Motorsport Musings Ramblings of a racing enthusiast…

British GP ’08 – Lewis’s Silverstone Stunner

What is the first thing that I think of when I cast my mind back to the 2008 British Grand Prix?

Rain.

From the moment the shuttle bus arrived ridiculously early on race morning, right up to when the main event was about to get underway, it relentlessly tipped it down. Not just any old rain - this was Northamptonshire's finest, soul-sapping rain.

Within the space of five minutes I was already wetter than a haddock’s bathing costume and thoroughly grumpy to boot. But, through a feat of strength and determination only found in a Hollywood blockbuster, I managed to brave it until the wretched grey clouds went their separate ways – coincidentally, just in time for the race.

I imagine I wasn’t the only one feeling a little edgy waking up on that damp Sunday morning though. It’s probably no exaggeration to suggest that the British Grand Prix was a make or break event for Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

He turned up at his home race amid an ever increasing amount of negative media coverage following weeks of errors and controversies. The Raikkonen-shunt in Canada and a drive-through penalty in France resulted in two non-scores and saw him slipping back in the points, down to fourth in the championship, 10 off Felipe Massa.

To be able to win the British Grand Prix would therefore have been a blessed relief from the dramas of the past month or so. But to do it in the devastating style that he did with his dazzling weather masterclass was simply stunning – and in a different league from his rivals.

Hamilton lined up on the second row of the grid after a mistake in qualifying saw him damage the underside of his car. His final run, with less than three minutes to go, was merely damage limitation. To qualify fourth was as good as it was going to get, and it would be a two laps lighter Heikki Kovalainen who would claim McLaren’s pole on home soil instead.

The track was absolutely saturated as the start of the race approached, and intermediate tyres were the only sensible option. You didn’t need to be an expert to know that the opening few laps of the race were going to be difficult.

Kovalainen led from his pole but Hamilton quickly moved from fourth to second by finding the best grip off the line, or as he would later put it: “it was the best wet start of my life.”

Into Copse he went, inching ever closer to his team-mate who wasn’t going to give away his advantage that easily. The two had a brief love tap, before things settled down for three laps, when eventually Hamilton caught a tow along the straight exiting Stowe and made a bold manoeuvre to overtake the Finn.

With the pace getting quicker and quicker with each passing lap, most of the early stoppers decided to keep their existing set of intermediates bolted onto their cars, expecting the circuit to become even more drier as the race progressed.

Kimi Raikkonen was now beginning to carve into Hamilton’s lead by up to a second per lap as they both came in on lap 21. In unison they arrived in their respective boxes in the pitlane, but while McLaren produced a fresh set of intermediates, Ferrari opted to send their Finnish racer back out on his used rubber that had already done more than a third of the race distance.

It worked out perfectly for Hamilton as the rain returned on their out-laps, his fresh intermediate tyres cutting through the rain like a hot knife through butter. A complete nightmare for Raikkonen however, who had difficulty trying to find grip on his now slick-like tyres. Over the next few laps, it was as if they were driving in different formulae, as in just nine laps Kimi dropped more than 50s behind before he stopped for fresher tyres.

Hamilton’s main rival was now out of the picture, but his serene progress was almost derailed when heavy showers arrived on lap 35, shortly before his second stop of the day. While others changed to extreme wet tyres, McLaren gave Hamilton another set of inters and a splash of fuel to see him to the end.

He did an impressive job. Marginally slower than those on the extremes, but much quicker than anyone else on the inters. Hamilton secured the win around this stage of the race, despite a brief trip at Abbey on lap 36, right at the start of the heavy rain.

It was an impressive performance, one that – after Fuji 2007 and Monaco 2008 – confirmed Hamilton as one of the greatest wet weather specialists ever to grace Formula 1. He not only finished 68 seconds ahead of his closest rival, Nick Heidfeld, but he lapped everyone up to third place. Both of these statistics are very unusual in the modern era of the sport, when the cars are so evenly matched and safety car periods often serve to bunch up the field.

Had it been dry on race day, the outcome would have been very different for Hamilton has never really found the Silverstone groove. But in 2008, the Northamptonshire circuit was the scene of a truly astonishing wet-weather performance, which I’m pleased to say I bore witness to. Soaked to the skin and risking hypothermia. Or was that hypochondria?