54 replies to this topic

[midgrid]

F1's non-democratic classic race stream continues to inch further back in time with the 2008 British Grand Prix.
 
A famous wet-weather triumph for Hamilton early in his career.  Hamilton, Vettel and Räikkönen are still on the grid, but much has changed over the twelve years since.

[PayasYouRace]

Cant wait to see what causes the forgotten one hour delay on this one.

[Spillage]

Highlight of this one is James Allen describing Hamilton's overtake of a rather compliant Heikki Kovalainen as "equally memorable" as Mansell's on Piquet at Stowe. ITV did get a bit carried away sometimes.

[Risil]

Probably a bit more memorable if it had just happened!

[SophieB]

I haven’t seen this in forever, so excellent. 
 

Also would love to see the 2009 sequel in which Hamilton and Alonso spent much of the afternoon holding the crowd’s rapt attention as they battled each other furiously all race for like, thirteenth place or something. 

[TomNokoe]

Kovalainen's sole pole.

[PayasYouRace]

I haven’t seen this in forever, so excellent. 
 

Also would love to see the 2009 sequel in which Hamilton and Alonso spent much of the afternoon holding the crowd’s rapt attention as they battled each other furiously all race for like, thirteenth place or something. 

 

That was a superb battle. Just shows that you can have good racing between good drivers anywhere in the field.

[TomNokoe]

A trip back in time to July 2008...

After his debut season saw 9 consecutive podiums from the first 9 races, Protagonist Hamilton's 2008 is rocky, by contrast. A stunning win in Monaco the highlight, but it's more famine than feast. Only 4/8 podiums so far, and a reminder that he comes to Silverstone on the back of two non-scores: his embarrassing pit-lane gaffe in Canada (DNF), followed by a penalty-ridden weekend in France (10th).

Reigning Champ Raikkonen shows no signs of a title hangover, and only bad luck denies him the championship lead. Commanding victories in Malaysia and Spain, juxtaposed by unreliability in Australia, Hamilton's gaffe in Canada, and a flailing exhaust in France. Some would argue he's not as comfortable in this year's Ferrari, but you only have to look at the second-half of last year to understand how foolish it would be to write him off.

Challenger Massa is finally starting to emerge from the number-two shadow. After starting the season with two DNFs, one being an inexplicable driver error in Malaysia, he's quickly found form and won 3 of the last 6 races, to firmly establish a championship lead. Fortune shone on him last time out at Magny-Cours, as he inherited victory from his teammate.

Outsider Kubica is consistently picking up the scraps from McLaren and Ferrari, driving a brilliant season. Point-scoring in 7/8 races so far, pole in Bahrain, led in Monaco, won in Canada. But a giant question mark over BMW's ability to stay the course.

Felipe MASSA 48
Robert KUBICA 46
Kimi RAIKKONEN 43
Lewis HAMILTON 38
Nick HEIDFELD 28
Heikki KOVALAINEN 20
 

--

 

The winds of change

David Coulthard has announced this will be his last British Grand Prix, as he confirmed his retirement on the eve of the Silverstone race.

Another bombshell, as Bernie announces the British Grand Prix is moving to Donington (!!) in 2010. Make note of the prophetic Damon Hill quote.

 

--

 

Qualifying

Heikki Kovalainen massively upstaged his teammate to take his maiden pole position by a staggering half-second, from surprise-package Mark Webber, who momentarily held top spot. Hamilton, fastest in Q2, floundered to P4 after sliding through the gravel at Priory and spoiling his first new-tyre run. Is the pressure getting to him?

 

Raikkonen makes it two Finns in the top 3 and will be looking for a repeat of his 2007 victory. Massa, after a huge Friday crash, could only struggle to P9, behind young Sebastian Vettel, who reached Q3 for now the fourth time in his short career.

 

A rare error from Kubica saw him run off the road on his first run and not attempt a second, leaving Heidfeld to score a consolation P5 for BMW, fighting off the resurgent Renaults.

Coulthard's final British Grand Prix starts from P11, whilst an ill-timed rain shower caught out the Honda's of Barrichello and home-favourite Button (remember him?).

 

Edited by TomNokoe, 02 May 2020 - 11:41.

[midgrid]

Spotter's guide:
 



 
Unfortunately Toyota only ran the Batman livery in practice!

[TomNokoe]

30 minutes to green, here's Martin's grid-walk, featuring Murray Walker and Stirling Moss!

