Jenson Button claimed his third Grand Prix victory in four races with a commanding drive in the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Brawn GP driver started this race in fourth position and thanks to a great pit-stop strategy and that overtaking manoeuvre on Lewis Hamilton on lap two, the Briton has extended his title lead as the Formula One parade returns back to Europe.
Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel finished in second, delayed by slower cars that cost him an opportunity to win this race at Sakhir. As for Jarno Trulli, who started from pole position, the Toyota was unable to challenge the likes of Red Bull Racing and Brawn GP in this 57-lap race and the Italian had to settle for third.
His Toyota team-mate Timo Glock actually made a better start and led in the opening laps, but after switching to the prime (medium compound) Bridegstones, the Japanese cars didn’t have the pace and Glock in particular was struggling with tyre wear and was disappointed to come home in seventh.
World champion Lewis Hamilton drove a solid race for McLaren by finishing in fourth. He should be pleased by this result despite the lack of speed compare to its rivals. Nevertheless, the team are improving and it won’t be long until new car updates will translate to race wins in the near future.
Rubens Barrichello had a so-so weekend in the second Brawn GP and after making three pit stops, the Brazilian finished in fifth. For Kimi Raikkonen, finally the red car was able to score some points (with sixth for the Iceman) and it ends the disappointing Ferrari form after four eventful races. Though more performance is needed if the constructors’ champions want to challenge for title honours.
Renault’s Fernando Alonso collected the final point with eighth, fending off Nico Rosberg’s Williams while his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr showed better form to finish in tenth.
Last year’s winner Felipe Massa had a terrible afternoon following contact at the first-corner in which his Ferrari front wing was damaged. The Brazilian was forced to make an extra pit stop and with his KERS system letting him down, the championship runner-up came home in a frustrating P14, a lap down on the race winner.
After being impending by Force India’s Adrian Sutil in qualifying, Mark Webber put in a spirited drive from the back of the grid to finish in P11 for Red Bull Racing. McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was unable to recover from a poor start, in which he flat-spotted his tyre and came home in a depressing P12.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais finished in an unlucky P13 with Giancarlo Fisichella and team-mate Sutil finished in P15 and P16 respectively for Force India. Sebastien Buemi came home P17 in the second Toro Rosso ahead of the incredibly slow BMW Sauber pair of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. This was a poor result from BMW and it didn’t help that the cars sustained some damage at the first corner on lap one.
Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima was the sole retirement, after a clash with Kubica. He parked his FW31 in the garage after 49 laps with high oil pressure.
Button now leads the drivers’ standings with 31 points from team-mate Barrichello on 19, with Chinese Grand Prix winner Vettel on 18. Trulli is on 14.5 with his colleague Glock on 12.
As for the constructors’ championship, Brawn GP have 50 points, to Red Bull Racing’s 27.5 with Toyota’s 26.5. Finally Ferrari has scored some championship points in this Grand Prix but it is only three.
So after four flyaway races, the Formula One circus return back to Europe and it will be fascinating whether the Brawn GP can keep up this winning momentum with its solid, reliable and fast BGP 001 car. Red Bull Racing and Toyota have turned the formbook upside down by becoming the main challengers for race wins, while McLaren and Ferrari will return to winning ways. Don’t discount the past champions, as these top two teams will recover, making this season that all more exciting.
Race results from Bahrain, 57 laps:
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes 1h31:48.182
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault +7.187
3. Trulli Toyota +9.170
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +22.096
5. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes +37.779
6. Raikkonen Ferrari +42.057
7. Glock Toyota +42.880
8. Alonso Renault +52.775
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota +58.198
10. Piquet Renault +1:05.149
11. Webber Red Bull-Renault +1:07.641
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes +1:17.824
13. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:18.805
14. Massa Ferrari +1 lap
15. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
18. Kubica BMW Sauber + 1 lap
19. Heidfeld BMW Sauber +1 lap
Fastest lap: Trulli, 1:34.556
Not classified/retirements:
Nakajima Williams-Toyota 49 laps
World Championship standings, round 4:
Drivers:
1. Button 31
2. Barrichello 19
3. Vettel 18
4. Trulli 14.5
5. Glock 12
6. Webber 9.5
7. Hamilton 9
8. Alonso 5
9. Heidfeld 4
10. Kovalainen 4
11. Rosberg 3.5
12. Buemi 3
13. Raikkonen 3
14. Bourdais 1
Constructors:
1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 50
2. Red Bull-Renault 27.5
3. Toyota 26.5
4. McLaren-Mercedes 13
5. Renault 5
6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
7. BMW Sauber 4
8. Williams-Toyota 3.5
9. Ferrari 3
Next race: Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya. May 8-10.
Button’s fourth career Grand Prix victory was his most impressive and even the Brit was satisfied by this winning performance.
Jenson Button says his Bahrain Grand Prix victory has been the best of the season so far, after the Briton stretched his championship lead at Sakhir.
Button scored his third win in four races after taking his Brawn car to the top step of the podium despite starting from fourth position.
The Briton admitted that his pass on third-placed Lewis Hamilton in the opening part of the event had won him the race.
“He (Hamilton) is very difficult to overtake, but on the first lap he made a few mistakes I dived down the inside and on the straight I thought I could get alongside him,” said Button.
“I did but he pushed his button and got ahead, but I got him into first corner. That move made the race for us.
“This win was the best of the lot. We didn’t have that competitive edge. It is the fourth flyaway, we have a lot of bits that need to be changed and getting a bit aged, so to come away from this race is great and we are now looking at improving the car.”
Button increased his lead in the standing to 12 points over team-mate Rubens Barrichello, fifth today.
The British driver dominated the second half of the race, but he admitted it had not been easy at all.
