Jenson Button extends his championship lead with another one-two result for Brawn GP, his fourth victory out of five races.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello was disappointed to finish in second despite making a better start and leading the opening laps at the Circuit de Catalunya, but in the end, the Brazilian was unable to match the remarkable and consistent pace from the Briton.
Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber benefitted from a lengthy first stint to score a great third while his team-mate Sebastian Vettel had his race compromised by getting stuck behind Felipe Massa’s Ferrari off the line.
While all attention was focused on the KERS-powered Ferrari of Massa, who would benefit the most at the start due to the long rundown into the first corner, it was actually his fellow countryman Barrichello who made the best getaway off the grid. The Brazilian swept around the outside of Button into Turn 1 as Massa squeezed past Vettel to take third position.
Behind it was chaos with four cars eliminated just after the start of the Spanish Grand Prix. The accident started as Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg clashed into the first corner. Jarno Trulli was forced to run wide into the gravel to avoid the Williams and spun back across the track.
Adrian Sutil (Force India) couldn’t react in time to avoid the Toyota and the pair made heavy contact, showering the first two corners with broken pieces of expensive carbon fibre.
Meanwhile Sebastian Buemi slowed to avoid the spinning Toyota and was collected by team-mate Sebastien Bourdais, putting both Toro Rossos out on the spot.
This led to a four-lap safety car period, after which Barrichello and Button pulled away from Massa, Vettel and Webber in unison through the opening stint.
Although Button was the lighter car at this stage of the race, the Brawn GP team decided to switch pit-stop strategies between their drivers with Jenson on two while Rubens on the normal three stops.
In theory, stopping three times is the quickest strategy to win the race and initially both drivers stuck to the plan. But after the first rounds of pit stops made by Brawn GP, a sound clip from the team’s radio broadcast told that Button had switched “to plan A.” It soon became clear that Rubens Barrichello was running a three-stop strategy, while Jenson Button would only be stopping twice.
This was a strange decision made by the team. Could it be that Brawn GP deliberately opted to switch the number of stops in a way of backing Button for the championship?
Well, according to team boss Ross Brawn, Jenson Button was switched to the two-stop strategy “to avoid leaving him behind Rosberg”. This makes sense, as Nico was only 18.646 seconds behind Button when the championship leader made his first pit stop on lap 17. So whatever happens, the Briton was going to come out of the pitlane behind the Williams. So opting for a two-stop strategy ensured Rosberg did not hold him up.
Barrichello stuck to his three-stop strategy and came out narrowly ahead of the Williams. But Button was able to stay close enough to Barrichello during his second stint to move ahead of his team-mate after the final pit stops.
This series of pit stop tactics and driving flat-out won the race for Jenson. You can see his relief in winning this Grand Prix immediately after taking the chequered flag. Compare the body language on his Brawn GP team-mate…
As for Massa and Vettel, the pair pitted in together at both their stops, and on each occasion the Ferrari managed to stay ahead of the Red Bull.
This was deeply frustrating for the young German as he was tipped to score another race victory for Red Bull Racing. But yet again, a KERS car halted his progress and ultimately it compromised Vettel’s race for victory honours.
Sebastian eventually got passed the Ferrari with four laps remaining when Massa was forced to back off and save fuel, as too little was delivered at its final pit stop. The Brazilian fell back down to sixth, running out of fuel just after taking the chequered flag.
But the pair missed out on the podium spot, which went to Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber. The Australian was very aggressive in this race and one key moment was that overtaking manoeuvre on double world champion Fernando Alonso on the main start/finish straight just after the restart.
Alonso was in the slipstream and pulled to the right to pass the Red Bull. Webber was having none of it and nudged his rival to the grass but the Renault was still coming through. As soon as the home crowd favourite was ahead, the Australian darted to the right and out-braked his rival into the first corner, getting his place back. This was a spectacular move from Webber and to come home third was a rich reward for his driving.
As for Fernando, he did well to finish in fifth despite starting this race with lightest fuel at the top end of the grid. He gained an extra championship point when he passed the slowing Massa on the final lap and it was great to see his fighting spirit when battling with Webber at the restart.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld used a long middle stint to beat Nico Rosberg’s Williams to seventh, while the second BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica was only eleventh after losing ground on the first lap.
