page_title: 2008 Chinese Grand Prix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 Chinese Grand Prix / Race
caption_attribution_description: Kimi Räikkönen driving for Scuderia Ferrari at the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2008 Chinese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 19 October 2008 at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China. It was the 17th and penultimate race of the 2008 Formula One season. The 56-lap race was won by Lewis Hamilton for the McLaren team after starting from pole position. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa finished second, and Kimi Räikkönen was third in the other Ferrari. This was the 200th Grand Prix victory by British drivers.
  Hamilton, the eventual Drivers' Champion, led the Championship going into the race, and started from pole position alongside Räikkönen. Second in the Drivers' Championship, Massa began from third, next to Fernando Alonso of Renault. The first three drivers retained their positions into the first corner, but Alonso was passed by Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen. Alonso, however, was able to regain the place midway through the first lap. Over the course of the race, Hamilton extended a considerable lead over the two Ferraris. Massa passed Räikkönen with seven laps remaining, to improve his chances of surpassing Hamilton's points tally at the final race in Brazil.
context_section_description: The conditions on the grid were dry before the race. The air temperature was 27 °C (81 °F) and the track temperature was 30 °C (86 °F); weather forecasts suggested a small possibility of rain. Hamilton and Alonso began the race on harder compound tyre; both Ferraris opted for the softer compound. Hamilton accelerated faster than the Ferraris off the line, and retained his lead into the first corner. Kovalainen overtook Alonso to take fourth in the opening corners. However, Alonso pushed Kovalainen hard through the middle sector of the lap, and passed him at the turn 14 hairpin after drafting the McLaren along the back straight. At the end of the first lap, Hamilton led from Räikkönen, Massa, Alonso and Kovalainen. Heidfeld was able to move from ninth on the grid to take sixth, after Bourdais drove into the back of Trulli at the first corner. Bourdais dropped back to 18th; Trulli pitted at the next opportunity as a result of the damage and retired after the second lap.
  Webber was able to climb from 16th on the grid to take 12th behind Glock, and passed the Toyota on the second lap. Kubica, further up the field, improved on his grid position, moving from 11th to take eighth behind Vettel. However, Hamilton was the quickest on track, as he set new fastest laps on laps three, six and eight, to extend his lead over Räikkönen to more than four seconds. This trend continued until lap 10 when Räikkönen fought back and closed the gap. However, Hamilton extended his lead when he set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:36.325 on lap 13. In the other McLaren, Kovalainen was struggling, running two seconds a lap slower than Hamilton, and dropping back from Alonso to Heidfeld.
  The Red Bull of Mark Webber was the first to pit, on lap 12. Webber had passed Barrichello and Piquet in separate manoeuvres to take ninth, but his pit stop dropped him back down to 18th position. Massa and Alonso came in to pit on lap 14, from third and fourth. Kovalainen took the lead of the Grand Prix when Hamilton and Räikkönen paused their battle to take harder tyres and fuel on lap 15. By the time Kovalainen and Heidfeld had pitted on laps 17 and 18, Hamilton had established a commanding lead: 6.9 seconds over Räikkönen and 14.1 seconds over Massa. Räikkönen began to pull back Hamilton's lead over the next ten laps, before losing 1.4 seconds on lap 30.
  At the back of the race, Bourdais began a slow climb back up the field. The Toro Rosso driver passed Sutil (who later spun out and retired with a gearbox problem), Nakajima and Coulthard, to sit in 15th by lap 30. Rosberg fought Glock for 12th, until he passed the Toyota at the turn 14 hairpin on lap 12. Rosberg's pit stop relegated him to 18th, dropping six places. Kubica pitted late, on lap 25, dropping from third to ninth, one position outside of the points.
  Kovalainen suffered a puncture on lap 35. The McLaren limped around the track back to the pit lane on the disintegrating tyre, rejoining in 17th on a replacement. Alonso, Massa, Hamilton and Räikkönen all pitted for the final time over laps 36 to 38. Coming out of the second round of pit stops, Hamilton led Räikkönen by 13 seconds, Räikkönen more than 2.5 seconds ahead of Massa. The gap between the Ferraris began to close, and Massa eased past Räikkönen on the back straight on lap 49, to take second place on the track. Meanwhile, Kovalainen parked his car in the McLaren garage and retired from the race, his team not taking any chances with a problem which had developed with the engine's hydraulics.
  Hamilton took his fifth win of the season when he crossed the line at the end of the 56th lap, almost 15 seconds ahead of the second-placed Massa. Räikkönen took third ahead of Alonso. Heidfeld managed to jump from ninth on the grid to finish in fifth place, just ahead of his teammate Kubica, who climbed from eleventh on the grid. A one-stop pit strategy worked well for Glock as he finished seventh; Piquet took eighth. Vettel, Coulthard, Barrichello and Nakajima took the next four places; Bourdais recovered from his early contact with Trulli to take 13th. Webb
caption: Kimi Räikkönen started from second on the grid
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