F1 USA GP 2008

## 2008 F1 USA Grand Prix

The USA GP 2008 (officially known as AT&T USA Grand Prix at Texas Motor Speedway) was a Formula 1 race held at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (Texas) on March 2nd 2008.

F1 returned in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area after the lone and disgraced Grand Prix held twentyfour years before. Several meetengs about a race in 2008 between Bernie Ecclestone, FIA president at the time Max Mosley and Speedway Motorsports happened during the last 2/3 of 2007. However, an two-year agreement was sanctioned only in late december (plus other two other years with Speedway Motorsports as an organizer), after the offcial calendar was shown. The FIA decided to add the US GP anyway, as the first race of the season two weeks before the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The official season shakeup happened the previous weekend and monday.

It was the first F1 GP ever held in a roval circuit, despite some safety concerns from the powerhouses teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Renault) and drivers too (Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard). One fo them, Anthony Davidson, officially refused to race there and Super Aguri replaced him with the previous season's Indycar season Dario Franchitti, who had his own sponsors with him: Target and Chip Ganassi Racing. Years later, it would have been revealed Dario was simply offered a seat due to his celebrity status in the United States and Anthony's issues were an excuse.

## The Race

The Grand Prix would be remebered for the large amount of safety car exits: five during the whole race for a total . Only Kovalainen and Barrichello retirements didn't cause any harm.

The start itself was scary, with the 3-cars-crash between Kubica (the still car, 8th position on the grid), Franchitti (10th, who crashed and bounced into Kubica's car) and Heidfeld (12th, hit Franchitti's car). All of this surprisingly didn't cause a red flag but only a safety car.

Besides that, the most surprising performances to underline were Fisichella's (from 19th to 4th position at the end) and Massa's (from 17th to 6th position) drives. The F1 rookie and 4-times Champ Car winner Bourdais almost gained a point but lost the final battle with Mark Webber, also losing his 9th position in the process.

## Race Standings (after 82 laps)

1. Fernando Alonso (Renault)
2. Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota)
3. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes)
4. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India Ferrari)
5. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri Honda)
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
7. Timo Glock (Toyota)
8. Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault)
9. Nelson Piquet Jr. (Renault)
10. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso Ferrari)
11. Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso Ferrari) - 1 lap down
12. Kazuyuki Nakajima (Williams Toyota) - 1 lap down
13. Jarno Trulli (Toyota) - 1 lap down
14. Jenson Button (Honda) - 4 Laps down due to engine failure
15. Rubens Barrichello (Honda) - retired due to engine failure
16. David Coulthard (Red Bull Renault) - retired due to crash
17. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren Mercedes) - retired due to suspension failure
18. Adrian Sutil (Force India Ferrari) - retired due to engine failure
19. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - retired due to front wing problems
20. Dario Franchitti (Super Aguri Honda) - retired due to the start collision
21. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) - retired due to the start collision
22. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) - retired due to the start collision