Lewis Hamilton wins 2008 Monaco Grand Prix

Topics:  Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton

Wikinews
May 28, 2008

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has won the FIA Formula-1 2008 Grand Prix de Monaco on the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco on May 25. It became the first time in the 23 year old Briton's career in F1. Last year, he finished in second place after his former teammate Fernando Alonso. In this race Alonso finished on a distant 10th place in his Renault car. The last British winner at Monaco was Graham Hill in 1969. Rain over the weekend causes a wet start to the Sunday race, causing driver mistakes, however no rain fell during the race or qualifying.

Robert Kubica from BMW Sauber finished behind Hamilton, after gaining 3 positions since the race start. Strategists at Ferrari underestimated the weather condition and the pace of their McLaren and BMW rivals, so Felipe Massa dropped to the third place starting from the brilliant pole.

Adrian Sutil was set to win 4th place until he was hit in the rear by Kimi Räikkönen, who lost control of his car while braking at the chicane after the tunnel. Räikkönen himself dropped from 5th to 9th place and Sutil was out of the race. Sutil qualified only 19th only ahead his Force India teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. Later Sutil was warned by the race stewards that he overtook other cars (Rubens Barrichello, Kazuki Nakajima and Nelson Piquet Jr.) on lap 13 under a waived yellow flags condition, but went unpunished.

Australian driver Mark Webber secured 4th for Red Bull-Renault after Sutil and Räikkönen collided. Sebastian Vettel scored his first points in 2008 season as the Toro Rosso's STR3 car debut. Rubens Barrichello made 6th for Honda.

This race became the 600th race for Frank Williams as his team's young driver Kaz Nakajima scored 2 points. Heikki Kovalainen, Hamilton's teammate closed top eight with one additional point.

Lewis Hamilton is now leading the Championship with 38 points, 3 ahead of Räikkönen, 4 ahead of Massa and 6 ahead of Kubica. Ferrari team still 16 points ahead of McLaren and 17 points ahead of BMW.

The race finished about 43 seconds after 2 hour limit expired.

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