Jenson Button, Formula One world champion

How many people have dreamt that their name replaces Jenson's? Millions I reckon, me included.

Who wouldnt want to be formula one world champion, the man who is a better racer than you, a better driver, the man who can drive a car faster than you. THE FASTEST RACE DRIVER IN THE WORLD!

But is that all there is too it?

Well depending on your stance on formula one, the answer is yes, or no.

My answer is no. Formula One is a team game, gone are the days when you could turn up and race your own car and even they those who did, didnt win.

Today you need a team around you, but brilliantly, the driver still counts.

Jenson and Rubens had the same car all year long, yet the difference in points was 18 points, in the same car thats a horrendous difference.

Sebastian Vettel gained more points than Rubens, but not Jenson, yet Rubens and jenson had the same car. So the difference was the driver.end of.

From March 2009 to November 2009 Jenson Button drove the best races any driver probably drove in any competition throughout the world, and deserves to be formula one world champion.

HOWEVER!

Sadly I dont think JB will ever be thought of in the same league as fellow world champs, mansell, hamilton,hunt and many overs. Why?

You tell me a Jenson button memory from before 2009. You tell me something he did that made you smile, that made you proud to be a formula one fan, or a british formula one fan.

It is not necessarily Button's fault, but formula one is a show, and the whole point of formula one is the fans.

Those who care, and those who really love formula one, want certain things from a driver, they want drama (mansell) they want action (Gilles Villeneuve) they want never say die (Hamilton) and they want charisma and attitude (Hunt).

Where is Button going to fit in any of this?

Nowhere, he has no win or lose attitude, no never say die charisma, yes his overtakes this season were quite frankly sublime and brilliant, but the media never promoted these in the same way they promoted Hamilton or Mansell. Why? Because Jenson has never been the typical british driver, the underdog, the struggler.

He was always the guy who was alright but often in a crap car, and when he got a great car, people didnt know how to take it and understand it and just assumed it was the car. That was the mainstream interpretation. Yet sadly, only those who looked deeper will see how good Jenson really is, so accurate, so precise, so in touch with the feelings of the car.

But does Button capture the general publics imagination and hearts like Mansell and Hamilton? Has Button ever loved and lost? Has he ever had the world title in his grasp? Only to lose it in the cruellest fashion one can imagine? No.

Britain takes pride in the underdog, the man who nearly made it, not the multi world champion. Hamilton, Mansell, Hunt, Graham and Damon Hill, embodied the british spirit, try try and try again, and eventually, you will succeed.

I feel here it is important to mention Stirling Moss and David Coulthard, two men who were just too gentlemanly to become world champions, despite possessin the ability.

But for Button many will feel it has been given to him by the simple fact that Brawn ran a car engineered, designed and developed by a Honda squad who pumped some £300million into the car.

So in ten or twenty years from now, when people reminisce this period of formula one racing. Who will they think higher of? Hamilton? or Button?

Feel free to contribute your own answer, but my answer has been driving a mclaren all his life and I suspect will do so for the rest of his career.

Thanks for reading.

Rich Marsh

Driver Review of the Year

Simple really. Mark out of ten, then brief plus points and negative points.

1- Jensen Button -Brawn GP World Champion 94 points.6 Wins,9 total podiums. 9/10

Uttertly brilliant first 7 races, simply impeccable. Damage limitation trough the summer thanks to consistant race pace and excellent overtakes throughout the year. Brilliant drive in Brazil. Easily man of the year.

2- Lewis Hamilton - Mclaren Mercedes 5th place. 49 points. 2 wins,5 total podiums. 8/10

Drove better than in 2008. Involved in team lie-gate scandal. Not all his fault. Got his head down and just drove the car faster than anyone else could. Never say die attitude, very evident in Monza. Destroyed Heikki Kovalainen's career.

3- Nico Rosberg - Williams Toyota, 6th place. 34.5 points. Best finish 4th 8/10

Superb season from the German. Only one main error in Singapore which cost certain podium. Fast througout the season. Suffered horribly on option tyres in Australia and on wet tryes in Malaysia which also cost podiums. Very unlucky not to have a podium. Deserves better next year.

4- Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Renault - 2nd Place, 84points, 4 wins 8 total podiums 8/10

This guy is brilliant. Super fast and the best qualifyer of the season. Only man other than Button to win more than twice. Brilliant in the rain. Inexperienced though and mistakes cost him title, lost podium in Melbourne with crash and points in Monaco with a crash.

5- Mark Webber - Red Bull Renault - 4th Place,69.5 points, 2 wins, 8 total podiums

Best season yet from the Aussie, most dominant win of anyone in Germany. Brilliant recovery from leg break in november. A few qualy issues saw him get beaten too often by Vettel but has better racecraft and race pace overall.

6- Rubens Barrichello - Brawn GP 3rd Place, 77points, 2 wins, 6 total podiums 7.5/10

A great comeback season littered with too many problems. Rubens is far too sensitive a driver, particularly with brakes and clutch controls. Bad starts in Melbourne, Turkey and Spa cost big points. Could not beat Button often enough. Good on his day, doesnt have enough days.

7- Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari, 6th Place, 48 points, 1 win,5 total podiums. 7/10

Always an enigma, took a while to get to grips with Ferrari. Excellent in aftermath of Massa's accident. Just drove the thing to four podiums including win at his favourite spa circuit. Did what he could when team stopped development.

8- Felipe Massa, Ferrari,11th Place, 22points, (Started 10 races)1podium (3rd). 7/10

Up untill his accident he destroyed Raikkonen 22 points to ten. But then the horror accident in Hungary ended his season and Raikkonen picked up a gear. Got the most out of Ferrari untill his crash and should be as good as ever next year.

9- Fernando Alonso - Renault, 9th Place, 26points, 1 podium (3rd) 7/10

Fernando got what few people could out of the 2009 Renault. 26 points, and a podium. It was slow, inconsistent, unreliable and tricky to set up. His podium in Singapore was more about the driver than the car. Maybe not Alonso's finest season but still one of the best drivers in the field. Did well to get points early in the season.

10- Sebastien Buemi, Torro Rosso, 16th Place, 6 points. 0 podiums. 7/10

Excellent debut season from the Rookie. Often kept out of trouble and scored points in 2 of first 3 races. Awesome in China to qualify in top 10 and finish in 8th. Rounded off season with strong trouble free drives to points in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

11 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota 8th Place, 32.5 points, 3 podiums. 6.5/10

A difficult year for Jarno, he and the car were inconsistent. Failed to take advantage of the car's speed early in the year. And surely should have won in Bahrain but for a poor tyre choice by the team. Really struggled to get the car to work each weekend. Car was as good if not better than 2008 and yet scored fewer points.

12- Nick Heidfeld - BMW - 13th place, 19 points, 1 podium 6.5/10

Tough times for Nick. For most of the season the car was terrible, and only an excellent tyre decision in Malaysia gave him a lucky 7th place. Nevertheless, got more out of the car than Kubica did. Excellent again at strong race performances, bringing the car home at miminum where it should be.

13- Adrian Sutil - Force India Mercedes - 17th place, 5 points, Best finish 4th. 6.5/10

Mr Unlucky of 2009. So often when things were going well they would go wrong. In China he dropped it on a drying track on wet tyres when in 6th place. In spa he was on Fisichella's pace but failed to get through q2. In Germany he was on for at least top 7 when he collided with Raikkonen. Got his first deserved points in Monza with 4th. Excellent qualy in Japan and Brazil ruined by a steward penalty and Jarno Trulli.
So much better than results suggests. Gotta keep out of trouble.

14- Robert Kubica, BMW 14th place, 17points. 1 podium. 6.5/10

After publicly saying he wated BMW to continue development on their 08 car last year when in the title hunt, he would not have been impressed to see that the 09 car was crap. Excellent in Australia untill crash with Vettel. Good in qualy in Malaysia and fantastic in Brazil. Heidfeld got more out of the car more often. Will hope to form Alonso-esque bond with Renault.

15- Timo Glock, Toyota 10th Place, 24 points, (Started 14 races) 6.5/10

Failed to build on promising 2008. Again strong in the race but needs to start higher up to make it count. Did not get as much out of the car as Trulli and again struggled with car's inconsistancy. Big failure in Barain. Injured in crash in Suzuka after lucky podium in Singapore.

16- Giancarlo Fisichella, 15th place, 8 points, 1 podium, 12 races- Force India, 5 races-Ferrari. 6/10

Often out performed by Sutil at Force India. Flash of speed in Monaco for 9th place finish. Was fantastic at Spa, pole and should of have the win. Struggled to adapt to Ferrari but did a reasonable job.

17- Heikki Kovalainen,Mclaren Mercedes 12th place, 22points. 0 Podiums 6/10

Very poor season from Heikki and he will be lucky to be at Mclaren next year. Could not get near Hamilton all year. Too many errors, too inconsistent. Often went backwards at start of races.

18- Vitantonio Liuzzi,Force India Mercedes 22nd 0points best finish 11th. 5 Races, 0 podiums 6/10

Bought in to replace Fisichella who joined Ferrari. Excellent at Monza and oncourse for points untill retirement. Struggled at Singapore and Japan, better at Brazil and beat Sutil in Ahu Dhabi. Could well be kept on in 2010.

