Race – Vettel celebrates the greatest day of his career

Sebastian Vettel claims a historic victory for himself and his team Toro Rosso at the Italian Grand Prix. He managed his race from start to finish in wet conditions at Monza.

The 21-year-old German not only claimed his first career victory but also secured the first win for the former Minardi team, which has since been renamed Toro Rosso. Vettel becomes the youngest race winner in the history of Formula 1.

Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) and Robert Kubica (BMW) step onto the podium in second and third place respectively, in front of Fernando Alonso’s Renault. The title contenders are a bit further back with Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton in sixth and seventh.

Vettel simply dominated a very wet race from the start, which began under the safety car. The young German was going two seconds per lap faster than the second-place driver, Kovalainen. Quickly, Vettel had a 10-second lead.

Kovalainen could not do anything to try to close the gap. Hamilton, who started from 15th position, began a fantastic comeback on lap 9 by overtaking Giancarlo Fisichella and Kimi Räikkönen, who was fuel-laden.

The track was improving rapidly, but the crews announced the imminent arrival of new showers, which never came, and the extreme tires started to struggle.

The moment was ideal for those who needed to refuel and switch to intermediate tires. Kubica and Alonso took advantage of this.

But this change in weather conditions ruined Hamilton’s momentum as he was heading for a resounding victory. He was forced to make an unexpected second stop and fell back to seventh place.

Kubica completed a relatively calm first stint around 10th place, but his single pit stop propelled him to third place ahead of Alonso, whose strategy proved ideal under the same circumstances as the Pole. Nick Heidfeld took fifth position for BMW-Sauber.

Massa only managed to secure sixth place after spending a large part of the first stint stuck behind Nico Rosberg. He then got caught in traffic after his first stop and was unable to recover the lost ground.

He nevertheless narrows the gap with Hamilton in the world championship to a single point, as the Briton held on to seventh place with his intermediate tires. Mark Webber’s Red Bull finishes 8th. The Australian was on the podium before the pit stop to switch to intermediates.

Räikkönen was never in a position to win this race but eventually started to have a stronger pace when the track was driest, which was at the end! He couldn’t get into the points with his 9th position.

The two Toyotas were in the points before losing ground to make an additional stop, leaving Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli in 11th and 13th place respectively behind Nelson Piquet’s Renault. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) slots in at 12th. Rosberg is only 14th due to his additional stop for intermediates.

Remarkably, Fisichella is the only driver to have retired after breaking his front wing following a contact with David Coulthard on Red Bull. Coulthard relives this situation but loses his wing this time after an incident with Nakajima.

While Vettel celebrates this magnificent victory, his Toro Rosso teammate Sébastien Bourdais experienced a disastrous afternoon. He remained stationary on the starting grid before joining the race, but with a lap down!

Race Result – Italian GP – September 14, 2008