“This was a tough race for us,” said Button. “This weekend we haven’t had pace we had in the first three races. These guys have probably gone past us, but the first part of race was very important. I made it work and came out of first corner in third, a tough race.”
He added: “For us it is very difficult because of the heat, but this is one of the circuits that isn’t really that physical, the engine was a little bit of a worry because the temperature has been very high in qualifying.
“The team has worked so hard. We have had to work doubly hard to get the job done. I am extremely proud of all of them.”
Source: Autosport.com
This was a poor race from BMW Sauber and after reading this article – taken from Autosport.com – that first corner proved costly for Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld dearly in the race.
BMW team principal Mario Theissen says that any chance the German manufacturer had of a good result in the Bahrain Grand Prix was destroyed by both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica suffering front wing damage in the first corner.
Kubica and Heidfeld finished 18th and 19th respectively after both having to make pitstops for new front wings early in the race.
“It was clear the danger of a collision would be higher the further down the grid we were,” said Theissen. “As we feared, both our drivers had early collisions and as a result the race was practically over.
“During the pitstops, we gave them a lot of fuel and sent them out with hard tyres, because the only chance of getting back into the race would have been during a safety car period. But even if this had happened, scoring a point would have been impossible.”
Heidfeld described the race as disastrous after finishing last.
“The result is a disaster,” said Heidfeld. “We were unlucky with the collision in the first corner. At first, I thought the suspension was broken, but I only had to have a new nose fitted in the pits. It is another race to forget.”
Kubica, who also spun after a clash with the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima late in the race, said that a communication problem with the pit-crew cost him even more time, as he wasn’t able to pit at the end of the first lap.
“My race was destroyed after corner one,” said Kubica. “I was between Nick and another car. We touched each other and I destroyed my front wing.
“Then, after the crash, there was a miscommunication with the pit crew. I asked to come in straight away, but was only able to pit after the second lap.”
The team is hoping that its development package, which will be introduced at next month’s Spanish Grand Prix, will lift its performance after failing to score in the last two races.
Its the first qualifying and race I’ve managed to watch this season, sadly been busy with stuff. It was a lil strange all the front runners feel new, its like all the young kids have grown up and come up the field. Then you get McLaren and Ferrari not even worth a mention, specially with Ferrari worst start to a season for so long, embarrassing.
Talking of the BBC coverage I think it has improved on some areas and needs a little time to get to pace in other areas. I like the fact Coulthard is around although not a fan of Eddie he does bring good knowledge and info now and then. I wasn’t impressed with the red button, I was hoping we would be able to flick around the drivers cameras in the cars but I know that is way too much to ask.
However talking of team Brawn they are doing very well and impressive too. Good to see Button get some limelight, cos when he joined he had a lot of press but couldn’t deliver anything. Then he had to sit in the background as Hamilton took up all the press.
Talking of the KERS system some of the cars have in, I have to admit I don’t fully understand it, but its quite impressive. I saw one of the cars use it against Barrichello and the KERS car just has an impressive boost which seems to come out of no where its almost like a turbo.
Excellent F1 coverage as usual Elton keep up the good work. And I hope you had a very nice hol.
The First proper race of the season with the others being either rain affected or finishing being safety car. Button showed that he has the ability to be up there at the top, brawn showed that they can overcome overheating problems to win. The future is looking good for both.
Unfortunately Mclaren are showing that chucking £XXX Million at a problem works. Weren’t the rule changes going to reduce spending? Personally I think in season development should be banned. Gives the genuinely clever a leg up on the rich.
As a side note Isn’t Seb Loeb doing well the the WRC, the way he’s going he could win every round this year. The Fords have to be accused of poor engineering and over the top driving, although I suppose that’s needed if you’re going up against Loeb.
So at last a full dry proper race and quite a good one at that. Another win for Jenson, and as most have said inc himself, the most satisfactory. But it also shows that Brawn certainly wont have an easy time every race. The Red Bulls are going to push them hard, which can only be a god thing.
As for Mclaren thowing £XXX at the problem. Well, you think they are the only ones?!!!! How much do you think Ferrari are going to spend or BMW? In regards to the diffuser
eh? my post just posted it’s self!!
So, in regards to the diffuser issues, I believe most teams saw they could do this, but most elected not to. The whole situation is a mess, as designs must have submitted, so why we had the illegal/legal argument is mental. Flavio needs to calm down and get off his high horse also. If he reckon he submitted a double decker diff, then had it refused his anger is with the FIA not Brawn. It was still illegal in it’s design so the FIA are not going to say, “well if you just tweak it here and here, you’ll be OK”. Brawn and the rest got it right so in the world of many sports, tuff mate. Deal with it, and dont throw all your toys out and try and stop Brawn from getting their TV rights money. God Alonso has really rubbed of on you!
No matter what restrictions are imposed, everyone will need to push the limits and designs. You snooze, you loose has always been the case, and from now on, with budget and testing caps being squeezed even more for next year, it will be a case for all teams having to be clever and not just throwing money at it.
But I do think Janus is right in saying in season development ban would be cool. Just bare in mind that this would effect all teams, not just the big money ones that you hate.
Think the coverage is awesome by the BBC. Yes you cant pick and choose what in car views you have, but I dont mind having the one and anything else would be extremely hard to do. Also, our interactive system is way beyond everyone else in the WORLD. So we really are being spoilt already. The forum afterwards is great, however, if it’s a boring race then so will the forum be. But I am disliking Eddie more and more. We know you dont like KERS. We know because you say it every damn meeting!!!!! Shut up already!
On the KERS matter, if we have a std system as being talked about, then it will be an utter waste of time. it’s either the way it is now, or not at all.
Good work Elton, glad to have you back.