19- Kamui Kobayashi,Toyota 18th Place, 3 points, 2 races. 0 podiums, 6/10

2 races to showcase his talents, and he did just that. Very impressive, if abit wayward defending in Brazil, and pace was not bad. Excellent in Abu Dhabi to finish ahead of Trulli while on a one stop strategy. Likely to be kept on in 2010.

20- Kazuki Nakajima, Williams Toyota. 20th Place 0 points, best finish 9th. 5/10

2009 showed his limitations. Points last year came in high attrition races. Should of had points in Turkey. 5th on grid in Silverstone but not fast enough and finished 9th. Quick at times, but nowhere near quick consistently enough. Destroyed by Rosberg.

21- N.Piquet Jnr, Renault, 21st place, 0points, 10 races. Best finish 10th. 5/10

Struggled with rubbish Renault and Alonso's ability to get points. Could not find the pace of Alonso at all. High pressure at Renault maybe not for him. Reputation ruined by Crash-gate.

22- Sebastian Bourdais, Torro Rosso Ferrari, 2 Points, 9 races. 5/10

Showed flashes of pace in 2008, but easily beaten by rookie Buemi and complained too often. Couldn't get his head down and just focus.

23- Luca Badoer - Ferrari, 25th place, 0 points, 2 races. 4.5/10

Thrown in at the deep end after Michael Schumacher's withdrawal to replace Massa. Did an ok job but really needed to go find the limit a lot more. Too conservative.

24- Jamie Algasuari - Torro Rosso- 24th place. 0 points. 8 Races. 4.5/10

Not a bad start. Often kept it out of trouble. Slowly learning the ropes but was quite far off Buemi's pace. Needs to improve.

25- Roman Grosjean - Renault, 23rd Place, 0 points, 7 races. 4.5/10.

Arguably worse than Piquet. He was just as slow. Spun more often and spent much more time going backwards through the field. Piquet was far more competitive. Really struggled with f1.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Review

Quite a spectacle Abu Dhabi, it looked fantastic and the people who were there say it was fantastic.

The worst thing about it was the race itself, aside from the start and the end it was rather dull.

Hamilton had qualified on pole after a sensational lap that saw him over 6tenths up on the rest of the field and just on lap shorter than the Red Bull's. It was one of the lap's of the year quite simply.

So at the start we had a brilliantly set up and close tactical fight between Hamilton,Vettel and Webber with Button lurking just behind. Barrichello, in 5th was strugglin after whacking Webber's right rear at the first corner, damagin the Brawn front wing and thus causing him considerable understeer all race. Webber got away undamaged.

Ruben's had begun the year smacking into Webber at Turn one in Melbourne, and ended it by smacking into Webber at Turn One in Abu DHabi. Now think how many people did Button run into and yo get a sense of the difference between the two drivers and why one won the championship and 6 races, and the other won 2 races and finished 3rd.

Button and Ruben's pitted first, followed by Hamilton, Webber and Vettel, Vettel's longer stint saw him emerge clear in front of Hamilton and a battle Royal for the final race of the year was set.

But it never materialised. Hamilton's Mclaren suffered a right rear brake problem and with two stops from 200mph down to less than 100, leaving him out on the track was a risk nobody was going to take.

Hamilton pulled into the pits and into the garage and every viewer's race was over.

Vettel cruised to the win, while behind him, Button encountered new friend Kobayashi after pitting for his first stop, with Button coming off worse as he outbraked himself at the end of the first long straight. But as world champion, Button didn't care, the gloves were off and it was time to enjoy racing again.

And he certainly did enjoy it, as Mark Webber began to struggle on the option tyre with still 15 laps to go, Button started reeling the Aussie in, after Button made his second stop with 13 laps to go. Webber was in sight. Vettel was gone and in a race of his on, but Webber was there for the taking.

Half a second, sometimes more, lap after lap, and with 4 laps to go he was almost on the Red Bull's rear wing. On the final lap, battle had begun. Webber was really struggling to slow the car down in the big braking zones, squirming and twitching almost every time. Button knew he would get past if he had a chance.

That chance came along the first straight on the final lap, Webber took the inside line, the dusty line on poor tyres. Button had the outside, cleaner line.

Thundering down to turn 7, Webber somehow, miraculously held his car in a straight line and it was Button who got out of shape, just as he had against Kobayashi.

But it wasn't over yet,Button got a better drive out of the chicane and was alongside Webber again on the second straight, but again Webber made the world champ choose, go round the outside where its cleaner, or go inside where it is dirty.

Button went on the outside and heading to the braking zone was a considerable margin ahead. Maybe he could of come across and squeezed Webber slghtly, but Button stuck to his line and held it for the next chicane, but incredibly, so had Webber.

But coming out of the chicane Webber was struggling once more and Button got alongside. They disappeared behind an advertising board,side by side.

Webber emerged first, had Button backed out or had Webber outbraked him? A bit of both I suspect.

For the rest of the lap Btton could do no more and finished just half a second behind Webber.

It had been a fantastic last lap from both men. Button showing us just how much of a racer he really is.

Their smiles, body languages and interviews after the race showed how much both men had enjoyed the fight.

Vettel meantime, said his car was a pleasure to drive and that he was sad to see the season end, and he isnt the only one.

Behind the top 3, Barrichello and Heidfeld had quiet drives to 4th and 5th, Heidfeld overtaking team mate Kubica in the championsip.

Kobayashi drove a storming one stop race to finish ahead of team mate Trulli who had started in the top 8! The japanese driver has surely bagged himself a seat at the japanese team.

The final point went to Buemi, another quiet, but very strong drive to round off his year.

Rosberg, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso, Nakajima and probably Kovalainen and Grosjean, said goodbye to their respective teams on a very low key note,all struggling throughout the race.

The only drive of note outside of the points was Tonio Liuzzi, who comfortably got the better of Sutil.

So, that was 2009, quite a season for both good and bad reasons, but all in all a success!

Bring on Bahrain!



1. VETTEL Red Bull
2. WEBBER Red Bull +17.8s
3. BUTTON Brawn +18.4s
4. BARRICHELLO Brawn +22.7s
5. HEIDFELD BMW +26.2s
6. KOBAYASHI Toyota +28.3s
7. TRULLI Toyota +34.3s
8. BUEMI Toro Rosso +41.2s

9. ROSBERG Williams +45.9s
10. KUBICA BMW +48.1s
11. KOVALAINEN McLaren +52.7s
12. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +54.3s
13. NAKAJIMA Williams +59.8s
14. ALONSO Renault +69.6s
15. LIUZZI Force India +94.4s
16. FISICHELLA Ferrari +1 lap
17. SUTIL Force India +1 lap
18. GROSJEAN Renault +1 lap

19. HAMILTON McLaren +35 laps
20. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +37 laps


1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 95
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 84
3. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 77
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 69.5
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 49
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 48
7. Nico Rosberg Williams 34.5
8. Jarno Trulli Toyota 32.5
9. Fernando Alonso Renault 26
10. Timo Glock Toyota 24
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
12. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 22
13. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 19
14. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 17
15. Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari & Force India 8
16. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 6
17. Adrian Sutil Force India 5
18. Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 3
19. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 2

1. Brawn GP 172
2. Red Bull Racing 153.5
3. McLaren Mercedes 71
4. Ferrari 70
5. Toyota 59.5
6. BMW Sauber 36
7. Williams 34.5
8. Renault 26
9. Force India 13
10. Scuderia Toro Rosso 8

Brazilian Grand Prix Review

Congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn team, he won the world drivers championship and boy did he earn it! And the team won the constructors title in their first season. A barnstorming drive from 14th on the grid to 5th at the flag showed everybody just how good a driver Button is.

After a midseason struggle of qualyfying mistakes where he was far from the best driver, he managed to salvage enough points in races to keep him at the top of the standings, his race pace always very strong. But after starting 14th in Brazil, he had two choices, sit back and hope it works out for him, or go out and win it anyway.

He chose option number two.

An incident filled start saw Trulli Sutil and Alonso all crash out, with Trulli having a major word with Sutil live on camera, the italian was fined £6,000 for his outburst, after wrongly accusing Sutil of running him off the road.

So by the end of lap one Button was 9th with the safety car out, but Vettel was right behind him and Rubens was leading the race, so jb couldnt afford to wait around, when the safety car pulled in, Button disposed both of Roman Grosjean, his old mate from spa, and Kazuki Nakajima in less than a lap!

He then came up against Kamui Kobayashi, making his debut in place of the injured Timo Glock, the japanese driver put up a great, if somewhat reckless fight and Button took the best part of 20 laps and 3 attempts to get passed, when he finally did so, a yell of delight roared inside the Englishman's race helmet.




If anybody decides to host an overtakes of the year competition, it may be a one man show. All four of buttons moves in brazil was superb, grosjean was risky, but determined and wonderfully executed. Nakajima's was probably the simplest of the lot. Kobayashi left button with no idea what he would do next, and Buemi had no idea button was coming!

Add all this to his moves on Hamilton in Bahrain, Kovalainen in Monza and Kubica in Japan, it makes you wonder what the rest of the field are doing wrong.

Buttons day was eventually complete when Rubens Barrichello suffered a puncture with 7 laps to, the Brazilian just did not have the outright pace to win this race, as Webber won the race and a resurgent Robert Kubica raced home into second place, and anyway, Button had done enough to secure the title.



