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