The 2008 Monaco Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2008) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 May 2008 at the Circuit de Monaco; contested over 76 laps, it was the sixth race of the 2008 Formula One World Championship. The race was won by the season's eventual World Drivers' Champion, Lewis Hamilton, for the McLaren team. BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica finished second, and Felipe Massa, who started from pole position, was third in a Ferrari.
Conditions were wet at the start of the race. Massa maintained his lead into the first corner, but his teammate Kimi Räikkönen was passed for second by Hamilton, who had started in third position on the grid. Hamilton suffered a punctured tyre on lap six, forcing him to make a pit stop from which he re-entered the race in fifth place. As the track dried and his rivals made their own pit stops Hamilton became the race leader, a position he held until the end of the race. Kubica's strategy allowed him to pass Massa during their second pit stops, after the latter's Ferrari was forced to change from wet to dry tyres. Räikkönen dropped back from fifth position to ninth after colliding with Adrian Sutil's Force India late in the race. Sutil had started from 18th on the grid and was in fourth position before the incident, which allowed Red Bull driver Mark Webber to finish fourth, ahead of Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel in fifth.
The race was Hamilton's second win of the season, his first in Monaco, and the result meant that he led the Drivers' Championship, three points ahead of Räikkönen and four ahead of Massa. Ferrari maintained their lead in the World Constructors' Championship, 16 points ahead of McLaren and 17 ahead of BMW Sauber, with 12 races of the season remaining. It was McLaren's last win in Monaco until 2025.
Background The Grand Prix was contested by 20 drivers, in ten teams of two. The teams, also known as "constructors", were Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Force India-Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull-Renault, Williams-Toyota and Toro Rosso-Ferrari. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought four different tyre types to the race: two dry-weather tyre compounds, the softer marked by a single white stripe down one of the grooves, and two wet-weather compounds, the extreme wet also marked by a single white stripe.
Before the race, Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen led the Drivers' Championship with 35 points, and his teammate Felipe Massa was second with 28 points. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was third, also on 28 points, with one win fewer than Massa; BMW driver Robert Kubica was fourth on 24 points, ahead of his teammate Nick Heidfeld on 20 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari were leading with 63 points, 19 points ahead of BMW Sauber, and 21 points ahead of McLaren-Mercedes.
Ferrari had responded to Hamilton's win in the opening round of the season in Australia by winning each of the subsequent four races, giving them a commanding lead in the Constructors' Championship. Ferrari's dominance had been highlighted by two one-two finishes: Massa ahead of Räikkönen in Bahrain and Räikkönen's win over Massa at the following round in Spain. A strong drive despite an unfavourable strategy had helped Hamilton to split the Ferrari drivers on the podium in Turkey, coming second, behind Massa but ahead of Räikkönen. Ferrari had not won in Monaco since 2001, and had been unable to match McLaren's pace in 2007. After tests at the Circuit Paul Ricard in mid-May, Räikkönen said his team had developed a strong car for the tight, low-speed Monaco circuit, but they still expected a challenge from McLaren and BMW Sauber. Hamilton claimed that McLaren would be competitive at Monaco, but Kubica played down his team's chances, saying "I think a win will be very difficult."
Toro Rosso's main 2008 car, the STR3, was also introduced that weekend; the team had used a modified version of their 2007 car, the STR2, for the opening five races. Originally due to be introduced at the previous race in Turkey, a crash in testing had left the team short of spare parts, delaying the car's race debut. As the STR3 used a different transmission than that used in the STR2, Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel was forced to take a five-place penalty on the grid for an unscheduled change of gearbox. His teammate Sébastien Bourdais escaped a similar penalty because he had failed to finish the race in Turkey, allowing him a free gearbox change.
Practice
Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race – two on Thursday, and one on Saturday. The Thursday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes; the third session, on Saturday morning, lasted for an hour. One hour into the first session, officials noticed a loose drain cover in the run through Beau Rivage, and suspended practice. Ferrari and McLaren took the top four spots after the resumption – Räikkönen ahead of Hamilton, McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen, and Massa. Behind Williams driver Nico Rosberg, Kubica was the best of the BMW Saubers in sixth; his teammate Heidfeld was forced to retire because of an engine failure, and stopped his car in Casino Square after just 13 laps. Despite further delays during the second session – both Renault drivers crashed in separate incidents at Sainte Devote, requiring the marshals to sweep the track of debris – Hamilton again proved strong, fastest ahead of Rosberg, Räikkönen, Massa, Kovalainen and Kubica. Apart from the Renault drivers, two more cars struck the barriers: Toyota driver Jarno Trulli scraped the wall out of Piscine; Adrian Sutil's Force India lost its front wing after tagging the barrier at Rascasse. While light rain fell on Saturday morning, Kovalainen set the fastest time in the final session, before losing control at Piscine and damaging the rear of his car. The rain increased as the marshals cleared the debris, and in the ensuing poor track conditions Kovalainen's time remained unbeaten. Hamilton managed second fastest, ahead of Räikkönen, Rosberg, Kubica and Massa.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. In the first 20-minute period, cars finishing 16th or lower were eliminated. The second qualifying period lasted for 15 minutes, at the end of which the fastest ten cars went into the final period, to determine their grid positions for the race. Cars failing to make the final period were allowed to be refuelled before the race but those competing in it were not, and so carried more fuel than they had done in the earlier qualifying sessions.