As for Lewis Hamilton, this was a difficult race for the world champion. He dropped to last avoiding the first corner crash, then made good progress in the middle of the race before severe tyre wear saw him fall off the pace. Lewis eventually beat Timo Glock to ninth, with the Toyota never recovering from falling into the midfield thanks to an earlier first stop compare to the others.
Both Finns had a weekend to forget with Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen forced to retire with mechanical problems (throttle and gearbox issues respectively).
So, another fantastic result for Brawn GP and Jenson Button. He leads the drivers’ standings with 41 points with team-mate Barrichello on 27 followed by Vettel on 23 and Webber on 15.5. In the constructors’ stakes, Brawn have 68 compared to Red Bull Racing’s 38.5.
Monte Carlo is the next round in this highly exciting Formula One season and it will be fascinating whether the Brawn GP can maintain this winning momentum. The other teams are hoping more upgrades in particular the double diffusers and making the KERS unit reliable will close the gap, but in this competitive sport, everyone really needs to perform better if you want to beat the Button and Brawn combo.
Race Results from the Spanish Grand Prix, 66 laps:backgammon free casino money free craps game play free black jack craps video poker strategy play black jack online how to win video poker casino game online uk best casino online casino secure online gambling jackpot casino online casino black jack learn to play craps how to win at video poker craps online blackjack casino game online casino betting free on line video poker casino games no download casino online gambling casino play free casino slots video poker machine bonus video poker free on line slots double bonus video poker free video poker games free casinos roulette online craps rules free on line casino rules of craps online casino free money blackjack 21 internet casino how to play craps free casino game download fortunelounge online casino free casino download free casino card game free roulette game free casino play no deposit free money casino internet casino online
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes 1h37:19.202
2. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes +13.056
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault +13.924
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault +18.941
5. Alonso Renault +43.166
6. Massa Ferrari +50.827
7. Heidfeld BMW Sauber +52.312
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota +1:05.211
9. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Glock Toyota +1 lap
11. Kubica BMW Sauber +1 lap
12. Piquet Renault +1 lap
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota +1 lap
14. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
Fastest lap: Barrichello, 1:22.762
Not classified/retirements:
Raikkonen Ferrari 18 laps
Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 8 laps
Trulli Toyota 1 lap
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 lap
Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 lap
Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1 lap
World Championship standings, round 5:
Drivers:
1. Button 41
2. Barrichello 27
3. Vettel 23
4. Webber 15.5
5. Trulli 14.5
6. Glock 12
7. Alonso 9
8. Hamilton 9
9. Heidfeld 6
10. Rosberg 4.5
11. Kovalainen 4
12. Massa 3
13. Buemi 3
14. Raikkonen 3
15. Bourdais 1
Constructors:
1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 68
2. Red Bull-Renault 38.5
3. Toyota 26.5
4. McLaren-Mercedes 13
5. Renault 9
6. BMW Sauber 6
7. Ferrari 6
8. Williams-Toyota 4.5
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
Next race: Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo. May 21-24
Lets hear what the Brawn GP drivers had to say after the race in Barcelona – taken from Autosport.com.
Jenson Button says his Brawn GP team has regained its advantage at the head of the field after dominating the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Button led team-mate Rubens Barrichello to the second one-two finish for Brawn this year, the Briton scoring his fourth victory in five races.
Now Button is 14 points ahead of Barrichello in the standings, while Brawn leads Red Bull by nearly 30.
The championship leader, who had claimed earlier that he thought Red Bull was ahead of his team in terms of performance, reckons the updates introduced in Spain have moved Brawn back ahead.
“It is a dream come true so far this season, even when times are tough we seem to be able to get the wins,” said Button. “When it goes well it goes well, last year when it went bad it went bad.
“I feel on top of the world at the moment. The team have done a great job and with this package you could see we have got our advantage back again, and thanks to Mercedes as we couldn’t do it without them.”
Button revealed he was originally going to stop three times, like Barrichello, but the team decided to switch his strategy during the race, a move that put him clearly ahead of the Brazilian.
The Briton admitted winning in Barcelona, a difficult track for him, is a real boost for the rest of the season.
