Belgian Race Report: What A Race, What A Result

Sunday 30th August 2009

Kimi Raikkonen claimed the victory in the Belgian GP, just managing to hold off Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella - and what a race it was.

After Valencia's tedium and snores, Spa-Francorchamps delivered the exact opposite with no fewer than four drivers, including Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, crashing out at Les Combes on the opening lap.

This brought out the Safety Car with Fisichella, who had started from pole position, leading the way ahead of Raikkonen. But three laps later, with the debris clear and the Safety Car coming in, Raikkonen launched his attack, easily taking the lead from the Force India driver.

Game over - or so many thought...

Race Report
With no rain predicted for the race, in bright sunny conditions, Giancarlo Fisichella led the drivers round on a very slow parade lap. The ambient temperature was at 16C with the track at 30C.

As the lights went out the man in P4 on the grid was immediately in trouble, the anti-stall mechanism on the Brawn kicking in and Rubens failing to get underway for the third time this year and everyone streaming past him on the grid.

Into La Source and Kimi Raikkonen was forced out wide by the gaggle of cars at the apex, while further back Jenson Button also took that route. Polesitter Giancarlo Fisichella had got away cleanly into the lead, but behind him P2 man Trulli was overtaken on the inside by Nick Heidfeld and on the outside by Raikkonen.

Heidfeld, once past Trulli, effectively into P2 or P3 by now, was slow away from La Source and Trulli ran his front wing into him, loosening it but thankfully it remained in place. Heidfeld's lack of pace on the exit was seized upon by Robert Kubica who swept through on the inside and into P2.

Down the hill they charged: Fisichella, Kubica, Raikkonen (joining from the run-off) followed by Heidfeld, Trulli, Glock and the two Red Bulls.

Further back Adrian Sutil had taken a tightish line into La Source only to find Nico Rosberg inside him and Fernando Alonso inside Rosberg. Contact with Rosberg spun Sutil around and as the Williams driver escaped, Fernando Alonso ran over Sutil's front wing.

It seemed as though Alonso had got away with it, but events later in the race would prove otherwise.

Down the hill to Eau Rouge they charged, the rest of the pack trampling over Sutil's front wing. Kimi Raikkonen, using the Ferrari's KERS button, was straight onto the tail of Kubica and easily outdragged him up the hill to Les Combes, although the Ferrari driver was tentative on the brakes into the corner and took a narrower angle than the normal racing line. Slow on the exit, he was almost punted up the rear by Kubica.

Behind them, Nick Heidfeld missed his braking and went over the grass on the inside, losing a place to Glock and Trulli straight away and subsequently Mark Webber.

Behind them, Jenson Button had got a reasonable start and was P11 (from P14) through Eau Rouge. Going up the hill to Les Combes he got on the inside of Kovalainen and was able to outbrake the McLaren on the outside to take P10 - at which point Romain Grosjean's Renault - trying to follow him through- hooked a wheel inside of his and spun the BrawnGP car into the barriers, wrecking his own car against the Armco in the process.

Lewis Hamilton had got a poor start with the anti-stall almost kicking in and was coping with Barrichello coming up on the outside at Les Combes when he was clattered into by the Red Bull of Jaime Alguesuari. Four drivers out in one corner. The stewards decided they would investigate both incidents after the race.

Something they didn't investigate, but surely must, was Rubens Barrichello's overtaking of a pack of cars using the outside escape route at Les Combes. Barrichello recovered maginificently from last place on the grid and dodged round a few cars at La Sourceand in the run down to Eau Rouge. Up the hill into Les Combes he was alongside Hamilton on the outside, realised he wasn't going to make the turn and took the escape road, dodging all the frantic action involving the four wrecked cars.

With four cars out and debris at La Source it was an easy decision to call out the Safety Car. So as Giancarlo Fisichella led everyone over the line the race order was: Fisichella, Raikkonen, Kubica, Glock, Webber, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso, Kovalainen.

Vettel was soon on the radio complaining that Rosberg had overtaken him under Safety Car conditions while Trulli, Barrichello and Sutil headed for the pits. Trulli and Sutil needed new front wings and Barrichello took the opportunity of taking on more fuel under Safety Car conditions - the Brawn having gone the lightest in qualifying.

The race was restarted on Lap 5 but already the major dramas were over. Fisichella didn't manage to shake off Kimi Raikkonen in the corners before the start and as the Ferrari followed the Force India car through Eau Rouge, KERS power was easily able to take him past before Les Combes.

