Jenson Button, Brawn GP, Istanbul, 2009

Vettel’s mistake lets Button in for another win

2009 Turkish Grand Prix review

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Jenson Button added Istanbul Park to the growing roster of circuits he has conquered this year.

Pole sitter Sebastian Vettel could offer no more than token resistance to the Brawn steamroller, and he also lost out to team mate Mark Webber.

It all goes wrong for Vettel

As was widely expected, Vettel held onto his lead at the first corner with little difficulty. But it only lasted as far as turn nine – where the Red Bull driver slewed off the track, letting Button past.

Making matters worse, Red Bull compounded Vettel’s mistake by failing to deviate from his high-risk three-stop strategy. That allowed his team mate Mark Webber into third.

Vettel’s drama was the highlight of a hectic first lap which packed in more action than the rest of the race combined.

Barrichello loses out at start

Button followed Vettel into turn one but soon got ahead
Rubens Barrichello bogged down badly, slumping to 13th on the first lap. Jarno Trulli scorched by into third place, but lost that to Webber after running wide at turn seven.

Behind them was Felipe Massa, who had forced Kimi Raikkonen to swerve out of his path on the run to the first corner.

Raikkonen briefly held seventh behind Nico Rosberg, before Fernando Alonso squeezed past the Ferrari. Raikkonen clipped the Renault, damaging the F60’s front wing.

Barrichello now tried to make amends for his poor start by getting stuck into Kovalainen’s McLaren. But he discovered the frustration of battling a car equipped with KERS – whenever he got close enough to pass, Kovalainen jabbed his power boost button and quickly pulled away.

Barrichello was also hamstrung by the lack of a sixth gear – a legacy of his start line drama. Frustration eventually got the better of him and Barrichello launched his car into the side of the McLaren at turn nine. Kovalainen escaped unscathed – Barrichello, spun, lost more time and resumed 17th behind the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton’s McLaren had 31kg more fuel on board than Kovalainen’s and Barrichello was able to make it past on lap eight. One lap later he took Nelson Piquet Jnr. But his next passing attempt – on Adrian Sutil at the final turn – went all wrong, and Barrichello had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing.

While Barrichello supplied the entertainment very little else was happening. Button had a 4.6s lead over Vettel by lap 11, who in turn was 4.9 ahead of Webber.

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Button keeps Vettel at bay

Alonso was the first to pit for a scheduled stop on lap 13, having been the only driver to use the unfavourable soft tyre for the first stint. Two laps later Vettel was for a short stop as he stuck with the three-stop plan, mirroring Lewis Hamilton’s efforts at the same track last year.

But while Hamilton had been able to pass then-leader Felipe Massa on the track, Vettel could not do the same to Button. Whether it’s a trait of the RB5 in turbulent air, or just in Vettel’s nature, he hasn’t been able to pull off passes when he’s needed to this year.

Button never looked like cracking under the pressure, except for a brief moment when he ran wide at the final corner. The pair flashed across the line separated by 0.2s. But even then Vettel stayed his hand, not even so much as feigning an attempt at passing the leader, who would surely have been at pains to avoid a collision had Vettel risked a move.

That not only decided the contest for the lead, but also second place. Unable to clear Button, Vettel had no chance to extend his lead over Webber, and after the final round of stops found himself behind his team mate.

Despite rapidly catching Webber, Vettel was soon instructed by his team not to overtake. Whether he would have been able to is another matter, of course.

First points for Kubica

Trulli lost fourth place to Rosberg at the first round of pit stops – but re-passed the Williams at the second round. Felipe Massa’s run of consecutive Istanbul victories came an end, the Brazilian finishing sixth.

This time a year ago Robert Kubica had just won his first Grand Prix and taken the lead in the drivers’ championship. At Istanbul he finally broke his points duck for 2009, finishing seventh.

Timo Glock rounded off the points finishers having been soundly beaten by Trulli who, at one point, yielded position to his team mate as they ran conflicting strategies.

Raikkonen was ninth after his troubles and Alonso’s gamble of a short first stint on the soft tyre yielded no rewards.

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Pit stop ruins Nakajima’s race

Nick Heidfeld was 11th ahead of Kazuki Nakajima, whohad been on course for seventh place before a problem changing the front-left wheel at his final pit stop.

The highest-placed McLaren was Hamilton in 13th, just barely finishing on the lead lap, able to watch the victorious Button crossing the finish line in his mirrors. Hamilton had successfully completed a 26-lap second stint on the soft tyres which allowed him to pass his two-stopping team mate.

Kovalainen was 14th, leading in Sebastien Buemi, Nelson Piquet Jnr, Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Bourdais.

Giancarlo Fisichella at least made it around the first corner without hitting anyone – but he scarcely made it any further, his Force India failing soon afterwards.

Barrichello’s car packed in ten laps from home, the first time a Brawn has failed to go the distant. Afterwards the unhappy Brazilian compared his start-line problems to those he had suffered in Australia, and voiced concerns that such problems don’t seem to happen on the other side of the garage.

Such problems are exactly what he and Vettel need if they are to make any impression on Button’s runaway title lead. Barrichello now trails him by 26 points, and Button will be favourite to win again on home ground in two weeks’ time.

