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