From that point on it was assumed that Raikkonen would open a gap to Fisichella in his cruise to his fourth Belgian GP victory - especially when he set the Fastest Lap on Lap 8 with a 1:47.749. It didn't happen.

On Lap 12 the first pit-stops started to unfold and it was assumed that the Red Bulls - who had gone slightly longer on fuel - would start to take advantage. Glock and Kubica came in first and Toyota had to switch to the reserve fuel ring for Glock sending him back down the race order from P4 before the stop.

On Lap 13 Nick Heidfeld showed his intention of getting a place back off Mark Webber by setting the Fastest lap at 1:47.738.

A lap later and both Raikkonen and Fisichella pitted together, their cars separated by an entire pitlane but the positions staying the same. Behind them, Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld pitted at the same time. Heidfeld got away first and looked to have made up a position, but just as the BMW approached the Red Bull garage the Red Bull lollypop was raised.

It was yet another dangerous Red Bull release and though they had got away with one the race before, this time round Heidfeld had to take avoiding action and brake to avoid running into the back of Webber in the pitlane. Whether that was on the team's mind or not is unknown but Heidfeld was able to overtake Webber going into Les Combes that lap, while Rubens Barrichello pulled a fantastic overtaking move into the high-speed Blanchimont of all places.

The incident must have severely unsettled Webber because the following lap he started to block and move around in the braking zone trying to keep the Force India of Adrian Sutil behind going into Les Combes.

Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel had a much better time of it, jumping Heidfeld for a place and also his team-mate in the process. It was then announced that Webber would have to serve a drive-through penalty for the team's (not his) pitlane mess-up. He emerged from the pitlane on Lap 18 back in P.13.

The positions on Lap 19 were: 1.Raikkonen, 0.9 in front of... 2.Fisichella, 3.Alonso (not stopped), 4.Kubica, 5.Kovalainen (not stopped), 6.Buemi (not stopped), 7.Vettel, 8.Heidfeld, 9.Barrichello, 10.Sutil

Lap 20 and 21 saw a remarkable feat. Luca Badoer set the timing screens to purple setting the fastest first sector on successive laps.

The Ferrari team were keen for Kimi Raikkonen to put a gap between himself and Giancarlo Fisichella, fearful that the Force India could run a lap or two longer in the middle stint. They asked him to push and try and edge him by a tenth of a second a lap (interestingly it was not Kimi's engineer Chris Dyer who passed on the message). This was duly broadcast on television and then relayed back to Fisichella behind.

By Lap 24 the gap was still only 0.7 though, the Force India easily having the legs of the Ferrari. If Force India could run longer, then they were sitting pretty.

Fernando Alonso was still in P3 and yet to have his first pit-stop. On Lap 25 he came in for what would be his solo stop of the race. However his front left tyre wheel would not accept the wheel spinner and after several seconds of wrestling, the mechanic had to give up and use a replacement.

This was the same wheel that had impacted Adrian Sutil's Force India on the first corner, a result of Alonso taking a risky narrow inside line. The delay had dropped him from P3 to a disastrous P14 and a lap later the team brought him back in to retire as the telemetry showed that the wheel might come loose. They were not going to run the risk of what had happened in Hungary.

Towards the end of the second stint Sebastian Vettel started to close on Robert Kubica's P3 and back in P5, Nick Heidfeld began to close on the pair of them. The two BMWs pitted on Lap 30 and Lap 32 while Vettel was able to stay out till Lap 35 and leapfrog past Kubica.

The biggest battle was always going to be Ferrari versus Force India in the final pit-stops. On Lap 31 the Ferrari mechanics came out into the pitlane and must have been very relieved to find the Force India crew out at the same time. Neither made a mistake and though they resumed in P2 and P3, when Vettel stopped four laps later they would resume P1 and P2.

So on Lap 36 the order with gaps in front of the next car was:
1.Raikkonen 0.8
2.Fisichella 5.9
3.Vettel 2.5
4.Kubica 2.7
5.Heidfeld 12.6
6.Kovalainen
7.Barrichello
8.Rosberg
9.Webber
10.Glock

Vettel put in a series of Fastest Laps in a vain attempt to catch Fisichella and Raikkonen but was never close enough. In the closing laps of the race the excitement was provided by Rubens Barrichello's car which started to blow smoke intermittently on lap 42 of 44 and then constantly from Lap 43 onwards. It gave hope to the following Rosberg in P8 and Webber in P9, but Rubens managed to nurse his car to the line and 7th place.