“We were both going in that direction but they switched me to two stops to cover all our bases. Three stops was the quicker strategy, we thought. I wasn’t sure about going to two stops because when I put the fuel on board it felt very heavy.
“I didn’t think I would come out ahead of Felipe and Sebastian but I did. So I put my head down and concentrated on going as fast as possible.
“Coming back to Europe and winning at Barcelona, a circuit I have always found tough, is great and gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.”
Rubens Barrichello said he suspected something might have broken on his car after being beaten to Spanish Grand Prix victory by his Brawn team-mate Jenson Button.
The Brazilian had led the first half of the race, but when Button switched from a three to a two-stop strategy, Barrichello was unable to pull out enough of a margin to stay ahead once he had made his additional stop.
“The race evolved quite well, I had a great start and went to the lead,” said Barrichello.
“I was running a tiny bit quicker than Jenson to begin with and had two more laps of fuel, so it was running quite well. I heard they changed Jenson’s strategy and I had to keep on pushing.
“My third set of tyres was not good, I don’t know if something was broken on car. So I couldn’t keep the pace up, and from then on it was a struggle to keep the car on the track and a relief to come second.
“I’m disappointed because I didn’t win the race because I felt I had it in the bag today, but it’s still great for the team.”
He admitted that he had not expected the team to change Button’s strategy at the first stops.
“I was a lap or two longer, and Jenson caught me up a little bit on the strategy because of the safety car, so I was quite happy because having a lap longer and being in front I was delighted, I had the race in my hands,” said Barrichello.
“So I was actually quite surprised when they switched Jenson to two, but from then on I just had to go flat-out.”
Barrichello added that he had pitted early at the end of the race due to traffic, even though by that time Button had switched to the unfavoured hard tyres and was losing time to him.
“I came in a lap or two earlier for my final pit stop because there were lots of cars and blue flags and I was losing time,” said Barrichello.
What about last year’s championship contenders, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa? Read on for their views on the race (courtesy from Autosport.com)
Lewis Hamilton expressed his frustration at McLaren’s lack of competitiveness after finishing in a lapped ninth place in the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona – describing the car as “really hardcore” and saying that there was “no hope” of good results at present.
The world champion ended the opening lap at the tail of the field after being forced onto the grass as the lights went out and then being delayed as he avoided the four-car pile-up at the opening complex of corners on lap one.
After fighting his way up to the edge of the points positions, he was forced to make an early final pitstop after overworking his harder set of tyres.
“What can I do? I drove my heart out, as I always do,” Hamilton told BBC TV. “It’s just that the car is not good. I just had no grip.
“It’s just a shame they [McLaren] haven’t given me a car to defend the championship with. The car is that bad. I’m driving the socks off it. There’s just no hope.”
Despite his tough afternoon, the British driver praised the efforts of the McLaren team and refused to write off his hopes of retaining the world title.
“I’m not even thinking about that,” he added when asked if he was already out of contention for the championship. “We’re not even halfway through the season and the car is really hardcore.
“At the moment, for sure we don’t have the car to win the championship, but the team have done a fantastic job and every weekend they do a fantastic job.
“We have great reliability and the morale in the team is high. It’s just a shame they’ve not given me a car to defend the championship with.”
Felipe Massa has conceded Ferrari’s championship chances are over after Jenson Button scored his fourth win in five races at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Button has 41 points out of a possible 45 so far this year, and the Briton and his Brawn team dominated the Spanish race on Sunday.
Massa scored his first points of the year at Barcelona and is already 38 behind Button. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is tied with Massa on three points.
The Brazilian reckons his chances of fighting for the title are over.
“In the championship? No, I don’t think so,” Massa told reporters when asked if he could catch Button. “We need to be realistic. After five races they won four.
“Even if we improve massively and we are three or four tenths if front of them they will still score points. So forget it.”
Massa was nonetheless encouraged by his team’s step forward since the last race, but he admits Ferrari is still behind Brawn.
“In Q2 we were two tenths slower. In qualifying, in Q3 we were four tenths slower because of the fuel. Usually the picture is similar in the race,” he said. “Two tenths in the race is quite a big difference. Most of the time they were going slowly away. So that’s the real picture at the moment. Maybe we are still a couple of tenths behind.
