but decisive edge over the Ferrari in Hungary.

But, sitting on the second row of the grid, Massa wasn’t so sure.

He had an inkling he could match the silver cars – but he needed to get ahead at the start for that to count for anything. Not an easy task when the guy you’re dealing with is Lewis Hamilton.

But what unfolded as the gantry lights went out was as if Hamilton found himself wheel-to-wheel with himself in a Ferrari, and lost out.

Brakes just beginning to lock, Massa got into the corner on the outside of the McLaren but going faster, then proceeded to sit it out, wheels inches apart, before decisively chopping across his rival to take the lead.

It was just the beginning of a wonderful, albeit unrewarded, drive.


7. Monza – Sebastian Vettel

This was a fabulous performance, a dominant victory from pole for the youngest driver and a tiny team.

Yes, there were factors that brought it to them – Lewis Hamilton’s bizarre decision to opt for intermediate tyres in Q2 that left him mid-grid, the Ferraris’ inability to get their tyres properly warmed up in the wet conditions, Heikki Kovalainen’s crew choosing the wrong blanking level for his brake ducts on such a cool day.

But to have capitalised on that set of circumstances with such a perfect performance required not just great talent, but amazing level-headedness.


8. Bahrain – Anthony Davidson

F1 is a sport where the car is dominant, unfortunately. Driving for the cash-strapped Super Aguri team just before it went under, Anthony Davidson squeezed an amazing but overlooked performance in Bahrain.

Despite very little prior running – laps were financially limited – he produced an on-the-edge qualifying lap that got him to within 0.3s of a much faster Force India, eclipsing team-mate Takuma Sato.

He maximised the car in the race, every lap on the limit, his in- and out-laps just like his quali laps, and he beat his team mate by 30s.

It was the best race of his F1 career – and it yielded 17th place, and no one noticed.

It was a drive just as good as that of the winner, Felipe Massa.


9. Monaco – Adrian Sutil

Sutil has got a winning way with a car in wet conditions. His super-smooth, flowing inputs con the car into not realising just how quickly it is going.

Mix this with a track where driver input counts for more than anywhere else and you’ve got a great giant-killing recipe.

In 2007 Sutil went fastest in Saturday practice at Monaco on a wet track, quicker in a Spyker than all the Ferraris, McLarens etc.

A year on, he rose to a remarkable fourth place in the race and was only denied that result by an out-of-control Kimi Raikkonen.

The oversteering moment he was having as he turned into the chicane just before Kimi hit him was not, as some observers believed, him making a mistake that was going to lead to a spin anyhow; it was as a result of seeing the wayward Ferrari in his mirrors and trying to get out of its way.


10. Magny-Cours – Jarno Trulli

Trulli’s performance in France was quite possibly the most resolute of anyone’s all year.

It takes a lot to fend off attacking cars for any sustained period of time. Here Trulli did it for virtually the entire distance.

For most of his first two stints he was fending off Kubica and Alonso at different times and in the final laps he was trying to keep his Toyota ahead of Kovalainen’s faster McLaren for third place.

The moment of truth came into the fast entry of the Nurburgring chicane on the final lap – sixth gear, 140mph and room enough for only one line.

Heikki staked his claim, got side-by-side, but Trulli bravely stayed on the gas, forcing Heikki to take the escape road to avoid an enormous accident for them both.

That the podium result came just days after team founder Ove Andersson had been killed made it poignant as well as impressive.

Mark Hughes, itv-f1.com

 

Great article! I especially agree with most of the top 5, but the last few had me lost. I can think of quite a few occasions that warrant this list as well, such as Sutil's driving in Monaco where he was doing a great job of keeping up with Hamilton before Kimi hit him and ended his brilliant race. Also, I thought Super Aguri pulled out of F1 back in '06.