It was the Ferrari team's first win of 2009, but the biggest celebrants were Force India. Having not scored a point all year, they easily had the fastest car in the race and had scored eight in one go. What's more, they stand even more of a chance for a race win at Monza in two weeks' time.

Sebastian Vettel will be relieved to have finished on the podium again, but the Red Bull team will have been hoping for much more from the race. BMW picked up 4th and 5th through Kubica and Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen came home unchallenged in 6th.

Yet again it proved Spa's remarkable ability to provide a memorable race. Even without rain.

FH

Results
01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23:50.995
02 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 0.938
03 S. Vettel Red Bull + 3.875
04 R. Kubica BMW + 9.966
05 N. Heidfeld BMW + 11.276
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 32.763
07 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 35.461
08 N. Rosberg Williams + 36.208
09 M. Webber Red Bull + 36.959
10 T. Glock Toyota + 41.490
11 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 42.636
12 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 46.106
13 K. Nakajima Williams + 54.241
14 L. Badoer Ferrari + 1:42.177
Did not finish
15 F. Alonso Renault + 18 lap(s)
16 J. Trulli Toyota + 23 lap(s)
17 J. Button Brawn GP + 44 lap(s)
18 R. Grosjean Renault + 44 lap(s)
19 L. Hamilton McLaren + 44 lap(s)
20 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 44 lap(s)

Source : Planet F1

Prac Two: Alonso delights Spanish fans

Fernando Alonso delighted his Spanish fans by finishing Friday's practice in the P1 slot despite a bit of a coming together with Nick Heidfeld.

Alonso proved to be there and there about throughout the session, often going quickest before dropping a few places only to then rise to the top. But, with 15 minutes left on the clock, the Spaniard locked his brakes, sending him into the side of Heidfeld's BMW. The damage put Heidfeld out of the session although a new front wing saw Alonso put in a blistering 1:39.404.

The Renault driver's time was a staggering 0.774s up on Jenson Button's best while his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello was third quickest.

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean finished in 13th place, Luca Badoer 18th and Jaime Alguersuari 19th. As for Lewis Hamilton, he was P20 after a minor coming together with the barriers ended his session.

Report: Sweltering conditions and a track temperature of 44'C greeted the drivers as Sebastien Buemi, Nico Rosberg and Jaime Alguersuari led out the field for their installation laps. While most pitted after one lap, Buemi stayed out to set the afternoon's first time, a 1:43.726 and was quickly joined by others. Mark Webber went second, Alguersuari third and Luca Badoer fourth. The timesheets changed, though, as Lewis Hamilton went quickest with a 1:43.214. Fernando Alonso took fourth place with Heikki Kovalainen seventh and Kazuki Nakajima eighth.

Hamilton put his McLaren into a spin and stopped facing the wrong way, not the greatest feeling as one of the Toro Rosso's came speeding past him. The Brit, however, quickly through another spin to face the right way and continued lapping. Meanwhile, Alonso overhauled his time by half a second to go fastest. Kovalainen went second with Adrian Sutil putting in another great lap to take third place. His team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella went fifth only to be dropped by Jenson Button.

Buemi moved up to second place, Rubens Barrichello took ninth and Romain Grosjean tenth as the French racer continued to impress in his debut outing. Nico Rosberg slotted in to second place, 0.449s off Alonso's best, with Barrichello behind him in third. Grosjean also found some pace, taking eighth place, less than a second off Alonso's time. Nakajima moved up to the order, going third behind his team-mate, who had closed the gap to less than a tenth to Alonso. Webber climbed to third.

At the back of the pack, Badoer continued to battle for pace, 3.8s slower than the lead driver. Not a great start to the Ferrari man's first weekend as a Scuderia driver. His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen improved to fifth place while moments later Badoer left the bottom of the timesheets to take P19. Barrichello moved into the top three before he was overhauled by Sutil.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was left sitting in his garage after it emerged that he had damaged his car during his earlier spin. The McLaren driver actually broke a piece, a 'hanger' off the front of his car.

Rosberg took the P1 slot off Alonso while his team-mate Nakajima went second quickest. Jenson Button moved up to eighth place moments before Heidfeld took 13th. The BMW driver's rise up the order meant that once again Badoer was slowest of all. Vettel climbed to second place, 0.039s off the pace.

Button was the next to lead the way as the Championship leader clocked a 1:41.534 to edge Rosberg by 0.054s. Barrichello went third while Alonso improved his time but stayed sixth. Heidfeld shot up the order, moving into second place, 0.046s off the pace. But he was soon dropped as Rosberg went quickest. Buemi moved up to fifth place while Kubica took 11th. Alonso resumed his place at the top of the timesheets with a 1:41.324.