“Red Bull I don’t know because I was always in front of Vettel, so I don’t know if I was holding him a lot or he was really similar.
“We still need to improve, but I think if you compare the car we had in this race and the car we had before it’s a big stop forward. That’s really, really encouraging.”
The Ferrari driver looked set for fourth today but was forced to slow down in order to save fuel, in the end dropping to sixth.
Massa said the problem had been with the refueling and not with the calculations.
“We didn’t have a problem with the calculations. We had a problem with the machine. But I don’t know if the problem was human or the machine. We need to analyse what was the problem. It was very frustrating.
“You fight the whole race and then you have to back off. I was already saving fuel in the last run, but it was not enough, so I had to really back off and let Vettel go. I lost a position to Fernando and almost to Nick, so it was quite frustrating.”
This is quite interesting. Brawn GP denies any team orders suggestions. Article taken from Autosport.com.
Brawn GP chiefs have strongly denied any suggestion that they used team orders to hand Jenson Button victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Rubens Barrichello had led the way early on, but it was Button who triumphed in the end after he was switched to a two-stop strategy at the first round of pitstops.
Those actions prompted conspiracy theorists to suggest that the team used the strategy to favour Button – something that has been strongly rebuffed by Brawn chiefs Nick Fry and Ross Brawn.
When asked to respond to suggestions that the strategy choice was a deliberate ploy to favour Button’s title charge, Fry told AUTOSPORT: “No. Both sides of the garage were racing.
“Listening to what was going on there was huge determination – firstly for Jenson to make the gap, and then on Rubens’ side of the garage with a bit of frustration at the end that they didn’t make it happen.”
Brawn said that the team never expected the switch to a two-stop to favour Button, and it was only poor lap times from Barrichello in his third stint that cost him the victory.
“If you look at the lap times on the tyres and the fuel, there was a period of the race where he was a lot slower than expected,” explained Brawn. “And that’s what cost him the race because Jenson on more fuel was quicker.”
When asked if he was worried that Barrichello had believed team orders had been used, Brawn said: “I hope not, because we’re not. You saw at the first corner that there are no team orders. Rubens made a great start and got past Jenson.
“I’d love to see Rubens win a race and see his crew win a race because it would be great for the team. There is no priority being given.”
Speaking about Barrichello feeling unhappy after the race, Brawn added: “It’s natural. Any driver who gets beaten and is happy is not a driver I want in the team.
“The fact that Rubens is unhappy is a healthy sign because I’d feel very strange if he was quite content to be second behind Jenson.”
Barrichello’s poor lap times in that penultimate stint were the result of an unidentified problem on his car which cost him time when he needed to build up a cushion over Button.
Speaking about the reasons for switching Button, Fry said: “Obviously he was shorter on fuel than Rubens, and we assumed he would pull away at the front and build a bit of a gap. When that didn’t happen, it was necessary to split them.
“It was something that we had talked about a lot before the race anyway. It was something we had planned for, and it turned out to be the best. We were a little bit worried about [Felipe] Massa and [Sebastian] Vettel, for Rubens that is, and that faded when they both came into the pits together.
“That was a bit of a surprise as we thought Vettel was going to go a bit longer than that. I don’t know if they did that deliberately or that was the plan.”
I’m still not sold on the “there was no conspiracy”, but hey, it was an awesome one two for the Brawn team and was never predicted. Though Rubins did seem so upset at the drivers weigh in after the raceDespite the lack of major action, it was still a good race.
But one things for sure, McLaren need to drop Kovalainen asap. He was a poor partner in a good car last year, but now, he just just utter garbage.
But the overtake between Alsono and Webber was just fantastic! Proof the KERS must NOT be forced into every car. While the system has a clear advantage in boosting, the downside is if you use prior to a corner just like Alonso, then you are just carrying more speed into it and so need to brake earlier. Thus Webber took the advantage, but in every race, Alonso has used KERS brilliantly and the races are all the better for it with some running it and others not. It just wont work if every driver has to have it, even if it is a slimmed down version that’s less heavy.
Anyways, it wont matter next year as it looks like the whole season will be a complete joke.
Oh and yet again Ferrari were a joke. It’s like the 80’s all over again for them.