Webber strolled to his 2 career win, leaving people to wonder just where Vettel would have been had he got qualifying right. Kubica was second and Lewis Hamilton held off Vettel for the final podium place. Button was 5th ahead of Raikkonen, a solid drive from Buemi and Barrichello down in 8th after his puncture.



Nico Rosberg was also looking very strong untill a gearbox failure. Big points lost for the second time in three races for the Grove squad, and with BMW and Renault lurking behind them, they cud drop a couple places in the final round in Abu Dhabi. Team mate Nakajima was also in with a chance of points untill getting too close to fellow jap Kobayashi and spectacularly going off at turn four.

Kovalainen again got destroyed by Hamilton, while Kobayashi was fast, if somewhat wayward. Fisichella still cannot get used to the KERS braking system, while Liuzzi could not match Sutil's pace, Grosjean was poor, slipping back through the field alarmingly quickly, while Jaime Alguersari got another race distance under his belt.


Abu Dhabi next up, both championships wrapped up but there is still plenty to play for, Ferrari and Mclaren are battling for third in the championship while BMW and Renault are snapping at Williams heels.

New track, new atmosphre, who knows what will happen. Do not get too excited though, the track does not look like a great producer of close racing.



1. WEBBER Red Bull
2. KUBICA BMW +7.6s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +18.9s
4. VETTEL Red Bull +19.6s
5. BUTTON Brawn +29.0s
6. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +33.3s
7. BUEMI Toro Rosso +35.9s
8. BARRICHELLO Brawn +45.4s
9. KOVALAINEN McLaren +48.4s
10. KOBAYASHI Toyota +63.3s
11. FISICHELLA Ferrari +70.6s
12. LIUZZI Force India +71.3s
13. GROSJEAN Renault +1 lap
14. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap

R. NAKAJIMA Williams +41 laps
R. ROSBERG Williams +44 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW +50 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +71 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +71 laps
R. ALONSO Renault +71 laps

Fastest lap: WEBBER 1m13.733s (lap 25)

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 89
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 74
3. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 72
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 61.5
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 49
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 48
7. Nico Rosberg Williams 34.5
8. Jarno Trulli Toyota 30.5
9. Fernando Alonso Renault 26
10. Timo Glock Toyota 24
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
12. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 22
13. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 17
14. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 15
15. Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari & Force India 8
16. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 5
17. Adrian Sutil Force India 5
18. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 2

1. Brawn GP 161
2. Red Bull Racing 135.5
3. McLaren Mercedes 71
4. Ferrari 70
5. Toyota 54.5
6. Williams 34.5
7. BMW Sauber 32
8. Renault 26
9. Force India 13
10. Scuderia Toro Rosso 7

Japanese Grand Prix Review

Vettel has kept his championship hopes alive. Just. 16 points behind Button with 2 races to go, how that late race crash in Melbourne must be bugging his mind now.

That accident cost him a certain podium, and added to spins in Malaysia, a crash in Monaco and an off in Turkey, Vettel could have 10 points further up the table, which of course would leave him just 6 behind Button.

As it is, Vettel is only in his 2nd full season, he is not a seasoned veteran and mistakes are going to happen.

At Suzuka however, the German showed the world what he can do. He can start a race and just storm away from everybody, like he did at Silverstone. Yes the Red Bull car is perfect for these circuits, but Vettel was going so fast at Suzuka the team wondered if they had had a fuel rig failure!

The only man who could have matched Vettel was Webber, and after a practice crash necessitated a chassis change, his weekend was over as he started from the pitlane and made four pit stops. His speed was evident though, as he set the fastest lap on the race. Luck, again,was not on the aussie's side.

Behind the flying German, Jarno Trulli drove superbly to out race Lewis Hamilton and score Toyota's second second place in a row. A timely reminder from the Italian that he can still produce the goods, but will it be enough to secure a drive for 2010?

Hamilton did what he could in a car that is never going to like the fast corners of which Suzuka is made, so 3rd place was a good result for the reigning world champion, who perhaps this season more than any other of his short career, has shown people just how brilliant a driver he is.



Next across the line, Kimi Raikkonen, who in the second half of the race, matched Vettel lap after lap, where that pace was in the first half, nobody knows, Raikkonen is an enigma and his time at Ferrari is coming to and end, will he be remembered as a Ferrari great with Schumacher, Villenueve, Ascari and Lauda? Unlikely.

Rosberg picked up 5th place despite setting his a personal fastest sector time when the Safety car came out, Rosberg says he could not see the SC info on his steering wheel because of another sign on the wheel, strange, but apparantly true. Heidfeld drove well to pick up good points, while the Brawn's again did poorly in the race, its been such a wierd season so there are no surprises anymore, but race after race Button has problems, which nobody seems to want to take advantage of. But there we go. Rubens and Jensen rounded out the top 8 which left the Englishman with a 14 point lead with 2 rounds to go.


Why you may ask, have I spoke little of the actual race action? Because there was no race action. Even a safety car with 8 laps to go bunching the field up did nothing. The regulations are still far far from succesful at promoting overtaking. Much more work needs to be done.

Button overtook Kubica on lap 3, and Kovalainen barged Sutil of the road. That was it.

Next up,Brazil, interlagos, seen of the world championship decider for the past 4 seasons, and generally produces good close racing and a better chance of overtaking. Lets hope so. And lets hope Button can get his act together and show us that he deserves this championship.


1. VETTEL Red Bull
2. TRULLI Toyota +4.8s
3. HAMILTON McLareen +6.4s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +7.9s
5. ROSBERG Williams +8.7s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +9.5s
7. BARRICHELLO Brawn +10.6s
8. BUTTON Brawn +11.4s

9. KUBICA BMW +11.7s
10. ALONSO Renault +13.0s
11. KOVALAINEN McLaren +13.7s
12. FISICHELLA Ferrari +14.5s
13. SUTIL Force India +14.9s
14. LIUZZI Force India +15.7s
15. NAKAJIMA Williams +17.9s
16. GROSJEAN Renault +1 lap
17. WEBBER Red Bull +1 lap
R. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +8 laps
R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +27 laps
DNS.GLOCK Toyota

Fastest lap: WEBBER 1m32.569s (lap 52)

Drivers Championship Standings

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 85
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 71
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 69
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 51.5
5. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 45
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 43
7. Nico Rosberg Williams 34.5
8. Jarno Trulli Toyota 30.5
9. Fernando Alonso Renault 26
10. Timo Glock Toyota 24
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
12. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 22

Singapore Grand Prix Review

When Lewis Hamilton has half a shout at a win, more often than not he produces, and this weekend he won his second race of the season.

An utterly dominant weekend from the reigning world champion, the circuit suited the Mclaren beautifully, no high speed corners, and very many slow 2nd and 3rd gear right angles.

Hamilton took the pole on saturday before Barrichello smashed his Brawn in the wall and brought out the red flag, many drivers were on their hot lap at the time and had it ruined. Would Vettel or someone else have been on pole? who knows.

It was Hamilton from Vettel and Rosberg, and at the start Rosberg got the jump on Vettel and hustled Hamilton throughout, the Williams having its best weekend of the year. Rosberg would have finished on the podium but he got it all wrong coming out of the pit lane and crossed the white line.

The german has been perennially unlucky this season and the curse continued when the safety car came out for Sutil and Heidfeld's altercation which meant Rosberg couldnt complete his drive through until after the Safety car went back in. Without the safety car Rosberg would still most likely have finished on the podium.



So Nico's day was done.

Vettel too, could have won this race, but for a misdemeanor with the pitlane, somehow the Red Bull shortened the entry to the pits and thus the FIA judged that he must have been speeding.

Red Bull telemetry lated showed Vettel did not speed at all.
The resulting drive through dropped Vettel to 4th, and he ended up 17s behind Hamilton, despite a 20s penalty. Just where would Vettel have been but for the pit lane issue? Crucial world championship points were again lost.

And so Timo Glock picked up 2nd place with a brilliant drive, Toyota's rarely do well on street circuits but Glock was superb, especially when you compare his result to team mate Trulli who struggled to enter the top 10.

Third ironically, went to Fernando Alonso, for the second year in a row he was on the Singapore podium, no cheating this time though, just Alonso at his "im going to get everything and then some out of this car" best.

4th was Vettel, just ahead of Button and Barrichello, Button was helped by the safety car and reckoned he had no more than half a laps worth of brakes in the car. Thin Line JB, thin line. Not a bad result however when you remember he qualified 12th.

Rubens will be annoyed to have finished behind his team mate despite starting ahead of him, but neither Brawn was really on it this weekend, Button had a few good laps just before his pitstop to jump Barrichello and Kovalainen, but a few good laps in a race of 61 laps is not enough.

Kovalainen was again outclassed by Hamilton and must surely be on his way out of the team next year, while Kubica edged out Nakajima Raikkonen and the recovering Rosberg for the final point.

A farily entertaining race, but few changes with regards to the world championship, Mark Webbers hopes are officially gone after crashing out with brake failure long before the chequered flag.

Hamilton again showed why he is the world champion, and Glock reminded the paddock just what he is capable of.

As for Brawn, it still just does not make much sense, so consistent and fast in the first half of the season, now struggling to make the points. Button is making the best of a bad job, but really, he shouldnt be making a bad job in the first place.

Rubens is only fairing slightly better, and as for Vettel, his year is littered with errors. Whoever wins this championship, how will they be remembered and thought of by fans and those involved with the sport? Will people feel they have earned the title Formula One World Champion 2009?