Button and Barrichello moved up into the 1-2 with Jarno Trulli taking third. However, the Brawn duo soon swapped over as Barrichello outpaced his team-mate. Raikkonen went from 12th to fifth while Kovalainen moved up from 18th to 11th. Alonso returned to the front as the Spaniard continued to impress at home. Heidfeld took the long way around, running wide and using the run-off to get back to the track.

Glock climbed to fifth place ahead of Kubica before moving up one position more as he overhauled his team-mate Trulli. Badoer improved to 18th place, leaving Alguersuari and Hamilton in his wake.

Problems for Alonso and Heidfeld as the two parties came together at the final corner with Heidfeld's BMW actually being launched into the air before landing heavily. Damage as well to Alonso's Renault, which appeared to lock up as his braked, causing him to hit Heidfeld.

Nakajima went quickest with Trulli taking third place and Raikkonen seventh. Barrichello was the next to lead the way, Rosberg going second, Button third and then second, Kovalainen went sixth.

Alonso, back on track with a new front wing, put in three fastest sector times on his way to a 1:39.404 which put him quickest. Button went second, 0.774s behind.

Times
01 F. Alonso Renault 1:39.404 33 laps
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:40.178 33 laps
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:40.209 34 laps
04 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.385 39 laps
05 K. Nakajima Williams 1:40.503 35 laps
06 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:40.596 23 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:40.643 34 laps
08 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:40.681 31 laps
09 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:40.723 33 laps
10 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:40.738 31 laps
11 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.739 39 laps
12 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.770 32 laps
13 R. Grosjean Renault 1:40.787 35 laps
14 M. Webber Red Bull 1:40.956 37 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:40.985 30 laps
16 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:41.156 34 laps
17 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:41.350 29 laps
18 L. Badoer Ferrari 1:42.017 37 laps
19 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:42.089 34 laps
20 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:43.214 3 laps

Source : Planet F1

British Grand Prix Preview

Wednesday 17th June 2009

If Simon Gillett, the developer of the Donington Circuit is to be believed, then this is the last British GP at Silverstone for at least the next 17 years. That's the length of the contract he's been given to run the F1 grand prix.

He may not have time on his side or the necessary investment, but what he can rely on is a big audience.

In Turkey at the last round they couldn't attract punters in with a £40 weekend pass and £200 grandstand seats. This weekend Silverstone will be full to bursting with punters paying £180 for a weekend pass alone. Which makes the prospect of taking this grand prix off the calendar a total nonsense. Just as it has been in Canada,

Montreal and Silverstone may not have circuit buildings that look like a Disney-inspired industrial estate, but they do have something far more relevant. Fans.

This weekend they'll be packing out the Northamptonshire circuit in the hope of a Jenson Button victory. However armed with typical British pragmatism they won't mind if he comes in the top three and maintains his championship challenge. Most of them will have despaired of Jenson ever getting into a top class car and this weekend will be more like a celebration of the season so far than a need to see him on the top step of the podium.

The former WWII bomber training base is similar to Turkey in that it has a lot of high speed corners, such as Copse, Becketts and Stowe, but it also has the fiddly Brooklands and Luffield complex making it far more of a compromise on set-up.

As we've seen from wins in Monaco and then Turkey, Brawn can do fiddly and high speed tracks, but can they do high-speed with fiddly? Certainly both BrawnGP drivers have an intimate knowledge of the track, Rubens having competed there since his F3 days and Button competing there since before he could produce any kind of ginger facial offence.

Rubens will be keen to get his starting mechanism sorted out having messed up royally in Istanbul. Hopefully by now he'll have gained a sense of proportion and remembered that he had a dog of a start in Australia, yet blinders in Barcelona and Monaco to balance that out

The Red Bulls will be up there vying for the front row and a Mark Webber win would probably go down almost as well as a Button victory. Webbo's been getting the better of his team mate of late and could even overhaul Vettel in the championship race this weekend.

Toyota should also be a force to contend with, along with the resurgent (though not as surgent as most people expected) Ferrari and BMW teams. It's unlikely to be such a fantastic weekend for the McLaren team and they've been doing their best to dampen down expectations.

Dampening down the circuit might be the best method of securing a Lewis Hamilton podium, but the long-range weather forecast is predicting a dry weekend, with all the rain being stored up for the following weekend's Glastonbury Festival.

Renault are in exactly the same position as McLaren and Fernando Alonso's continued presence in the team is a bit like Button in reverse. All that potential wasted in a below-average car.

