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2008 Italian Grand Prix

Italian Grand Prix

Location Monza, Italy
Racetrack Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Date 14 September, 2008
Official Name LXXIX Gran Premio Santander d'Italia
Course Permanent racing facility 3.6 mi / 5.793 km
Distance 53 laps, 190.58 mi / 306.720 km
Official Site

The 2008 Italian Grand Prix is a Formula One motor race which will be held from 12 September to 14 September 2008 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy. It is the fourteenth and last European race of the 2008 Formula One season.

Last year's race was won by then McLaren driver Fernando Alonso ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The 2006 race saw the last Ferrari win at Monza, with Michael Schumacher's victory and retirement announcement.

Two other former Italian Grand Prix winners are in 2008's field. Rubens Barrichello won the race in both 2002 and 2004, after Ferrari had already clinched the drivers' crown with Schumacher. David Coulthard won the 1997 race for McLaren.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton with 76 points leads the Drivers' Championships ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari by 2 points with Robert Kubica a further 16 point adrift of Massa and Kimi Räikkönen 19 points behind. In the Constructors' Championships, Ferrari leads with 131 points, 12 ahead of McLaren. However, these figures are in doubt due to McLaren launching an appeal regarding a penalty in the previous race, the Belgian Grand Prix.

Italian Grand Prix Review

Monza Racetrack The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia) is one of the longest running events on the motor racing calendar. The first Italian Grand Prix motor racing championship took place on September 4, 1921 at Brescia. However, the race is more closely associated with the course at Monza, which was built in 1922 in time for that year's race, and has been the location for most of the races over the years.

The 1923 race included one of Harry A. Miller's rare European appearances with his single seat "American Miller 122" driven by Count Louis Zborowski of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fame. The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1938.

The Italian Grand Prix was one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950, and has been held every year since then. The only other championship race for which this is true is the British Grand Prix.

After winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula 1 racing at the end of the 2006 season. Kimi Räikkönen replaced him at Ferrari from the start of the 2007 season.

Qualifying

It rained so heavily in qualifying that predicting the pole-sitter would prove to be extremely difficult. Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time in Q1 with Lewis Hamilton just behind.[5] Adrian Sutil, Jenson Button, Nelson Piquet, Jr., Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello failed to make it into Q2, and for the first time a Force India made it into the second Qualifying Session.

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in Q2 ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica all struggled to find grip and speed. Felipe Massa narrowly made it through to Q3, Hamilton was extremely slow, after being out on the intermediate wet tires, rather than the full extreme-wets at the wrong time[6], and qualified in 15th one-and-a-half seconds slower than 14th placed Raikkonen. Kubica nearly made it into Q3 and David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella were eliminated as well.

Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time early on in Q3, but was beaten by Sebastian Vettel, whose time remained unchallenged for the rest of the session. Felipe Massa struggled and qualified sixth. Mark Webber qualified third place, ahead of Vettel's teammate SÃ©bastien Bourdais.