2008 Canadian GP: Kubica wins after Hamilton's pit lane crash

Robert Kubica won the Canadian GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on 8 June 2008. He finished ahead of his teammate Nick Heidfeld, giving BMW Sauber its first one-two. David Coulthard took third for Red Bull. The race was decided in the pit lane: polesitter Lewis Hamilton drove into the back of Kimi Räikkönen, who was waiting at the red light at pit exit. That put both favourites out after 19 laps.

The story could hardly have been better. A year earlier, Kubica had suffered a heavy crash at the same circuit. Now he became the first Pole to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

It was hot in Montreal, around 31 °C according to Wikipedia. On top of that, the asphalt had already been breaking up over the weekend. The organisers patched the track at several corners, including the hairpin. Before the start they advised the drivers to use the outside line at Turn 10.

Hamilton held the lead in his McLaren at the start and pulled away from the field. According to grandprix.com's race notes, he was already 5.0 seconds clear of Kubica on lap 10. By lap 15, the race report says, the gap had grown to 7.1 seconds. Kubica reported tyre pressure problems, and Räikkönen closed in with his Ferrari. Nico Rosberg in the Williams went round the outside early on to take fourth place.

Then Adrian Sutil stopped with a gearbox failure. His Force India caught fire, and the Safety Car was deployed. When the pit lane reopened, the leaders all came in at once for fuel and fresh tyres.

Räikkönen and Kubica got through their stops faster than Hamilton. At the end of the pit lane they sat side by side at the red light, because the Safety Car was still leading the field past. Hamilton arrived at speed and saw the light too late. He ran into the back of the Ferrari. “I was doing 80 kmh and they were at a standstill”, Hamilton said, according to grandprix.com. Right behind him, Rosberg then hit Hamilton's McLaren.

Hamilton and Räikkönen were out. Both were classified as retiring after 19 laps due to a collision. Rosberg carried on with a broken front wing but had to pit again. Kubica, by contrast, escaped without damage. The stewards handed Hamilton and Rosberg a ten-place grid penalty each for the following French GP. Räikkönen was bitterly disappointed: “I am unhappy, because I had a chance of winning.”

Felipe Massa also had bad luck in the pits. A technical problem meant his Ferrari took on no fuel at his first stop. He had to come in again a lap later and dropped to the back of the field.

After the chaos the strategies were mixed, and the lead changed hands frequently. According to our data, Heidfeld, who had stayed out during the Safety Car period, led from lap 19. After that, Rubens Barrichello in the Honda (from lap 29), Coulthard (from lap 36), Jarno Trulli (from lap 37) and Timo Glock (from lap 39), both in the Toyota, took turns at the front. These drivers still had their stops to make at that point.

From lap 42 Kubica led and never gave up the top spot. Heidfeld had switched to a one-stop strategy and was running with a heavy fuel load and soft tyres. Kubica, on the other hand, was on two stops and was quicker in a lighter car. He needed to build enough of a gap to stay ahead of Heidfeld after his second stop. He managed it and rejoined the track in the lead. “It was like several laps of qualifying, I never had to push so much”, Kubica said, according to grandprix.com. At the flag he was 16.495 seconds ahead of Heidfeld.

As well as Sutil, Hamilton and Räikkönen, four more drivers retired:

• Nelson Piquet Jr. (Renault): after 43 laps with brake problems. He had already spun once before that.
• Fernando Alonso (Renault): after 44 laps following a spin. He was running strongly at the time and putting pressure on Heidfeld. Then he spun, hit the wall and damaged his front wing and suspension.
• Kazuki Nakajima (Williams): after 46 laps following a crash. He had run into the back of Jenson Button. The detached front wing got stuck under his car, and Nakajima slid into the wall at pit entry.
• Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India): after 51 laps following a spin. He had already stalled the engine at his first pit stop.

That meant Force India had no car at the finish.

Coulthard went from grid position 13 to third place. They were his first points of the season and his first podium since Monaco 2006. Shortly before the podium he ran out of fuel and walked the final stretch. In hindsight, it would remain his last podium in Formula 1.

Toyota scored eight points, with Glock in fourth (from grid position 11) and Trulli in sixth (from grid position 14). Sebastian Vettel gained the most places. In the Toro Rosso he was listed in grid position 19 but started from the pit lane. On a single stop he came home in eighth and scored a point. Button, who also had a pit lane start, gained nine places and finished eleventh.

After his fuel problem, Massa still fought back from the back of the field to fifth. According to grandprix.com he passed Barrichello and Heikki Kovalainen at the hairpin, and according to Wikipedia he also got past Trulli late in the race.

The losers were obvious: Hamilton (–18 places) and Räikkönen (–15) went out in the pit lane, Alonso (–12) on track. Kovalainen only finished ninth, and McLaren left without points. For the first time since Malaysia 2006, neither a Ferrari nor a McLaren was on the podium.

The win took Kubica to 42 points and put him at the top of the drivers' championship for the first time. Behind him were Hamilton and Massa on 38 points each, with Räikkönen on 35 and Heidfeld on 28. In the constructors' championship, BMW Sauber moved to within three points of Ferrari (73) with 70 points. McLaren followed on 53 points. You can find the full 2008 standings on our site.

For BMW Sauber it was a historic day: first win, first one-two and the first win for a German constructor since the 1962 French GP. In hindsight, it remained the team's only win and the only win for a Polish driver. For the championship, Montreal meant one thing above all: after seven races, the 2008 season was more open than ever.