F1 fans tend to get engrossed in the sport they love, and all the F1 vs FOTA machinations have tended to obscure the basic fault of motorsport compared to football, or rugby or tennis. My wife asked me why Jenson Button was so good all of a sudden seeing as he'd been in F1 since 2000; "Aah," I replied, "he's only just got a car that's good enough."

"So," she said with the kind of withering clarity I've had to endure for quite some time, "it's not the driver it's the car. How is that a sport?"

I could have given her a very long and complicated answer, but the easiest way out was, "yeah." Had we adopted Max Mosley's Idea-of-the-Year circa 2001 where drivers swap teams each race, then actually we could have more of a sport.

Under that regime the very best drivers would be fighting at the front all season long and we wouldn't have waited nine years to see Jenson Button arrive at his home grand prix leading the World Championship. Given that F1 is reluctant to give up its traditions lightly he better enjoy it while it lasts.

Source : Planet F1

Turkish GP: Button Puts His Name In History Books

Sunday 7th June 2009

After his pass on Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap, the Turkish GP may have been a boring race for Jenson Button, but it's one that puts his name in F1's history books.

Button, who overtook Vettel on the exit of Turn 9/10 when the pole-sitter ran wide, strolled to victory at the Istanbul Otodrom, handing him his sixth grand prix win of the season.

And that put Button in F1's history books where he joins the names of Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher in having won six of the first seven races.

Vettel, meanwhile, also lost out to team-mate Mark Webber after opting for a three-stop strategy. But his inability to overtake Button for the lead cost him dearly and he eventually finished 0.7s behind Webber. Jarno Trulli claimed fourth place ahead of Nico Rosberg, whose flying start, saw him leap up from ninth place.

Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Timo Glock completed the top eight.

Race Report
As the cars lined up on the sun-drenched grid, the track temperature was up to 49C with an ambient temperature of 32C (up from 28C on Saturday). Though the inside line into Turn 1 had been swept, Jenson Button and Mark Webber were taking no chances and angled their cars towards the outside as they lined up in P2 and P4.

Only Fernando Alonso elected to use the green-walled (option) soft tyres in the opening stint.

When the red lights went out, the potential threat from Rubens Barrichello in P3 evaporated. His Brawn GP bogged down and the rest of the field flooded past him into Turn 1.

Jarno Trulli was very racy off the line and was dicing with Mark Webber throughout the lap. He got past him into Turn 1 but Webber had him back before the end of the opening lap.

Felipe Massa cruised up the inside to get ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen into Turn 1, but lost out to a combative Nico Rosberg later in the lap.

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were also dicing on the opening lap. Alonso got past, but Raikkonen's front wing tagged the back of Alonso's tyre in the final chicane giving him aero problems from Lap 1.

However the major mistake happened at the front. Polesitter Sebastian Vettel exited Turns 9/10 and ran wide past the run-off and briefly onto the grass on the left. He didn't lose too much speed but Button was past in an instant and through into P1.

So the order at the end of a hectic opening lap was: 1.Button, 2.Vettel, 3.Webber, 4.Trulli, 5.Rosberg, 6.Massa, 7.Alonso, 8.Kubica, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Nakajima, 11.Kovalainen, 12.Barrichello.

Jenson Button set about opening a gap to Vettel at about 0.3 to 0.4 of a second a lap with a series of fastest laps. By Lap 6 he had a 2.9 lead. Meanwhile his team-mate was stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren and the Brazilian was showing no patience in his fight back to the front. On Lap 6 he was looking down the inside of the Finn into Turn 9 but thought better of it. On Lap 7 he overtook the McLaren through the final chicane, but then Kovalainen nailed him going back into Turn 1.

On Lap 8 he decided he was going to try and get past without a sufficient gap and barged into the side of Kovalainen in Turn 9. The Brawn came off worst and immediately relegated him from 12th to 17th. Barrichello hadn't stopped there, though, and five laps later he tried to get through an even smaller gap with the Force India of Adrian Sutil. Coming into the final corner he launched his Brawn the way he had done so successfully (and aggressively) in Australia and lost his front wing endplate.

The resulting damage meant that he had to pit ahead of schedule. He had earlier reported that his Brawn GP car had lost 7th gear, a result, Ross Brawn revealed, of over-torquing the clutch at the start. From that point on Rubens was reduced to the role of unhappy spectator in the GP.