Italian Grand Prix Review

A classic monza race and a crucial one in the world championship battle.

The two stopping Hamilton,Sutil and Raikkonen against the one stopping Kovalainen, Barrichello and Button.

It should have been Kovalainen's race to win, but 90seconds after the start his chance was gone as he ended lap one in the bottom half of the top ten despite starting fourth on the grid.



The brawn's of Rubens and Jensen ended lap one 4th and 5th and it was now a clear race. Could Hamilton Sutil and Raikkonen edge out enough of a gap to make that extra stop count?

Sutil and Raikkonen certainly could not, and would eventually find themselves 30seconds off the pace at the chequered flag.

Hamilton however, gave viewers everywhere a fight to the end.

After pulling out a significant gap over the Brawn's before the first stop, Lewis was still in with a decent shout of the win, but in the second stint, as the Brawn's were getting lighter on fuel and thus faster, he couldnt pull out the gap, and as he pitted for the second time, the Brawn's had done their single stop and were well out in front.

Undeterred, the reigning world champion hunted down 2nd place man Button lap after lap, like Schumacher used to do.

Entering the final lap, with Ruben's away and in the clear, Hamilton had got the gap to Button down to one second. The Mclaren set the fastest first sector of the race on the last lap, desperate to get close enough to the Brawn to make a move.

Exciting Lesmo one however, Lewis pushed just ever so slightly too hard, put his left reer just inches too far over the kerb and was pitched into the inside barrier, a heavy whack resulted in major damage for the Mclaren, but Lewis didn't care, he's not in the championship this year, he just wants to win.

It's a privilege to have racers like Lewis, he's a racer, not just a formula one driver, a racer. A man who wants to beat everyone the cross the line first, every race, every time.


That was the story of this year's Italian Grand Prix.

Red Bull have all but no chance of winning either title after Mark Webber was punted out of the race on lap one by Robert Kubica, its the third time in a row Webber has failed to score and his maiden win in Germany must seem quite a long time ago now.

Vettel, struggling with engine availability, struggled throughout, battling with the BMW's to earn a solitary point. This weekend was clear evidence that the engine to have was a Mercesdes, as 6 of the top 7 on the grid had the power plant. It is no wonder Red Bull want to start a deal with the German manufacturer.

Sutil put in a fantastic drive to finish in 4th place, easily his best ever formula one result. Had he beaten Raikkonen off the line he would have been much further up the road at the end. But it is just impossible to pass a KERS powered car.

Alonso put in a quiet drive to 5th, comfortably fending off Kovalainen who has a terrible habit of being super quick on a saturday, only to ruin it all on lap one on sunday.

Heidfeld dragged his beemer up to 7th, and would have been more of a threat I feel had he and Kubica not had identical engine failures in qualyfying.




Singapore next, and it very much is now a 2 man fight between the Brawn boys to be 2009 World F1 Champion.

1 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:16:21
2 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes +2.8 secs
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +30.6 secs
4 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +31.1 secs
5 Fernando Alonso Renault +59.1 secs
6 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes +60.6 secs
7 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber +82.4 secs
8 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +85.4

9 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari +86.8
10 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota +162.163
11 Timo Glock Toyota +163.925 secs
12 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 52 Accident
13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 52 DNF
14 Jarno Trulli Toyota 52 +1 Lap
15 Romain Grosjean Renault 52 +1 Lap
16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 51 +2 Laps

Ret Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes Transmission
Ret Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari Gearbox
Ret Robert Kubica BMW Sauber Engine
Ret Mark Webber RBR-Renault Accident

Belgian Grand Prix Review

Spa is always a magical place and this year was no exception.

What a turnaround for Force India and Giancarlo fisichella!The team have worked so hard on perfecting their package that in Belgium they were the fastest car on the track, and only Raikkonen's KERS stopped one of the biggest underdog wins in Formula One.

As soon as the ferrari blasted past fisichella after the restart there was nothing Fisi could do,especially as their crucial second pit stops were made on the same lap.

Pre-race favourites Red Bull salvaged 6 points in their quest to hunt down Jensen Button at Brawn, with Vettel reaching the bottom step of the podium, he was the fastest man on the track towards the end of the race so one must wonder where the pace went for qualyfying and the early part of the race. Webber would have had a top 5 if it was not for a dodgy pit release infront of Nick Heidfeld in the rejuveanated BMW.

Lewis Hamilton, fresh on the back of two podiums, suffered for his poor grid slot by gettin involved in an accident that also claimed Grosjean, Algasuari and championship leader Button, who,like Hamilton,started down in the midfield. Grosjean in the renault got his braking for Les Combes all wrong and took out the Brawn, with the Torro Ross and Mclaren collecting each other in the process. Grossjean may be faster slightly than piquet, but hes a bit accident prone.

THe first DNF of Button's season may well be the kick up the backside he needs to restart his challenge to become formula one world championship, rather than another dull drive to the lower reaches of the points, it will give him time to reflect and regroup.

Toyota again had a day to forget, they have a bad habit of making promising grid positions go awry. Trulli got caught out by Heidfeld's sudden braking at the top of Les Combes, while Glock had a pitstop problem, Bahrain must feel like such a long time ago.

Williams salvaged one point at a track they expected to struggle at, they are also expecting to struggle even more so at Monza.

The final championship pretender, Barrichello, agian had problems at the start, but fought back well to claim 2 points which could be crucial come the end of the season.

Raikkonen has now obtained his season objective, to win a race, and has fittingly done it at the circuit where he is sheer genius. He must thank his KERS system today however, as Fisichella was easily faster than the Ferrari.

How interesting then that it seems the very car that stopped Fisichella winning this weekend is probably the same car he will be driving next time out at Monza, as Badoer again struggled to adapt to a 2009 car, it really was a tall order for the Italian and with such little knowledge of the car or regulation he did what was expected.

Button will be somewhat relieved that his championship lead is still a healthy 16 points, thankfully for the englishman, none of his closest rivals can appear to mount a consistend and sustained championship challenge.

1-Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1h23m50.995
2-Giancarlo Fisichella Force India + 0.939s
3-Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing + 3.875s
4-Robert Kubica BMW Sauber + 9.966s
5-Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 11.276s
6-Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes + 32.763s
7-Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP + 35.461s
8-Nico Rosberg Williams + 36.208s

9- Mark Webber Red Bull Racing + 36.959s
10-Timo Glock Toyota + 41.490s
11-Adrian Sutil Force India + 42.636s
12-Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 46.106s
13-Kazuki Nakajima Williams + 54.241s
14-Luca Badoer Ferrari + 102.177s

R-Fernando Alonso Renault + 18 laps
R-Jarno Trulli Toyota + 23 laps
R-Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes + 44 laps
R-Jenson Button Brawn GP + 44 laps
R-Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 44 laps
R-Romain Grosjean Renault + 44 laps

European GP Review

European GP Review

This years European Grand Prix on the Valencia sea-front, was slightly more exciting than last years drab affair, but was still overall a pretty dire spectacle.

I doubt Rubens Barrichello would agree however, as he finally managed to hook up an entire race weekend from start to finish. Got into the groove quickly on Friday, was fuel-adjusted on pole on Saturday, and unbeatable on Sunday.

Early in the weekend Rubens realized there was no point trying to race the KERS Mclarens from the start, as he would just get swallowed up, better to go longer on the fuel and beat them that way around, when the Brawn and Mclaren’s would be at either end of the circuit.



So at the start, he sat in third, just maintaining the gap to the Mclaren’s of Hamilton and Kovalainen, and at the first round of stops, Barrichello emerged ahead of the finnish drive. He then stalked Hungary winner Hamilton till the second round of stops, when a slow pit-stop from Mclaren coupled with some fast laps from the Brazilian in the Brawn, saw Rubens come out of the pits after his stop a good 7 seconds ahead of the reigning World Champion.

Barrichello was the man to beat this weekend, after seeing team-mate Button storm to 6 wins from the first 7 races, it was Ruben’s time to star in Spain and is now in 2nd place in the world championship.

Red Bull? Well Vettel spent his weekend blowing up engines retired for the second race in a row, and Webber just had no pace. The team expected this race to be a poor one and will be desperate to get back to winning ways in Belgium on a Spa circuit, which should suit their car perfectly. 1-2s are a necessity now if they are to take good points of Championship leader Button.

As for Button, he was squeezed out of turn 1 at the start by Vettel and found himself down in 8th, from there he could do nothing but beat Webber in the pit stops to pick up just 2 points, taking his total for the last 4 races to 11. Barrichello has taken 19 points, Vettel 18, Webber 24, Hamilton 18 and Rosberg 18.

Button really needs to sort out his game, and is in the awkward position of, does he go light in qualy to get a good grid position and avoid first lap incidents but potential a long term poor strategy, or does he go for a better strategy but risk a first lap incident which has been the case lately.

That’s the story from Valencia really, the Mclarens were good, but nobody was Rubens-goodon this circuit which is fast becoming the most boring race of the year.

Raikkonen had a solid drive to out race Kovalainen for third while Rosberg was all over the Mclaren at the finish line to pick up another solid points result. Alonso had a quiet drive to 6th ahead of Button while Kubica edged out Webber for the final point.

New boys Roman Grosjean at Renault did an alright job, close to Alonso’s ultimate pace but a spin in the race was very Piqeut-esque.

