The 2008 French Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France 2008) was a Formula One motor race held on 22 June 2008 at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France. This race would be the last French Grand Prix for a decade, before returning in 2018 at Circuit Paul Ricard. The 70-lap race event, the eighth of the 2008 Formula One World Championship, was won by Felipe Massa for the Ferrari team starting from second position. Kimi Räikkönen, who started from pole position, finished second in the other Ferrari car; Jarno Trulli was third in a Toyota.
Räikkönen and Massa both made a clean start. Renault's Fernando Alonso, who started third, was overtaken by Trulli and BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica. The front three of Räikkönen, Massa and Trulli maintained their positions through the first round of pit stops. On lap 30, Räikkönen led Massa by six and a half seconds, and Trulli by 30 seconds. Just before half distance, Räikkönen's right exhaust pipe broke, which caused the engine to lose power. Massa, in second place, began lapping quicker than Räikkönen, and he caught and passed him on lap 39. Massa maintained his lead through the second round of pit stops, and won the race; Räikkönen finished almost 18 seconds behind. Trulli fended off McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, who challenged him in the latter stages, to take third.
Massa's win promoted him into the lead of the World Drivers' Championship for the first time in his career, overtaking Kubica. Kubica was second, two points behind Massa, while Räikkönen was third. In the World Constructors' Championship, Ferrari increased their lead to 17 points ahead of BMW Sauber, McLaren a further 16 points behind in third.
Background The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers, in ten teams of two. The teams, also known as "constructors", were Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Force India-Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull-Renault, Williams-Toyota and Toro Rosso-Ferrari. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought two different tyre compounds to the race; the softer of the two marked by a single white stripe down one of the grooves.
Before the race, Robert Kubica of BMW led the Drivers' Championship, with 42 points, ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who each had 38 points. Massa's teammate Kimi Räikkönen was fourth, ahead of Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld in fifth. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading with 73 points; three points ahead of BMW Sauber with 70 points; McLaren were a further 17 points behind them in third.
Ferrari came into the race with a long series of success at the track, having won seven of the last ten races held at Magny-Cours. In 2007, Ferrari had taken a one-two, Räikkönen ahead of Massa. Massa said that it was important not to discount McLaren and BMW:
In March 2007, the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile (FFSA) stated their intention to rest the Magny-Cours circuit from the Formula One world championship for the 2008 season. Despite this, the race was held in 2008, but the race was dropped from the Formula One calendar for 2009. The French Grand Prix would not return to the Formula One World Championship calendar until 2018.
At the previous race in Canada, Hamilton had crashed into Räikkönen in the pit lane, when Raikkönën braked to stop in front of the red light at the end of the pit lane. Williams driver Nico Rosberg then collided into the back of Hamilton. Hamilton later said that he saw the light too late and could not avoid hitting the Ferrari. Hamilton and Rosberg were both given ten place grid penalties for the French Grand Prix, meaning that whatever their qualifying position, they could start no better than 11th. After the penalty was given, McLaren's CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, said that he thought the penalty was "severe", citing a similar incident at Monaco where Raikkönën had crashed into the back of Force India's Adrian Sutil. There, no penalty had been given. However, Rosberg said that the penalties from Canada were "deserved". When Hamilton was asked whether the penalty would force him to change his approach, Hamilton said that "it doesn't really. It's a race, I'm here to win and so I approach it the same." "It's going to be harder," he added, "coming from the back, but I don't have any doubts or any worries, I think we're going to have a very strong package this weekend, and I think the car will be as good if not better than it was in the last race. With that pace, as long as we stay out of trouble we should be able to score some good points."
Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr., who was in his first year in Formula One and had scored no points prior to this race, said that he thought that the track suited him and the car much better than previous races. BMW Sauber had taken their first victory at the previous race, but team principal Mario Theissen said that a second win was unlikely at Magny-Cours.
In technical developments, BMW Sauber, Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota all revised their front wings. BMW brought both their new wing as well as the version they had used for the previous race to Magny-Cours, but decided to use the revised wing, as it offered better levels of downforce. Ferrari's wing changes aimed at improving the performance of the car's nose hole. The nose hole, which had been introduced at the , aimed at creating greater levels of downforce, by channelling the airflow. Williams changed their front sidepod winglets. At the previous race, Red Bull modified their RB4's bridge wing to prevent it from flexing, to comply with the latest rule clarifications. For Magny-Cours, the team revised the central section of this element, with the aim of generating greater downforce levels.