By Lap 12 Button had reduced the Fastest Lap to 1:27.799 and opened up a 5.2 gap to Vettel. The Red Bull driver had to stop two laps earlier than Brawn, so Button was always going to have an edge. When Vettel stopped on Lap 15 Button's lead was around six seconds, but the Red Bull was stopped for just 6.2 seconds indicating a three-stop race.

Vettel was followed in by Trulli on Lap 16, Button and Massa on Lap 17 and Webber and Rosberg on Lap 18. All were on two-stoppers. When the stops had panned out on Lap 21, the order was: 1.Button, 2.Vettel, 3.Webber, 4.Nakajima (not stopped), 5.Rosberg - now ahead of Trulli, 6.Trulli, 7.Glock (not stopped), 8.Massa, 9.Heidfeld (not stopped), 10.Kubica, 11.Alonso.

Fuelled much lighter than the Brawn, Vettel closed in quickly and brought Jenson's 3.9 second lead down to 3.7, 3.2, 2.4 and then 1.6 in subsequent laps. To make his strategy work he needed to get past Button quickly, but although Jenson's lead was down to 0.2 by Lap 25, the Red Bull could not follow in the dirty air and had to stay behind till Vettel's second pit-stop on Lap 28.

Team-mate Mark Webber was on a two-stop strategy and could run at the maximum of the car's potential and so Vettel was now in danger of staying behind Webber after his third and final pit-stop. Though Button had been closed down by Vettel, he was still running faster than Mark Webber and had the race totally under control.

Lewis Hamilton had been fuelled up from 16th on the grid and was losing a lot of time in the four-apex Turn 8. As his 32-lap fuel load ran out he was able to set the fastest final sector time which would only be beaten by another KERS car, Kimi Raikkonen, in the closing stages of the race.

Hamilton enjoyed a bit of wheel-to-wheel action with Nelson Piquet after he emerged from his pit-stop (which Piquet won), but neither Mclaren looked like they were going to get anywhere near the points and didn't.

On Lap 35 the positions were: 1.Button, 18.3 seconds in front of... 2.Webber, who had 8.5 seconds on... 3.Vettel who was 5.9 seconds in front of... 4.Rosberg, who was just 3.5 seconds in front of...5.Trulli, who had 6.9 seconds on 6.Massa. 7, Nakajima, 8.Kubica, 9.Alonso, 10.Glock, 11.Raikkonen.

When the second pit-stops wound out between Laps 40 and 43, Rosberg found himself pitting three laps before Trulli and in that time Trulli was able to take back the 4th place he'd lost early on. The three-stopping Vettel didn't need to come in till Lap 48, but he wasn't able to close the gap and get in front of Webber and crossed the line on Lap 49, 3.7 seconds down in third place. And started to charge.

Despite admonishments from the Red Bull engineers to conserve the car and that "Mark is faster", Vettel was able to set the fastest first sector of the race and closed the gap down to 1.2 seconds, proving all that to be just coded talk for "please slow down and don't try and overtake". The gap came down to 1.6 seconds on Lap 55 but on a similar fuel load the only chance of P2 was if Webber made a mistake, which he didn't.

The only chance of a battle in the closing stages was between Robert Kubica in 7th and Timo Glock in 8th. Glock had run as high as 6th before a very late final stop that saw him hang on to a points paying position. Though he was 0.6 behind Kubica on Lap 49, nine laps later he was in exactly the same position.

Jenson Button cooled off his car in the final laps and did some grandiose swerves down the finishing straight towards his 6th win in the first 7 races; matching Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher. Pole position had never been denied a win in Turkey, but Button and Red Bull's own strategy had seen to that.

The Ferrari's promise from Saturday practice faded away in the race and it was more of the familiar Brawn, Red Bull, Toyota dominance. The team to really step up a gear in Istanbul was Williams who would have had two cars in the points had Kazuki Nakajima not endured a disastrous final pit-stop where a front left wheel trim wouldn't go back on, relegating the Japanese driver to 11th place.

With Rubens Barrichello retiring his Brawn on Lap 48 - their first of the season - Button's win gives him a 26 points lead in the driver's championship and finally one that best reflects his driving superiority this season.

FH

Results
01 J. Button Brawn GP 1:26:24.848
02 M. Webber Red Bull + 6.714
03 S. Vettel Red Bull + 7.461
04 J. Trulli Toyota + 27.843
05 N. Rosberg Williams + 31.539
06 F. Massa Ferrari + 39.996
07 R. Kubica BMW + 46.247
08 T. Glock Toyota + 46.959
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 50.246
10 F. Alonso Renault + 1:02.420
11 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:04.327
12 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:06.376
13 L. Hamilton McLaren + 1:20.454
14 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1 laps
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
16 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 1 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 1 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
19 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 11 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 54 laps

Source : Planet F1

TURKISH GP 2009 RESULTS

To be honest, I was expecting a more interesting race than what transpired. Three reasons why I didn't enjoy the race at all.

