RaceDay Rewind: Looking Back At F1’s 2008 Belgian Grand Prix
By Alex Herbst
As Formula One returns from their summer break, we look back at one of the more memorable and controversial races in recent memory – the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix.
Formula One returns at one of the most exciting tracks in the series, Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. And many races there have gone down in history as exciting, memorable, and even controversial, including the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix.
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Eight years ago the Belgian Grand Prix began with a tight battle between Ferrari and McLaren, and ended with rain, crashes, and a controversial corner.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was closing in on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton for the championship lead after winning the last race at Valencia. Massa would try and hold some of his momentum by qualifying second for the Belgian Grand Prix, but Hamilton would start ahead of him on pole.
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But Hamilton would spin on Lap 2 and lose the lead to Kimi Raikkonen. Much of the race from there would be between the Ferrari teammates, swapping the lead four times over nearly forty laps.
Meanwhile, a new challenge would be developing for them in the skies. It had been a damp track at Spa-Francorchamps to start but conditions were expected to get worse throughout the race. With just a handful of laps to go the skies would open up, bringing rain into the equation.
Hamilton was fast approaching too. He worked his way back into contention for the win before taking the lead from Raikkonen on Lap 42 as the Ferrari driver spun in the wet.
He would cautiously cruise to victory at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix with Massa in second and Nick Heidfeld in third…or so he and his team thought.
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Hamilton would be penalized by the FIA for cutting a chicane while attempting to pass Raikkonen. This led to a 25-second penalty, sliding him from first to third in the final finishing order. He subsequently had this to say post-race about the questionable incident:
"[Räikkönen] pushed me to the point where I would either have been on the kerb and crashed into him or have to go on the escape route, so I went on the escape route. I understood I had to let him past, so I did. I got in his tow and he was ducking and diving left and right and I did the same and managed to get back to the inside of him. But then he hit me at the apex of the corner but I think I was pretty much gone from there."
Raikkonen had a different perspective on the incident:
"From the position where [Hamilton] was, because he cut the chicane, he was [able to pass into turn one]. But if he had would have been behind me through the chicane then it may have been a different story."
The decision to penalize Hamilton sparked a lot of conversation about the ruling across Europe, while also tightening up the championship chase. With Massa awarded the win and Hamilton pushed to third, the Ferrari driver now only trailed Hamilton by two points after Belgium.
Relive the full 2008 Belgian Grand Prix here, and see the controversy for yourself with these videos below:
Be sure to tune in Sunday for the 2016 edition of the Belgian Grand Prix and see if anyone can topple the continued dominance of Mercedes AMG Petronas. Coverage of the race will be on NBCSN.