Practice
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—two on Friday, and a third on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes. The third session was held on Saturday morning and lasted an hour. In the first practice session, which was held in dry conditions, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was quickest, ahead of the McLarens of Hamilton and Kovalainen in second and third. Massa's teammate, Räikkönen, was fourth quickest. The afternoon session, which was held in very hot conditions, saw Renault's Fernando Alonso record the fastest lap, ahead of the two Ferrari drivers. The hot weather conditions posed several problems for the drivers, as many of the cars ran off the road, sliding through the gravel or across the asphalt. At the end of the session, a new system—designed to limit the cars' speeds in potentially hazardous situations—was tested. In the third practice session, again held in dry conditions, Renault continued their strong practice performance with Piquet leading the final practice session. Red Bull's Mark Webber was next quickest while Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso was third. As was the pattern for the season, the McLaren and Ferrari drivers ran heavier fuel loads in this session in preparation for the final section of qualifying.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. In the first 20-minute period, cars finishing 16th or lower were eliminated. The second qualifying period lasted for 15 minutes, at the end of which the fastest ten cars went into the final period, to determine their grid positions for the race. Cars failing to make the final period were allowed to be refuelled before the race but those competing in it were not, and so carried more fuel than they had done in the earlier qualifying sessions.
Räikkönen clinched Ferrari's 200th pole position and his last until the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix 129 races later, with a time of 1:16.449. He was joined on the front row of the grid by teammate Massa. This would later prove to be Ferrari's last front-row lockout until the 2017 Russian Grand Prix. Alonso qualified third after Hamilton's penalty moved the quicker McLaren driver to 13th; Toyota's Jarno Trulli qualified fourth. Kovalainen would have started from fifth, but was given a five-place grid penalty for blocking Webber during qualifying and would start from 10th on the grid. Kubica, Webber, David Coulthard, Timo Glock and Piquet rounded off the top ten. Heidfeld qualified 11th, with Vettel ahead of Hamilton in 12th, and Bourdais behind in 14th. Rosberg was next quickest, but after his penalty demoted him to the back of the grid his teammate Kazuki Nakajima took his place. The final four places went to the Honda and Force India teams, with Button qualifying ahead of Barrichello, Fisichella and Sutil. Barrichello, however, was given a penalty for changing his gearbox, meaning that he started 20th on the grid, one place behind Rosberg.
Qualifying classification PosNoDriverConstructorPart 1Part 2Part 3Grid11 Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:15.1331:15.1611:16.449122 Felipe MassaFerrari1:15.0241:15.0411:16.4902322 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.6341:15.2931:16.6931345 Fernando AlonsoRenault1:15.7541:15.4831:16.8403511 Jarno TrulliToyota1:15.5211:15.3621:16.9204623 Heikki KovalainenMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.9651:15.6391:16.9441074 Robert KubicaBMW Sauber1:15.6871:15.7231:17.0375810 Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1:16.0201:15.4881:17.233699 David CoulthardRed Bull-Renault1:15.8021:15.6541:17.42671012 Timo GlockToyota1:15.7271:15.5581:17.5968116 Nelson Piquet Jr.Renault1:15.8481:15.7709123 Nick HeidfeldBMW Sauber1:16.0061:15.786111315 Sebastian VettelToro Rosso-Ferrari1:15.9181:15.816121414 Sébastien BourdaisToro Rosso-Ferrari1:16.0721:16.04514157 Nico RosbergWilliams-Toyota1:16.0851:16.23519168 Kazuki NakajimaWilliams-Toyota1:16.243151716 Jenson ButtonHonda1:16.306161817 Rubens BarrichelloHonda1:16.330201921 Giancarlo FisichellaForce India-Ferrari1:16.971172020 Adrian SutilForce India-Ferrari1:17.05318
– Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton each received a ten-place grid penalty after causing a collision with Kimi Räikkönen in the previous round, the . – Heikki Kovalainen received a five-place grid penalty for blocking Mark Webber in qualifying. – Rubens Barrichello received a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.
Race The conditions on the grid were dry before the race, although the sky was overcast; weather forecasts predicted rain near the end of the race. Most of the frontrunners began the race on the harder compound tyre. Rain that had fallen earlier that morning had removed some of the rubber on the track, meaning that graining, when small grains of rubber come off a tyre, was likely to be a problem; out of the two tyre types, the harder would better cope with this. Räikkönen made a good start, retaining his first position; Massa behind him maintained his second place. Alonso, who started third, was passed by both Trulli and Kubica, but re-passed Kubica at the hairpin turn exit. Glock also made a good start, taking sixth after passing Webber. Going into the first corner, Button touched Bourdais, resulting in damage to the Honda's front wing. Hamilton, who started 13th, passed several drivers to move into 10th by the end of lap one.