And as for Felipe Massa’s replacement Luca Badoer, what did anyone expect him to do? Such a late call up and next to no time in the car, Valencia really was a test session. Perhaps slightly more off the pace than people expected, on Sunday people were still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And for 7 or 8 corners of the race he performed well, until Grosjean nerfed the Ferrari into a spin. From there Badoer spun once more, got given a drive through penalty for speeding, and allowed the Renault of Grosjean to pass him while exciting the pits, even at the end of the race coming into parc ferme, he overdid it and hit the back of Adrian Sutil’s Force India causing rear end damage on the car. Just what is it with Sutil and Ferrari?

Badoer has one more chance at Spa, where he should be much nearer the pace, q2 is a must and a strong drive after is required, anything short of a top 6 finish however is likely to see him replaced at Monza.

Spa next and the cold temperatures could play havoc with Brawn GP’s tyre issues, while the unpredictable weather could play havoc with everybody. The favourites though are surely the Red Bull men.

Result


1. BARRICHELLO Brawn
2. HAMILTON McLaren +2.3s
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +15.9s
4. KOVALAINEN McLaren +20.0s
5. ROSBERG Williams +20.8s
6. ALONSO Renault +27.7s
7. BUTTON Brawn +34.9s
8. KUBICA BMW +36.6s
9. WEBBER Red Bull +44.9s
10. SUTIL Force India +47.9s
11. HEIDFELD BMW +48.8s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +63.6s
13. TRULLI Toyota +64.5s
14. GLOCK Toyota +86.5s
15. GROSJEAN Renault +91.7s
16. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. BADOER Ferrari +1 lap

18. NAKAJIMA Williams +3 laps
19. BUMEI Toro Rosso +16 laps
20. VETTEL Red Bull +34 laps

Fastest lap: GLOCK 1m38.683s (lap 55)

Drivers Championship

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 72
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 54
3. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 51.5
4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 47
5. Nico Rosberg Williams 29.5
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 27
7. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 24
8. Jarno Trulli Toyota 22.5
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
10. Timo Glock Toyota 16
11. Fernando Alonso Renault 16
12. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 14

Constructors Table

1. Brawn GP 126
2. Red Bull Racing 98.5
3. Ferrari 46
4. McLaren Mercedes 41
5. Toyota 38.5
6. Williams 29.5
7. Renault 16
8. BMW Sauber 9
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso 5

Hungarian Grand Prix Review

Welcome to Formula One 2009 Lewis Hamilton, after a season of stewards enquiries, disqualifications, illegal doughnuts and being lapped by Jensen Button seemingly every race, The reigning world champion produced a stonking drive to dominate the Hungarian Gp, and remind everyone that he is still a world-class racing driver.



Mclaren meanwhile, showed that while they do produce a naf car every now and then, a la 2004, noboby but noboby is better at turning it into a race winner, a la 2004.

After an unusually q3 on the saturday where all the timing systems went blank, it emerged that Fernando Alonso was on pole,but running very light on fuel, with Vettel Webber and Hamilton behind him. Championship leader Button was 8th in his Brawn.

Alonso's decision to go so light on the fuel in qualy was two-fold, a) he wuold gain track position, and b) he would have very little time on the unwanted super soft tyres which were struggling on longer stints.

The beginning of the race saw plenty of action at the end, Hamilton Webber and Raikkonen trying to outmuscle each other into turn one, but on the run down to turn two Kimi and Vettel had the slightest of touches, no broken front wings, but Vettel would retire because of the incident.

Webber had won the battle to beat Hamilton into second while Alonso pulled out a small, but not too spectacular lead. Button meanwhile had temporarily dropped to 9th, only to pass Nakajima in a famous Button-esque manouvre at the start of lap2.

Only a few laps in to the race and Hamilton made his move on Webber, using his excellent KERS system, out-foxing the Red Bull man on the run down to turn 2. From here he could control the race as he wished.

Alonso was not pulling out the gap to Hamilton as he would have wished, the super softs struggling to do even just 10 laps around the twisty Hungaroring. PItting a lap or 2 early, the Renault dived in for a tyre and fuel change, only he resumed with 3 correctly fitted tyres, and one which was about to detach itself from the car around the back of circuit. Alonso cruised round back to the pits on 3 wheels, but his race was done.



(The incident would also see the FIA suspend the Renault team from the next grand prix in Valencia, on the grounds that they released Alonso back into the race in the knowledge that his car was unsafe)


This left Hamilton in the lead from Webber and Raikkonen in the sole Ferrari following Felipe Massa's horrifying crash in qualyfying, Raikkonen would later get the jump on Webber through the pit-stops and better handling of the tyres.

Nobody however, could consistantly match Hamilton, Webber, Raikkonen Vettel Rosberg and Button had their moments, but over the 77 laps Hamilton was in complete control and cruised to his 10th career victory. It was a great reward for the enormous effort put in by the Mclaren team in recent weeks,and further boosted by Kovalainens solid 5th place.

Vettels 4th DNf of the season allowed Webber to jump ahead of him and into 2nd place in the championship, less than 20points behind Button, who had a miserable weekend.

On raceday he found that any change in track temperature would see a dramatic fluctuattion in his lap times, when the circuit was hot, Button was on the pace of those in front, but it was not hot enough for long enough, and so for the majority of the race, Button was struggling with a poor handling car, a far cry from his perfect car of Istanbul.

Brawn will be worried about this race, they expected Red Bull to dominate Britain and Germany, but they also expected to be back on the podium at Hungary, which should have been a Brawn and Button circuit.

The Brawn is too temperature sensitive, any drop in the heat sees the cars times plummet. Now that the Red Bull is consistently at the front, taking big points off Brawn, and with Mclaren and Ferrari getting their acts together and Rosberg consistantly in the points,the championship could yet slip away from Button and his team.


. HAMILTON McLaren
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +11.5s
3. WEBBER Red Bull +16.8s
4. ROSBERG Williams +26.9s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +34.3s
6. GLOCK Toyota +35.2s
7. BUTTON Brawn +55.0s
8. TRULLI Toyota +68.1s

9. NAKAJIMA Williams +68.7s
10. BARRICHELLO Brawn +69.2s
11. HEIDFELD BMW +70.6s
12. PIQUET Renault +71.5s
13. KUBICA BMW +74.0s

14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
15. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. VETTEL Red Bull +41 laps
18. ALONSO Renault +55 laps
19. SUTIL Force India +69 laps

Fastest lap: WEBBER 1m21.931s (lap 65)

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 70
2. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 51.5
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 47
4. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 44
5. Nico Rosberg Williams 25.5
6. Jarno Trulli Toyota 22.5
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 19
9. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 18
10. Timo Glock Toyota 16

German Grand Prix Review

German Grand Prix result - 60 laps

1. WEBBER Red Bull

2. VETTEL Red Bull +9.2s
3. MASSA Ferrari +15.9s
4. ROSBERG Williams +21.0s
5. BUTTON Brawn +23.6s
6. BARRICHELLO Brawn +24.4s
7. ALONSO Renault +24.8s
8. KOVALAINEN McLaren +58.6s

This was one of the more exciting grand prix of the season, and resulted in the 3rd winner of the year. Mark Webber finally breaking his long overdue duck.

The Aussie was in a league of his own this weekend, being even more dominant than team-mate Vettel two weeks ago in Britain. Red Bull are on the charge right now and championship leader Jensen Button must be hoping for a heatwave in the next few races to get back on the podium and stop his ever decreasing title lead.

I typcial Mark Webber style, there were a few obstacles along the way, most of his own doing,the difference however, was that he was so fast, not one obstacle was going to stop him, everything was going to go his way sooner or later.

The start was certainly one of the most dramatic of 2009, Webber failed to make a great getaway and Barrichellio, starting 2nd, quickly pulled up alongside, many have felt the force of Webber's aggressive driving before, and today it was Rubens' turn, as they bumped tyre to sidepod heading down to turn one.





It was a very Schumacher-esque, bold move by Webber, but Rubens was not to be frightened and surged ahead. While keeping an eye on Barrichello, Webber had failed to spot the KERS supported Mclaren of Hamilton, rejuvenated after major improvements on the car. As the front trio entered the braking zone for turn one, Hamilton was inadvertantly squeezing Webber into Rubens, with the result being that the reigning champions right rear had the lightest of touches against the Red Bull front wing end plate, but it was enough to give the Mclaren a puncture and ruin the Britons race, he had been in the lead for all of 10 yards.

Behind Rubens and Webber, Vettel and Button both got swamped by the KERS boys of Kovalainen and Massa, and this would have a significant impact on the race result, as the Finnish Mclaren driver, without the new rear diffuser, was to hold up the men behind him at up to 2 seconds a lap.

As the front two pulled away at a rapid rate, the race was given a twist on lap 9, with the announcement from the stewards that the bumping between Webber and Barrichello was being investigated.

The eventual outcome was a drive through penalty for Webber,but by the time the announcement was made, and given the 3 laps allowed before the driver has to serve his penalty, the gap to Kovalainen was some 17seconds, more than enough to rejoin the race in the lead.

Webber made his drive through on the same lap as Rubens made his 1st of 3 stops at the end of lap 14.

Rubens resumed from his pitstop behind Kovalainen, but more crucially, behind Felipe Massa, again destroying his team mate in a race, and who would not be stopping for another 11 laps.

