page_title: 2008 British Grand Prix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 British Grand Prix / Report / Race
caption_attribution_description: English: Rubens Barrichello driving for Honda F1 at the 2008 British Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2008 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 6 July 2008 at the Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, England. It was the ninth race of the 2008 Formula One season. The 60-lap race was won by Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team after starting from fourth position on the grid. Nick Heidfeld finished second in a BMW Sauber car, with Rubens Barrichello third in a Honda.
  Heikki Kovalainen started from pole position alongside Mark Webber and Kimi Räikkönen. Webber and Räikkönen were passed by Hamilton going into the first corner. Hamilton shadowed Kovalainen in the early stages of the race and passed him for the lead on lap five.
  Hamilton's win tied him for the lead of the Drivers' Championship, alongside Massa and Räikkönen. In the Constructors Championship, BMW reduced the lead of Ferrari to 14 points, with McLaren a further 10 behind.
context_section_description: There was persistent rain in the morning, leaving water on the track, although it had abated by the time the race began. The track temperature was 16 °C (61 °F) and the air temperature was 15 °C (59 °F). All drivers chose to start on the intermediate wet tyres. Rosberg started from the pit lane after a number of set-up changes.
  The front three drivers—Kovalainen, Webber and Räikkönen—all struggled for grip off the start, allowing Hamilton to edge ahead into the first corner. Kovalainen had the better line, however, and retook the lead after brushing tyres with Hamilton, who tucked in behind his teammate. A number of drivers struggled with the standing water on the first lap: Webber spun coming onto the Hangar straight, falling from fourth to last place; Massa spun going into Bridge, where he was passed by everyone except Webber; and Coulthard and Vettel ended up in a gravel trap after a collision, forcing them both to retire.
  Alonso showed good early pace, passing Piquet and Heidfeld on laps two and three respectively, and setting the fastest time of any driver on laps four and five. Massa spun for the second time during his third lap, dropping him to the back of the field. Hamilton shadowed Kovalainen closely for several laps, and passed him going into Stowe on lap five. Hamilton quickly extended his lead over Kovalainen, and there was already a six-second gap by the tenth lap when Kovalainen spun and was passed by Räikkönen. However, as the track dried, Räikkönen showed the better pace—particularly in the last two sectors—and the gap was under a second by the time they both pitted on lap 21.
  McLaren gave Hamilton a new set of intermediate wet tyres; in contrast, Ferrari gambled that the track would continue to dry and refuelled Räikkönen without changing his tyres. Despite his pit stop being longer by half a second, Hamilton exited just in front of Räikkönen (Heidfeld briefly took the lead until his pitstop the following lap). McLaren were vindicated in their decision almost immediately: the rain returned and Räikkönen was unable to find grip, falling back from Hamilton by up to eight seconds a lap. By lap 27, Kovalainen and Heidfeld had caught the struggling Räikkönen, and as Kovalainen overtook Räikkönen, Heidfeld passed them both to take second place. On the same lap, Fisichella spun out and retired; his Force India teammate Sutil had already retired after a spin on lap 11. After being passed by Kubica and Piquet, Räikkönen finally pitted for fresh tyres on lap 30, dropping him to eleventh place.
  Kubica overtook Kovalainen for third place, shortly before Kovalainen pitted for the second time. Despite the rain getting heavier he opted for a new set of intermediate tyres. Both Kubica and Glock left the track and rejoined; however Glock lost a place to his teammate Trulli. On lap 37, both Hondas elected to change onto the extreme wet-weather tyres, Button queuing behind his teammate in the pitlane while waiting to be serviced. Nelson Piquet Jr. spun off the track and beached his car in a gravel trap, ending his race, while in separate incidents within a few moments of each other Hamilton, Kubica, and Massa all lost control of their cars and travelled over the grass before rejoining the track, without any damage. Räikkönen also spun off on the same lap, again rejoining the circuit without damaging the car. Hamilton, leading the race by around 30 seconds, made a pitstop to change tyres and take on fuel on lap 38, opting for a new set of the intermediate wet-weather tyres, as the weather forecast predicted the rain would ease. Second placed driver Heidfeld pitted the following lap, opting for the same tyre choice as Hamilton. The gap between the two leaders at this point was 36 seconds. Kimi Räikkönen spun off in his Ferrari for the second time in as many laps, again though he avoided contact with the barriers and was able to rejoin the track.
  With 20 laps of the race remaining, Rubens Barrichello on the extreme wet weather tyres was about nine seconds a lap quicker than the majority of the field and quickly moved his way
caption: Rubens Barrichello took Honda's first podium finish since 2006.
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