The Italian Grand Prix has always been one of the most important races on the Formula 1 calendar. This was also true for the 2008 edition. And yet a lot was different that year. While world champion Kimi Räikkönen and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton only played an unexpected supporting role, a 21-year-old took his first Grand Prix victory after a real water fight in the defeated Toro Rosso: Sebastian Vettel.
The day before the race, the young talent from Heppenheim caused a small sensation: in qualifying on a rainy Saturday, he beat top drivers Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren-Mercedes and Mark Webber in the Red Bull and celebrated a pole position as the youngest driver in Formula 1 history (a record that still stands today). The future world champion Lewis Hamilton completely lost his chances that day and only managed to qualify in 15th place.
After his first pole position in the 22nd Grand Prix of his young career, Sebastian Vettel was already celebrating: “Unbelievable! I’m blown away. This morning I was joking with my mechanics that we would have to drive for pole position in the rain. And now I’m actually standing there. One of my biggest dreams is coming true.”
Last year’s rookie didn’t dare to believe that anything more would be possible: “You can’t expect us to be in contention for victory now. But a few points or a place on the podium would be nice.”
Safety start behind the safety car
Vettel was as reserved as he was in front of the press on Saturday, but he was just as uncompromising and focused in his Toro Rosso on Sunday afternoon. In an inferior vehicle in which Vettel had to deal with more failures than any other driver up to that point, the German demonstrated not only outstanding driving talent but also nerves of steel.
For safety reasons, the race started behind the safety car, which set the pace for two laps. After the race was given the go-ahead on the third lap, Vettel immediately found his way around the soaking wet surface of the Autodromo Nazionale and within a few laps put more than five seconds between himself and his pursuer Kovalainen.
While the top drivers around Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen initially had great problems in the opaque field of pursuers, Vettel took advantage of the spray-free view as race leader and continued to pull away until the first pit stop. After only world championship leader Lewis Hamilton was turning faster laps than Vettel halfway through the race and was catching up dangerously quickly, the latter was robbed of his possible podium chances by a tactical mistake when changing tires and ended up only seventh.
714 days after Schumi’s last victory
The new rain king of Formula 1, however, did not allow himself to be pushed out of first place even when the track was slowly drying out. On the contrary: despite weaker engine performance, he kept the entire competition at bay and extended his lead to over twelve seconds after 53 glorious Monza laps.
714 days after Michael Schumacher’s last victory, a new German champion was born in the premier class of motorsport. Sebastian Vettel himself was completely overwhelmed: “This is the best day of my life! I could never have imagined it would be so beautiful in my wildest dreams.” Almost two years later, Vettel celebrated the next best day of his life. He crowned himself the youngest world champion of all time to date in Abu Dhabi.
Mats-Yannick Roth
Source: www.sport.de