Webber's first stop was quick, and, switching from super softs to the harder compound for the long middle stint, rejoined the circuit some 12 seconds behind Barrichello who was being stuck behind Massa, and so he quickly cut the deficit to some 6s before the Ferrari pitted.

This did not help Barrichello at all, as the Brawn, struggling on the significant track temperature increase, was being eaten alive by the Aussie in the Red Bull, whose harder tyres were driving perfectly in the hotter weather.

The time Webber closed up to Rubens would win him the race, he had one stop less to make then the 9 time grand prix winner and was the fastest man in Europe this weekend.

Rubens needed to at least maintain the gap to Webber to have a chance of winning, if not increase it. But the Red Bull was in another race today and Rubens had to concede.

As Rubens made his second stop, Webber was gone, not to be seen again until the podium celebrations.

The Brawn's would eventually pay for having to go on a 3 stop strategy, being outraced by Massa and Nico Rosberg, who from 15th, was 9th by lap one and produced strong race pace.

Jensen Button had another tough race, being eaten by KERS cars at the start and never really being able to produce good lap times in a car that was struggling so much with its tyres. He and Barrichello can count themselves lucky that others hit trouble, otherwise 5th and 6th could have become much worse.

Raikkonen was not far behind Rosberg and Massa when he hit engine trouble, not before destroying Adrian Sutil's fantastic performance, having run as high as 2nd, he was on course for a top7 place before colliding with the 2007 champion after exciting the pits.



Another man who could have had a say in the Brawn's day was Fernando Alonso, who, showing some serious late race pace in the Renault, including setting the fastest lap by a large margin, was giving the former Honda team some serious pressure in the latter stages.

Hungary is next, in 2 weeks time, and Button will be keen to stop losing points to the Red Bull men, both of whom are one fine form, as is the car and the team. He will also be keen to stop being beaten by Massa and Rosberg, which could have a huge impact in the championship outcome.

Red Bull meantime will be gunning for a 3rd succesive 1-2, and now have 2 grand prix race winners who have never driven better, but will the hungaroring suit their fast-corner loving cars as much as in recent races?



Full German Grand Prix result - 60 laps

1. WEBBER Red Bull

2. VETTEL Red Bull +9.2s
3. MASSA Ferrari +15.9s
4. ROSBERG Williams +21.0s
5. BUTTON Brawn +23.6s
6. BARRICHELLO Brawn +24.4s
7. ALONSO Renault +24.8s
8. KOVALAINEN McLaren +58.6s

9. GLOCK Toyota +61.4s
10. HEIDFELD BMW +61.9s
11. FISICHELLA Force India +62.3s
12. NAKAJIMA Williams +62.8s
13. PIQUET Renault +68.3s
14. KUBICA BMW +69.5s
15. SUTIL Force India +71.9s
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso +90.2s
17. TRULLI Toyota +90.9s
18. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap

R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +25 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +41 laps

Fastest lap: ALONSO 1m33.365s

Drivers Championship Table.

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 68
2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 47
3. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 45.5
4. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 44
5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 22
6. Jarno Trulli Toyota 21.5
7. Nico Rosberg Williams 20.5

Constructors Table

1. Brawn GP 112
2. Red Bull Racing 92.5
3. Toyota 34.5
4. Ferrari 32
5. Williams 20.5
6. McLaren Mercedes 14
7. Renault 13
8. BMW Sauber 8
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso 5

British Grand Prix Review

8 Races in, 2 Winners, on the face of it it would appear to be a dull season,the fewest number of winners at this stage of a season since 2004. But that was the Schumacher era, this is an era of change.

Vettel stormed to this win at Silverstone, only Mark Webber had a sniff of battling with him at the weekend and he ruined his chances in qualyfying on saturday. Vettel is now 25 points behind runaway leader Button and you have to wonder if the German's errors in Melbourne, which cost him a podium, monaco, a probable points finish,and to a lesser extent turkey, are going to cost him this years world championship.

Vettel had this race bought and paid for by Saturday afternoon when he stuck it on pole with a brilliant lap whilst two laps heavier than his rivals. Webber said he was held up by Raikkonen but its unlikely he would have got his first career pole, he would however, have started ahead of Barrichello's Brawn.

Webbers last chance of victory was to beat tyhe Brazilian as the lights went out, he didnt, and Vettel won the race. The Red Bull was in a league of its own at the airfield circuit, and is unlikely to experience that sort of dominance again this season, Suzuka maybe? Brawn were 2nd fastest but miles off the Red Bull, they should however, be right back on it at Hockenheim and Hungary, so Red Bull are going to have their work cut out.

Vettel pulled a lead of a second a lap for the first stint, and was never seen again untill he mounted the podium. Behind him, Webber out raced Barrichello for 2nd, while the veteran Brazilian held off a strong fight from Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa, untill a stronger fuel strategy saw him ease to the final podium slot. Massa managed to hold off Rosberg, strong drives from both these men, Massa is really getting a hold on Raikkonen, who really doesnt seem to care anymore. While Rosberg is picking up the middle points as expected of him since the season opener in March.

Yes I know, halfway through and I have barely mentioned Jensen Button,the man of 2009. He got blocked at the start, remained in 8th for most of the race, only to climb up to 6th at the final pit stops and mount a challenge on Rosberg and Massa, despite gaining at more than a second a lap, the new aero regs still dont allow much scope for overtaking, more work is needed it would appear.



Button knows that Brawn will be challenging again at the next few races, however he may be slightly concerned about the rate of development from Ferrari and Williams.

Further down the field, Trulli brought home his Toyota in 7th, dissapointing after starting 4th, while Raikkonen, after a fine start, saw his early light fuel load cost him dear as he fell to 8th, just holding off Glock, a fine drive from Fisichella, and a dejected Nakajima, who, after starting 5th, was first to pit on lap15 and could never find a way back, hes improved in the last couple of races, but still needs to up his overall race pace.

Most of the television coverage of this race focused on an almighty scrap at the back of the field, featuring 2 BMW's, 2 Torro Rosso's, 2 Mclarens and 2 Renaults. It wasnt so much of a fight as to who had the best car, more like who was making the least mistakes. Hamilton and Alonso in particular had some majorly brave moments at serious speed, no doubt ego's were playing a part!

The other Mclaren meanwhile, that of Kovalainen, seems to have major starting problems, he just seems to end lap 1 several places further back than he started, will Mclaren be looking for a replacement? If he doesnt improve soon, then maybe they will be. His clumsy coming together with Bourdais was strange, left,right, and then left again from the Mclaren, just what was he thinking.

Back to the front, and Sebastian Vettel must have wondered where everyone was on Sunday, such was his domination, Webber will know that if he cuts the mistakes,hes got the pace to match this new "Shumacher". Brawn will feel confident to come away with 9 points at a track they expected their nearest oponents to dominate. But will Ferrari, Toyota and Williams cause further problems?

Hockenheim next, normally better than most for close racing with a dash of overtaking, Red Bull are unlikely to have such an advantage so it could be quite a race! Button will be looking to reassert his 2009 dominance, while Red Bull will be looking to keep their momentum going to catch up the Brawn boys.


1. VETTEL Red Bull
2. WEBBER Red Bull +15.1s
3. BARRICHELLO Brawn +41.1s
4. MASSA Ferrari +45.0s
5. ROSBERG Williams +45.9s
6. BUTTON Brawn +46.2s
7. TRULLI Toyota +68.3s
8. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +69.6s

9. GLOCK Toyota +69.8s
10. FISICHELLA Force India +71.5s
11. NAKAJIMA Williams +74.0s
12. PIQUET Renault +1 lap
13. KUBICA BMW +1 lap
14. ALONSO Renault +1 lap
15. HEIDFELD BMW +1 lap
16. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
17. SUTIL Force India +1 lap
18. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap

R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +23 laps
R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +24 laps

Fastest lap: VETTEL 1m20.735s


Drivers Championship

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 64
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 41
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 39
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 35.5
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 21.5
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 16
7. Nico Rosberg Williams 15.5
8. Timo Glock Toyota 13

Drivers Championship- Round 7

Drivers Championship after 7 Rounds

Jenson Button 61
Rubens Barrichello 35
Sebastian Vettel 29
Mark Webber 27 ½
Jarno Trulli 19 ½
Timo Glock 13
Nico Rosberg 11 ½
Felipe Massa 11
Fernando Alonso 11
Kimi Räikkonen 9
Lewis Hamilton 9
Nick Heidfeld 6
Heikki Kovalainen 4
Sébastien Buemi 3
Robert Kubica 2
Sébastien Bourdais 2
Giancarlo Fisichella 0
Adrian Sutil 0
Nelson Piquet 0
Kazuki Nakajima 0

Turkish Grand Prix Review

Apologies for the late production of this review, been rather busy of late!

So, 6 out of 7. Just how can Jensen Button be beaten? The answer, it seems, is that he can't.

He has made so few mistakes this season that no-one has the chance to capitalise. Added to this the shortcomings of pretty much all his rivals, and you have the most dominant season since 2004. Only some major DNF's can stop the somerset boy now.

Turkey was just another race for Button, arrive, not too happy with the car, look at Rubens' set up, work on it through friday and saturday practice, stick on the front 2 rows of the grid, and wait for someone to gift me the race.

Today that person was Sebastian Vettel. On a light fuel load he had to be on pole, which he did, on a light fuel load he had to be first at turn one, which he did. He also had to lead for his entire first stint, not just the first 9 turns. The young german bravely held on to his wayward RBR on the exit of turn 10, on the grass, on the dirt, so easily could he have spun, he didn't. But Button didn't need him too, he was already on his way to victory.