Number one - which is obvious to people who know me - because McLaren and specifically Lewis Hamilton had no chance at all of scoring any points. And I was right about that, plus the fact that the TV director hardly focused on Lewis or Heikki at all.

Number two is because my other choice of winner - Sebastien Vettel, made a mistake early on in Lap 1 whereby he let Jensen Button overtake him after making a mistake and almost running himself off the track. All that after he stole pole from Button yesterday. The race could have been his but he lost it at the start.

Number three - Jensen Button winning again. As he himself said it, he has become a "right boring bastard". The races nowadays are just that - boring. It reminds me of the Schumacher and Ross Brawn era when Schumacher won 17 out of 18 races. What's the point of watching.

Othe than that, it was good to see at least 1 Brawn car slip to the back and not scoring points when Barichello had his anti-stall kick in at the start and demoting him to 13th then later he just retired. Reason unknown at this time.

All said and done, Red Bull were a serious threat to Brawn GP if only they had not made the little mistakes they did. Imagine if they had Ross on their pitwall.

Alvin.

TURKISH GP QUALIFYING

Well what can I say. It was both an exciting qualifying session and a disappointment as Lewis Hamilton did not even make it into Q2.

Lewis and Heikki both looked good during Friday practice 1 and 2. In fact, the almost dominated and stayed at the top of the timesheets on Friday and Saturday. Then when qualifying started, Lewis' car looked ragged, going all over the place. It's like the car with fuel just doesn't want to behave with the setup previously. Lewis was eliminated from Q2 and Heikki didn't fare too well either being left out of Q1 and holding on to P14.

The only excitement was during the dying seconds when Vettel took pole from Button. That was priceless. I was sure Button would take pole and sure enough he did after the chequered flag but then Vettel came barreling down the track and somehow grabbed pole with a tenth over Button. Great stuff.

It would seem the race will be between the Brawns and Red Bulls with the Toyota of Trulli and the Ferraris thrown in for good measure. I'm putting my money on Vettel though as I think the Red Bull has the pace to win and Vettel is so refreshing after seeing Button winning so many races. Go Vettel!

Qualifying: Vettel pips Button to pole

Saturday 6th June 2009

Sebastian Vettel brought an end to Jenson Button's spate of pole positions as he crossed the line 0.105s ahead of the Brawn GP driver at the Istanbul Park circuit on Saturday.

Vettel, who hadn't shown much pace in the weekend's final practice session, came good when it really mattered to take the coveted grid slot, with a 1:28.316. It was the Red Bull driver's second pole of the season and once again highlights that he is Brawn GP's biggest threat.

As for Button, he had to settle for second place on the grid with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli were next in line, having qualified ahead of the two Ferraris, Kimi Raikkonen in front of Felipe Massa.

Meanwhile, defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make it through Q1 as his McLaren lacked the pace and stability needed around this high speed track.

Qualifying 1
The characteristic close grid had tightened over the three practices with the gap between first place and twentieth at 1.9 seconds in first practice, 1.7 in the second and 1.4 in the third.

In bright sunlight at the Istanbul Otodrom the ambient temperature stood at 28C with the track at 46C. The track temperature was critical because Bridgestone had supplied their hard and soft compounds for the race weekend. Any warmer than 46C and they estimated that the harder tyre would be the fastest, any colder and it would be the soft.

Nick Heidfeld set the first meaningful P1 time at 1:28.794 in the revised BMW with its new double deck rear diffuser. This was edged steadily downwards as a succession of drivers took P1: Raikkonen, Trulli, Nakajima, Massa, Rosberg, Vettel, Nakajima on his second quick lap, Raikkonen (out for a second time) and then Jarno Trulli at 1:27.529

Having done little to the threaten the top five places in the timesheets over the whole weekend Sebastian Vettel then set the timing screens alight with a P1 of 1:27.330.

Nelson Piquet was enduring another torrid weekend with his Renault, appearing on cameras drifting sideways like a rally car in the fearsome Turn 8. It would be a consistent problem for both Renault drivers through the qualifying period.

As the clock ticked down to three minutes, the danger positions were: 11.Alonso, 12.Heidfeld, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Glock, 15.Sutil, 16.Hamilton, 17.Piquet, 18.Buemi, 19.Fisichella, 20.Bourdais.