 

[TomNokoe]

Go Go Go!

[fridge46]

Marbula E followed by F1 re-runs... what could be better?!

[SophieB]

I love that Lewis even in 2008 was seemingly already missing Fernando Alonso as his team mate. Me too, Lewis - me too.

[Bleu]

Nelson Piquet Jr. had his best qualifying position to that date - and it stayed like that until he was dumped out of F1.

[Bleu]

All drivers have selected intermediate tires for the start.

 

Or actually like Bridgestone stated back then, intermediate tyres were "Wet" and full-wet tyres were "Extreme".

[CSF]

Webber bottles it. 

[SophieB]

Red Bull overseen by what looks like a 14 year old Christian Horner.

[Clrnc]

The cars look so bloody beautiful my goodness. Especially the Williams and Mclaren. 

[TomNokoe]

Another digger!

[CSF]

Euch tractor recovering the cars in the wet like that just looks so.... bad now. 

[CSF]

How has Massa gone from dominating in the wet at Monaco to this? 

[Clrnc]

To me this season and 2010 is F1's golden seasons. 

 

Massa is really bad in the wets. 

[SophieB]

Massa nearly winning this championship was as worrying a near miss for the WDC as Eddie Irvine nearly winning it.

 

[TomNokoe]

Lewis throwing that Macca around

[Clrnc]

Very much prefer the old british gp format. But whatever, british gp is just a great track. 

[Clrnc]

Slightly shocking how far apart the cars are spread in just 3 or 4 laps

[CSF]

Oh my god, I forgot Red Bull used to put models in the garage's for TV cameras to pick up..... 

[TomNokoe]

Toyota Bat spotted!

[ArchieTech]

Sutil getting some air there!

[Bleu]

I remember Sutil spinning out but didn't remember it was that close to Bourdais.

[TomNokoe]

What could've been for Webber ...

[Anja]

What a shame seeing Brawn in that awful Honda team. Sure hope their fortunes turn around some day... 

[TomNokoe]

Alonso, Kimi and Massa all forego tyres, but it's starting to rain again

[MikeV1987]

The F1.08 looks like such a beast.

[Clrnc]

Glock is a rain master. Always felt he was underrated

[Bleu]

That Heidfeld move was in the top 10 double overtakes video I saw some years ago.

[CSF]

Awesome from Nick. A true classic forgotten move.

 

Classic stupidity from Fisi. 

[CSF]

James and Martin forgetting we saw Fisi try to take Lewis out on that slow lap. 

[TomNokoe]

Raining hard now, this is where Hamilton really shone, staying on inters.

[Bleu]

That Heidfeld move was in the top 10 double overtakes video I saw some years ago.

 

Found it, the order was:

10 Piquet (Boutsen, Warwick), Brazil 1988

9 Heidfeld (Räikkönen, Kovalainen), Britain 2008

8 Massa (Barrichello, Kovalainen), Canada 2008

7 Barrichello (M Schumacher, R Schumacher), Spain 2000

6 Jones (Laffite, Pironi), Italy 1981

5 Prost (Alesi, Piquet), USA 1991

4 Rosberg (de Angelis, Bellof), Belgium 1984

3 Arnoux (Laffite, Cheever), USA West 1983

2 Prost (Senna, Hill), San Marino 1993

1 Alesi (Häkkinen, Barrichello), Australia 1994

 

The video was originally from about 2008-09.

[Bleu]

Hamilton went wide in the same corner where Piquet's car was still being recovered although on the different side of the run-off?

[CSF]

Ooft did Alonso really need to do that to Rubens on the entry to Stowe?

[TomNokoe]

Rubens 30 seconds a lap faster because Lewis was in the pits

[CSF]

Woah what was that move from Heikki on Alonso in Bridge?! Thats a forgotten one... 

[Bleu]

I wonder if those five spins make it look worse for Massa compared to if his spin on the first lap would have ended in the inside wall.

[TomNokoe]

Wait for James Allen calling Hamilton over the line

[CSF]

The crowd.

 

The James Allen in 06-08 mode.

 

The Ron Dennis.

 

Oh I suddenly remember bad things. 

[Otaku]

No safety car bullsh1t. 

[MikeV1987]

My only experience is from racing games but I liked this track layout more than the current one.

[Brawn BGP 001]

Would be about 5 SC's if that race was ran last year.