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