Lewis Hamilton was finding his McLaren very difficult to drive and whereas the Brawn of Jenson Button looked extraordinarily smooth, Hamilton looked twitchy and uncommitted through Turn 8.

He failed to get into the top 15 on his final run just as brake failure on Nelson Piquet's cars put him into the gravel and out. In the closing seconds it was less about moves at the back of the field and more about moves at the front as the Brawns of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello sprung up to P2 and P3 respectively.

So out of qualifying went:

16.Hamilton
17.Piquet
18.Buemi
19.Fisichella
20.Bourdais.

Hamilton was the only major casualty of the session which saw a return to form for the BMWs.

Qualifying 2
With the track temperature dipping to 44C the green-walled soft tyres became more prominent as the tyre of choice. Nico Rosberg set P1 at 1:27.672, Felipe Massa reduced this to 1:27.462 on soft tyres. Rubens Barrichello took P1 with a 1:27.418 and Jenson Button hammered it down to 1:27.322.

Despite two purple (fastest) sectors Sebastian Vettel could only manage P2 on 1:27.333. He went round for a second lap to try and improve, set two more fastest sectors in S1 and S2 and then promptly dived down the pitlane.

As we got to the three-minutes-to-go mark there was just 0.25 separating P1 and P10.

The danger positions were: 7.Heidfeld, 8.Rosberg, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Alonso, 11.Nakajima, 12.Glock, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Sutil, 15.Webber (who had had to ditch his first timed run after running wide at Turn 8)

In the last few minutes everyone, including P1 man Button, took to the circuit for a final run. Across the line they came. Mark Webber made himself safe by grabbing P3, Kimi Raikkonen took P3, Timo Glock could only manage a disastrous P13, to rub this in team-mate Jarno Trulli took P1 with a 1:27.195, seconds later that was deposed by Vettel with a sensational 1:27.016. Alonso squeezed into P9, Rosberg took P8 and Heikki Kovalainen cemented McLaren's misery in P14.

So out went:

11. Heidfeld (just 0.5 off P1)
12.Nakajima
13.Glock
14.Kovalainen
15.Sutil

Kovalainen's exit was not surprising, but it was rare to see Timo Glock fall so short of Jarno Trulli, while the big news was that Robert Kubica had actually got his BMW into Q3 for a change.

Qualifying 3
The track was back to 46C for the final session and so drivers could choose to do one banzai lap on softs, one slow and one fast lap on softs, or two/three fast laps on hards.

Kimi Raikkonen set a tentative P1 with a 1:29.405, which Jarno Trulli sailed inside with a 1:28.858. On his first run Button could only set the P2 time before Sebastian Vettel claimed P1 with a 1:28.801.

Rubens Barrichello went out late with the idea of reeling off three timed laps - the last intended to be the fastest. After the first hot laps the positions were: Vettel, Trulli, Button, Webber, Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Barrichello, Kubica and Rosberg.

Fernando Alonso had an off-track excursion at Turn 8 like his team-mate which meaned he wouldn't keep his P5 for much longer. Rubens jumped to P7 but had another lap left.

Kimi Raikkonen took P2 as his fuel level reduced, but team-mate Felipe Massa looked curiously sluggish. Webber jumped into provisional pole which lasted for several seconds before Jenson Button crossed the line with a 1:28.421, Trulli couldn't better it and came home in P3 while Rubens crossed the line in P2.

All eyes switched to Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull as he set the fastest first sector, but went slower than Jenson in S2. Coming into the final turns he was still ahead, though, and crossing the line he clinched pole by 0.1 of a second. Making it a Red Bull, Brawn, Brawn, Red Bull mirror across the first two rows.

Ross Brawn was quick to admit that they were fuelled to Lap 17 and early indications are that the Red Bulls are fuelled to around Lap 15. Which means the Brawn cars are potentially still the quickest out there.

For the race; Jenson Button has been quicker off the line than Vettel this year and has the inside line for a Turn 1 that comes up very quickly. However Button will know that Barrichello has pulled two great starts on him this year and will be keen to get ahead. Certainly there is the potential for an all-out race between the top three drivers in the World Championship when the red lights go out tomorrow.

FH

Times
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:28.316
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:28.421
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:28.579
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:28.613
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.666
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28.815
07 F. Massa Ferrari 1:28.858
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:29.075
09 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.191
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.357
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:27.521
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.629
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.795
14 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:28.207
15 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:28.391
16 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:28.318
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:28.582
18 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.708
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:28.717
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.918

Source : Planet F1