Formula One news
McLaren and Hamilton count valuable points
14 September 2008 / Results / PhotosMcLaren Mercedes driver Heikki Kovalainen finished the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in second place. Lewis Hamilton, who had started 15th on the grid, ended up seventh. After 14 out of 18 races, McLaren lies second in the world constructors'
championship with 129 points behind Ferrari with 134 points. Hamilton leads in the drivers' rankings with 78 points, ahead of Felipe Massa on 77 points.
"In today's tricky weather conditions I struggled to keep temperature in the brakes, and in the opening stages of the race I had problems with my extreme-wet tyres," said Kovalainen. "First I thought it would improve after a few laps, but it didn't. Only at the end was I able to match the lap times of Sebastian Vettel in front of me. In today's conditions he was just too fast for me - congratulations to him for his very first grand prix win. I'm happy to have scored eight points, and I look forward to the next race in Singapore."
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Hamilton commented, "I felt I drove a really good race and was moving through the field very quickly when the circuit was at its wettest. If it had kept on raining, I feel pretty confident I probably could have even won from 15th grid position; but, as the circuit dried out, my tyres overcooked and I had to defend my position from Mark Webber. Still, today was all about damage control: I came away with some points and kept my lead in the world drivers' championship."
Team boss Ron Dennis added, "Heikki drove well to finish second and bag eight valuable world championship points. The visibility in the rain early on was dreadful, and it was sensible of him to drop back a little from Sebastian in the first few laps. As the race unfolded we thought he might be able to catch Sebastian, but he was prevented from doing so when his tyres began to lose grip as the rain abated. Lewis made excellent progress in the wet conditions early on, moving swiftly from 15th on the grid to a potential points-scoring position, and he could well have been able to record a podium finish had the rain persisted and had he therefore been able to maintain his one-stop strategy. As it was, he was forced to make an unscheduled stop in order to exchange his extreme-wet tyres for wet-weather tyres, which dropped him back down the field. At first his wet-weather tyres performed well, and he began to catch up impressively; but then, along with various other drivers, his performance deteriorated as his wet-weather tyres began to overheat and lose grip on the drying track."
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