With a car that the team admit, is horrendous in dirty air, this mistake by Vettel ruined his day, he could not keep within 2 seconds of the Brawn Car and he was kept on a 3 stopper instead of being switched to a 2 stopper, which meant he would have to pass JB on the track at some point, how would that happen in a car that's so bad in dirty air?

This Red Bull decision confused many a viewer. Vettel did catch Button at a 1s per lap, but once he reached that double decker diffuser, nothing, zilch, these new regulations, which allow cars to follow closer than previous years, are still not quite on the money.

And thus the last hope Vettel had of victory,(overtaking Button and pulling out at least a 5s gap before his extra pit stop) was over.

Being caught behind Button for so long eventually cost Vettel 2nd place to his team-mate Mark Webber, who, after an early duel with Jarno Trulli, put in a super strong drive, but ultimately did not have the pace of Button.

Barrichello? Well he fluffed his start, Melbourne style, fluffed passing Kovalainen, spun, rammed Sutil and smashed his own front wing, pitted, resumed last, and retired with 10 laps to go.

Only some wins and some dnfs for his team-mate will give Barrichello any sniff of a chance at being world champion this season.

Behind the podium boys, Trulli put in a great drive in his Toyota,to 4th, after a race long battle with the equally impressive Rosberg in his William's. Both teams will be glad to see points, after Toyota's monaco nightmare and William's ability to be lightning fast but pick up no points., Nakajima was also encouraging for the Grove side, putting in a great drive and looking set for 7th place before a terrible pit stop put him down to 12th. Britain should suit both team's cars so expect them to be right up there once again.

Massa, Kubica and Glock picked up the smaller points, Massa, king of Turkey for the last 3 years before this years event, probably got that Ferrari as high as it could go right now. Kubica finally got some points for 2009 with his much improved BMW and Glock had a quiet drive to pick up a point following Nakajima's issues.




Renault and Mclaren had dismal races, Renault have seemingly slipped back from there early pace while Mclaren's rear end instability was killing them through turn 8. Silverstone, a very similar track to turkey, will probably mean both these former world champion teams struggle horribly once again.

So Button finally has a points advantage to represent his dominance, 26 points in fact. It's hard to see him being beaten anytime soon, Red Bull will have a chance, they will be around, but will they make mistakes? Will Rubens get his act together at one of his strongest circuits? and how many times will Lewis Hamilton be lapped?



1. BUTTON Brawn

2. WEBBER Red Bull +6.7s

3. VETTEL Red Bull +7.4s

4. TRULLI Toyota +27.8s

5. ROSBERG Williams +31.5s

6. MASSA Ferrari +39.9s

7. KUBICA BMW +46.2s

8. GLOCK Toyota +46.9s

9. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +50.2s

10. ALONSO Renault +62.4s

11. HEIDFELD BMW +64.3s

12. NAKAJIMA Williams +66.3s

13. HAMILTON McLaren +80.4s

14. KOVALAINEN McLaren +1 lap

15. BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap

16. PIQUET Renault +1 lap

17. SUTIL Force India +1 lap

18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1 lap

R. BARRICHELLO Brawn +11 laps

R. FISICHELLA Force India +54 laps

Fastest lap: BUTTON 1m27.579s (lap 40)

Monaco Grand Prix Review

It's 5 out of 6 for Button and now he really is on his way to becoming Formula One World Champion. Other drivers to win 5 out of 6 races at the start of the season include Nigel Mansell, in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in 2002 and 2004, and they went on to dominate their respective seasons.

It was another faultless drive from the Englishman, he wasn't immediatedly happy with the car and was struggling to reach the top 5 in thursdays practice sessions. But, as he is frequently doing, builds up his pace over a weekend and reaches his pinnacle when he needs to, q3 and the race. His q3 lap was a fantastic lap, only just being Kimi Raikkonen's ferrari to the pole but the Brawn had more fuel onboard.

Barrichello again failed to really deliver when it mattered and wound up 3rd, ahead of a very lightly fuelled Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull who had his qualy lap ruined by Nakajima's Williams.


THe start would be crucial, if Raikkonen got ahead of Button then he had every chance of victory, as it was, Raikkonen had a slow getaway and was beaten into St.Devote by Barrichello.

Amazingly no front wings were damaged, and in the early laps Rubens hustled his team mate constantly, no more than a second behind, yet 10 laps in,he had slipped to over 5 seconds behind. Button again dealing with the super softs better than anybody else. Rubens was struggling, and thus, holding up the soft tyred Ferrari of Raikkonen, if Kimi could have got passed, he could have attacked Button, but it was't going to happen.

There was ovetaking further down the field however, Vettel's super softs had gone off horribly after just 5 laps, losing 3 seconds a lap on the leaders, Massa was all over him and twice got caught out at the chicane, which allowed Rosberg, to squeeze, literally, passed the Brazilian into tabac, it was a fantastic move which Massa would use himself on Vettel a few laps later.


This had left Massa 20seconds behind Button, and although he had the pace to match the Brawn's, being so far back ruled him out of it.

After the first round of stops, such was Barrichello's struggle on the super softs, that Button had a 15 second advantage, one he would not relenquish.

THe race was rather processional after the Vettel hold up. Buemi had rammed Piquet off the track at St Devote, an incident which looking back cost Piquet a point or two.

Bourdais would take advantage of this incident to pick up his second point of the season, holding off a strong challenge from Fisichella in the Force India in what was the team's best grand prix weekend yet.

Vettel ended his weekend in the wall at St. Devote, a lot of mistakes and incidents from the young german this season, ones that have cost him points, Melbourne, cost himself a podium, Malaysia he spun and stalled, and now Monaco. Couple that with bad starts in Bahrain and Spain, and you see how and why he is 28points behind the rampant Button.

Kovalainen capped off a miserable race day for Mclaren by losing it on the exit of the first part of the swimming pool. He would have finished 7th.

Rosberg and Alonso got the most out of their machinery to finish 6th and 7th.

While right at the back, Toyota and the BMW's had a weekend they want to forget in a hurry. Toyota should be right back in the points in Turkey, BMW however, will be bringing a new diffuser, what advantage it will bring, remains to be seen.

The Ferrari's have really caught up with the leaders in terms of raw pace and it will be interesting to see where to fit in in Turkey.

Red Bull again made mistakes which cost them, they should have put Vettel into more space in qualy3, he had to get the pole on such a light fuel load, while Webber's lap was poor. During the race Webber was strangely inconsistent, at times being the fastest man on the track, but others, losing up to a second a lap.

A third 1-2 for Brawn, the second in succession, and they now have double the points of their nearest challengers in the constructors race. With Ferrari now on the pace of Red Bull and Toyota still around, they are likely to take points off each other rather than Button. Only a few DNF's would give anyone a chance now.

Turkey next, a track which shud suit Red Bull and Ferrari, you can overtake, and KERS will have a role to play. The challengers have to start here to start taking points off Button.

. BUTTON Brawn 1h40m44.28s

2. BARRICHELLO Brawn +7.7s

3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +13.4s

4. MASSA Ferrari +15.1s

5. WEBBER Red Bull +15.7s

6. ROSBERG Williams +33.6s

7. ALONSO Renault +37.8s

8. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +63.1s

9. FISICHELLA Force India +65.0s

10. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap

11. HEIDFELD BMW +1 lap

12. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap

13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap

14. SUTIL Force India +1 lap

15. NAKAJIMA Williams +2 laps

R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +27 laps

R. KUBICA BMW +50 laps

R. VETTEL Red Bull +63 laps

R. PIQUET Renault +68 laps

R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +68 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1m15.154s (lap 50)

Drivers Championship

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 51
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 35
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 23
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 19.5
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 14.5
6. Timo Glock Toyota 12
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 11
8. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 9
9. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 9
10. Felipe Massa Ferrari 8
11. Nico Rosberg Williams 7.5
12. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 6
13. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 4
14. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 3
15. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 2



1. Brawn GP 86
2. Red Bull Racing 42.5
3. Toyota 26.5
4. Ferrari 17
5. McLaren Mercedes 13
6. Renault 11
7. Williams 7.5
8. BMW Sauber 6
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso 5

Spanish Grand Prix

Not too sure how im going to pull out a decent lengthy review of the most dire circuit on the calender....but here we go!


It's that man again! Jensen Button stormed to win his 4th grand prix in 5 races, not getting boring is it?!

Button really is looking like a world champion and now has a 14 points advantage over his team-mate Barrichello, and is 18points ahead of Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull.

What's more impressive is the Brawn teams' constructors points advantage! 29.5 points. The car is fast, and incredibly reliable, its a fantastic achievement alround and the team will have been delighted this week to have stayed ahead of the chasing pack who have brought enormous amounts of updates and new parts.

Brawn have said all season "Lets see where were at in Spain" and well, theyre at the front!

The spanish grand prix always promised to be dull, and it held up to its word. Aside from a first lap smash caused by a wayward Jarno Trulli which took out Sutil and caused the Torro Rosso's to collide. It was perhaps the most dull of event of the year so far, not that Brawn and Button would care.

Barrichello took the lead at the start from Button, while Massa held up Vettel and Webber. Behind them Alonso had shot up to 6 ahead of Rosberg and Glock who would go on to struggle in the Toyota.