Massa clinched his third pole position of the season with a time of 1:15.787, and was joined on the front row by teammate Räikkönen. Hamilton took third place on the grid, with a qualifying time just 0.052 seconds slower than Massa's. Kovalainen edged out Kubica to take fourth, the latter struggling to get heat into his tyres for his final run. Rosberg's attacking style took him to sixth; Renault driver Fernando Alonso, Trulli and Red Bull driver Mark Webber occupied the next three places. Webber's teammate David Coulthard ended his second session in the barriers after the tunnel, after his car jerked sideways at the crest under braking. Although Coulthard was unhurt, the position of his stricken car and the subsequent caution flags surrounding it denied many drivers the opportunity to make their final flying laps in the session. Honda driver Jenson Button, who took 12th behind Timo Glock of Toyota, blamed the disruption for his performance, having prepared his car specifically for the final run. Heidfeld suffered from similar tyre problems to his teammate and managed 13th; Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and Honda driver Rubens Barrichello took the next two places ahead of Bourdais in the new STR3. Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. lined up from 17th and Vettel managed 18th before his gearbox penalty demoted him to 19th. The Force Indias of Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella qualified slowest; Fisichella's penalty for a change of gearbox after morning practice meant he started from 20th on the grid.
Qualifying classification Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 12 Felipe MassaFerrari1:15.1901:15.1101:15.7871 21 Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:15.7171:15.4041:15.8152 322 Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.5821:15.3221:15.8393 423 Heikki KovalainenMcLaren-Mercedes1:15.2951:15.3891:16.1654 54 Robert KubicaBMW Sauber1:15.9771:15.4831:16.1715 67 Nico RosbergWilliams-Toyota1:15.9351:15.2871:16.5486 75 Fernando AlonsoRenault1:16.6461:15.8271:16.8527 811 Jarno TrulliToyota1:16.3061:15.5981:17.2038 910 Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1:16.0741:15.7451:17.3439 109 David CoulthardRed Bull-Renault1:16.0861:15.839 No time15 1112 Timo GlockToyota1:16.2851:15.90710 1216 Jenson ButtonHonda1:16.2591:16.10111 133 Nick HeidfeldBMW Sauber1:16.6501:16.45512 148 Kazuki NakajimaWilliams-Toyota1:16.7561:16.47913 1517 Rubens BarrichelloHonda1:16.2081:16.53714 1614 Sébastien BourdaisToro Rosso-Ferrari1:16.80616 176 Nelson Piquet Jr.Renault1:16.93317 1815 Sebastian VettelToro Rosso-Ferrari1:16.95519 1920 Adrian SutilForce India-Ferrari1:17.22518 2021 Giancarlo FisichellaForce India-Ferrari1:17.82320 Notes – David Coulthard failed to set a time in Q3 following an accident at the end of Q2. – David Coulthard, Sebastian Vettel and Giancarlo Fisichella were each given five place grid penalties for changing their gearboxes.
Race
On Sunday morning Coulthard became the third driver to incur a gearbox penalty, after changing his transmission following his crash during qualifying. The penalty moved him from 10th to 15th on the grid. In contrast to Saturday's dry qualifying session, frequent showers soaked the track on Sunday morning, making racing slippery and potentially hazardous. Although the showers subsided by early afternoon, they resumed 20 minutes before the start, the changeable conditions forcing teams to delay tyre choices for as long as possible. By the time of the three-minute warning most drivers had opted for the standard wet tyre; only Piquet started the race on the extreme wet. Kovalainen's engine stalled as the cars set off on their formation lap; his car was pushed back to the pit lane by his mechanics, where it was restarted and a new steering wheel fitted to solve the problem.
Massa held his lead into the first corner at Sainte Devote, while behind him Hamilton used the pit lane exit to pass Räikkönen down the inside. Kovalainen's vacated fourth position was filled by Kubica, as Alonso moved into fifth, passing Rosberg. The latter made a pit stop soon after for a new front wing after making contact with Alonso at the hairpin, promoting Trulli to sixth. These positions were maintained for several laps, but the distances between the cars increased, in part because the spray thrown up by their wheels made close racing difficult. The conditions proved to be crucial when Hamilton made contact with barriers on the outside of Tabac on lap six, necessitating his return to the pit lane for a new set of tyres. The McLaren mechanics fuelled the car for a longer second stint and Hamilton emerged in fifth, the distances between his competitors' cars resulting in him losing only three places during the pit stop. Alonso had a similar accident to Hamilton's at Massenet two laps later, and emerged in seventh after pitting and taking on extreme wets.