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