Barrichello pulled out a slight advantage of his team-mate while Button pulled away from Massa. Little happened before the first round of stops, aside from Kovalainen and Raikkonen pulling up with gearbox and hydraulics problems respectively.

The first round of stops would effectively decide the outcome of the race. Button would decide to swap from an original 3 stop strategy to a 2 stop. Barrichello would stay on the 3 stop, thearetically faster than a 2 stop plan.

Button was first to stop, and with a longer stop and a heavier car, this is where Barrichello had to make his advantage after his stop a lap later.

Massa managed to emerge from his first stop ahead of Vettel and Webber, but Webber was fuelled for a long middle stint which would help him no end at the second and third stops. Vettel was destined to spend almost the entire race behind the Ferrari.

In the second stint Rubens only managed to pull out 13s on his team mate, but at least 20s was required and this pretty much meant Button just had to keep his pace up for his 4th win of the year, Barrichello requiring an extra stop of course.

After Barrichello's 2nd stop, Button simply controlled the race. The Brawns were too far ahead of Webber and Vettel for them to challenge. Webber had managed to leap-frog his team-mate and Felipe Massa into 3rd. While Massa remained in 4th untill ordered to conserve fuel late on after his pit crew had fuelled him short by a lap. Ferrari have to stop making mistakes.

This cost Massa 2 places and 2 points, and he has pretty much conceded that the championship is out of reach.

The rest of the points went to Alonso in 5th, Massa 6th, Heidfeld picked up 2 points in a stronger BMW for 7th, and Rosberg picked up a somewhat dissapointing solitary point.

Further down the field,(Button had lapped everybody up to Rosberg). Hamilton struggled to 9th, and is making no bones about the fact that his Mclaren is still a very poor car. Glock struggled like wise in 10th, Toyota have to bounce back quick to stop them falling from Red Bull and Brawn in the title race.

Kubica, Piquet and Nakijama had very quiet races to 11th,12th and 13th, while Fisichella came home last in 14th, despite setting the 8th fastest lap of the race. Fisi had fastest lap here in 1997 and 2005 so hes obviously quite an expert.

So Brawn continue to reign supreme. They have been slightly lucky in the last two grand prix that Red Bull have not had a clear run at them, but the start of the race is an important part and one the Red Bull men have to master.

Barrichello will be wondering how he can beat his unstoppable team-mate, perhaps Monaco will give him a chance?

1. BUTTON Brawn

2. BARRICHELLO Brawn +13.0s

3. WEBBER Red Bull +13.9s

4. VETTEL Red Bull +18.9s

5. ALONSO Renault +43.1s

6. MASSA Ferrari +50.8s

7. HEIDFELD BMW +52.3s

8. ROSBERG Williams +65.2s

9. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
10. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap

11. KUBICA BMW +1 lap

12. PIQUET Renault +1 lap

13. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap

14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap

R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +49 laps

R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +59 laps

R. TRULLI Toyota +66 laps

R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +66 laps

R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +66 laps

R. SUTIL Force India +66 laps

Fastest lap: BARRICHELLO 1m22.762s (lap 28)

Drivers Championship

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 41
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 27
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 23
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 15.5
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 14.5
6. Timo Glock Toyota 12
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 9
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 9

Bahrain Grand Prix

So Button wins again! 3 out of 4 now for the man from Somerset, and this performance in the desert was arguably his and Brawn's finest yet. After qualifying Jensen was slightly downbeat, unsure how and where the Red Bull and Toyota had caught up, he still maintained howevever that for race pace, the Brawn is still right up there.


Button won this race on lap 2, due to two things, firstly Hamilton's botched move on Trulli at turn four (a start from Lewis which would have reminded the elder generation of a banzai Gilles Villeneuve start), as Lewis rejoined at turn four, Jensen was right behind, and going in to turn one at the start of lap 2, Button made his move, having got a much better drive out of the final corner than the world champion, Button was less than a tenth of a second behind as they crossed the line, when Lewis would have been given a new lot of KERS, whether he used it or not i'm not sure, but either way Button was so close behind it would only have dragged him along with it, going into turn one then, Button, always so calm and smooth when braking, stuck to the inside and took the place, it was a move worthy of race victory.

From then on Button was placed to take the lead, the Toyota's couldn't pull out a big enough lead to justify their low fuel loads, while Hamilton kept Vettel, probably the only man who could really race Button here this weekend, well back.

When they did pit, both Toyota men went for a long stint on the hard tyre, which turned out to be the poor tyre this weekend, this long stint cost them any chance of the race win, Glock even looked like he would slip out of the points for a while, such was his poor pace.

Come Button's stop, the Toyota's had been struggling for several laps on their new hard tyres, and when the Brawn re-joined, he was well ahead. Luckily for Button, Vettel had only re-joined behind Jarno Trulli,and would spend the next stint stuck behind that panasonic rear wing, without this, Vettel would have been right up with Jensen at the end. The only saving grace for Trulli, was that both Vettel and Button would have to run the hard tyre on the final stint.

Further back down the field, Mark Webber, starting 18, had his race really destroyed when he got stuck behind Nelson Piquet early on, Webber was destined to spend his race behind the renault man, while it was good to see Piquet putting in a much better performance than of late, he wasn't far behind his team-mate at the finish line, you did wish Webber could have got passed and seen how far up the order he could of got.




Also, it was easily BMW's worst ever formula one performance, both cars getting involved in minor first lap incidents which cost them a pit-stop for new front wings, and then spent the rest of the race trundling around at the back. This was the first team to release and frequently test their 09 car, and you wonder where its all gone wrong.

Meantime back at the front, Button had pulled out a large advantage over Trulli, Vettel and the impressive Hamilton, an advantage of 14 seconds or so, such was Trulli's problems on the hard tyre. Button rejoined with a healthy 12 second lead over Vettel, who had leap-frogged Trulli for second in the pits, Trulli was on the better tyre and pushed Vettel hard, but not enough to find a way through, both of them meanwhile, where rapidly disposing of Hamilton, struggling in the final stages in his Mclaren, and were catching up Button, struggling a small amount on the hard tyre, but with Button's smooth style,hes much easier on the tyres than most overs, and tyre management is one of his strengths.

So Button won by 6 seconds from Vettel, had Vettel not been held up by Hamilton and Trulli than we may well have seen an almighty scrap for the win. As it was, Button was un-troubled throughout, aside from the incredible heat which caused the Brawn Team to cut bodywork from the car to aid cooling, such was their worry about heat problems.

Vettel came through for his second podium in a row, and if it wern't for his late skirmish in Melbourne, would be right up their at the top of the drivers championship. But the Red Bull is looking strong and should be for a while yet.

Trulli was dissapointed with third, the Toyota slightly lacked the ultimate pace, and certainly put the hard tyres on at the wrong time, their first win still awaits, but 2009 is their best chance still to take it.




Other notable performances, Raikkonen got the maximum out of his Ferrari to get 6th place and stop them earning their worst ever start to a season. The two force india's ran well in the early stages, racing with Kovalainen,Webber and Piquet.

Sebastien Bourdais, easily his strongest race in the dry this season, although he started last, and the TV camera's barely found him all race, he came home 13th and right on the tail of Kovalainen who must have sustained damage in the first lap as he had no pace whatsoever.

Spain next, normally one of the dullest races of the season, but this isn't no ordinary season! Ferrari and Mclaren are promising quite significant updates, so will we see a return to the pecking order of recent years? or will the new order of 2009 reign supreme again?

Drivers Championship

1 J.Button, Brawn, 31points
2 R.Barrichello, Brawn, 19points
3 S.Vettel, Red Bull, 18points
4 J.Trulli, Toyota, 14.5points
5 T.Glock, Toyota, 12points
6 M.Webber, Red Bull, 9.5points


Starting Grid

1 J.Trulli, Toyota
2 T.Glock, Toyota
3 S.Vettel, Red Bull
4 J.Button, Brawn
5 L.Hamilton, Mclaren
6 R.Barrichello,Brawn
7 F.Alonso, Renault
8 F.Massa, Ferrari
9 N.Rosberg, Williams
10K.Raikkonen, Ferrari

11 H.Kovalainen, Mclaren
12 K.Nakajima, Williams
13 R.Kubica, BMW
14 N.Heidfeld, BMW
15 N.Piquet, Renault
16 S.Buemi, Torro Rosso
17 G.Fisichella, Force India
18 M.Webber, Red Bull
19 A.Sutil, Force India
20 S.Bourdais



Race Result

1- J.Button, Brawn GP 10points
2- S.Vettel, Red Bull 8points
3- J.Trulli, Toyota 6points
4- L.Hamilton, Mclaren 5points
5- R.Barrichello, Brawn GP, 4points
6- K.Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3points
7- T.GLock, Toyota, 2points
8- F.Alonso, Renault,1 point

9- N.Rosberg, Williams
10-N.Piquest, Renault
11-M.Webber, Red Bull
12-H.Kovalainen,Mclaren
13-S.Bourdais, Torro Rosso
14-F.Massa, Ferrari
15-G.Fisichella, Force India
16-A.Sutil, Force India
17-S.Buemi, Torro Rosso,
18-R.Kubica, BMW
19-N.Heidfeld, BMW

20-K.Nakajima, Williams- Retired

Fastest lap, J.Trulli 1.34.556