Driver of the day

Who else to pick for driver of the day other than Jenson Button? He pounced on Vettel’s mistake, he didn’t flinch under pressure, and he was relentlessly fast.

Here’s your picks for driver of the day via Twitter:

MarkF1 – My driver of the day is Button again for keeping Vettel behind him when he needed to.
Gazza999RT – Hamilton,best impression of a mobile Chicane seen in years
picknicking – I have to say Nico Rosberg and Jarno trulli!
alboreto – Honourable mention to Piquet for nice driving!
alboreto – has to be Button really doesn’t it. Superb.
KarolMcD – Button, total control.
hannaherika – driver of the day for me would be vettel #F1
f2point4 – You don’t really want to ask me that. ;-) I’m sure Felipe drove as well as he did the years before. It’s the car. :-(
MartinB1884 – JB for me. Composure personified but webber and trulli get honourable mentions.
garethdjones – I think you have to say Jenson Button, but Mark Webber drove a superb race to finish 2nd
Tim_Meakins – Webber close 2nd, but have to say Jenson Button!
recinthecity – Jenson Button!
kayels – Jenson Button :-) and Webber
cardiffblogger – Nobody really stood out for me. Piquet wins the slalom award though with those crazy maneuvers every time camera cut to him
PaulNUK – Button by a mile

Who is your pick for driver of the day? Leave a comment below.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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74 comments on “Vettel’s mistake lets Button in for another win”

  1. What can I say :( This championship just keeps getting worse. Hope 2010 improves.

    1. Red Bull fan by any chance?

  2. Anyone noticed button’s car was not alligned correctly on the grid?
    it was slightly off, like facing the corner instead of facing the front.
    Think its legal?

    1. People do it all the time, he won’t get a penalty

    2. Nah its all good and legal so long as he’s in the grid box, i think webber did the same. Just a way to pounce over to the racing line faster.

  3. We should change “Grand Prix Motor Racing” to “Grand Prix Motor Strategy” that’s the way things are now.

    Shame the new rules have only made things worse. I thought taking the grip away would work and it seemed to at the first race but allowing these “double decker diffusers” the racing has seemed to get worse and worse now all the teams are putting them on.

    If they are changing the rules to make better overtaking they should do it properly and not half-*****.

    1. Definitely a Red Bull fan then. Ha ha

  4. I see, just never realized it before.

    anyone got more details about Barrichello’s problem at the start?

  5. Quote from Rubens ” “It was a difficult and immensely frustrating day for me today. We had a problem with the clutch at the start which caused the car to go into anti-stall so I wasn’t able to get off the line. That dropped me back into the pack and to complicate things further, I was hitting the limiter on the straights which meant that I couldn’t overtake and had to take risks.

    “So it was an eventful first half of the race as I tried to compensate for the problems and I had a couple of incidents with other cars. I was prepared to fight my way up the field but the damage caused to the gearbox by the problems at the start began to get worse so the team had to retire my car. It’s difficult to have a day like this when you could see the pace of the car was fantastic but we will bounce back. Silverstone is one of my favourite circuits so I’ll stay positive and look ahead to the British Grand Prix in two weeks time.”

  6. Giancarlo Fisichella at least made it around the first corner without hitting anyone

    Oh come on. Fisichella had one first lap incident. Just like Kubica, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Webber, Webber, Heidfeld, Trulli, Buemi, Bourdais, Sutil and Nakajima (twice). And then I probably forgot some …

    To bad Alonso messed up in Q3. Would have been fun see him start from around P3 and then fight it out.

    Talking about poor strategies. What was up with Piquet’s strategy? He had some fun in his short middle stint I guess, but in the end it cost him a lot of places.

    1. This is the first time that Fisi has got past the first corner at Turkey though, he has had an accident there every year since F1 started racing there

  7. What the h… happened to Kimi, who was complaining to have lost pieces of his front wing on the on-board radio. Someone saw sometin’?

    1. He had a coming together with the rear wheel of Alonso & lost part of the outside of the front wing endplate.

  8. wong chin kong
    7th June 2009, 18:22

    Vettel was not used to a fast driver breathing down on him so closely, lost his concentration, made a mistake and let Button past easily. After that error, there was no chance for Vettel to catch up with Button; a dry track, flawless driving, no mechanical failure meant certain victory for Button. Yawn, same winner all the time, let’s hope next race is not that predictable- who’s to know, the same problem Rubens face can also happen to Button the next time.

  9. another GP bites the boring yet perfectly balanced an tyre saving Brawn dust.
    I understand that people in the UK love having yet another driver crowned champion, but for the other 80% of F1 fans this is already the most boring season of all times.

    09 is dead. Hopefully FIA does not change the rules for next year so that we can see some competition.

    Really boring race…

    1. I don’t know, I am French & happy for Button who deserves it & drives with maestria. What made me laugh is Bourdais when he said that he was carrying an over-load of + 700 Kg (1,500 Pounds)because he was hoping for a SC, ha ! This is an Indy-Car sort of thing not F1. What you guys think about him ?

    2. Some of us in the UK don`t necessarily support on a nationalistic basis, V.
      I don`t begrudge Button & Brawn their glory but after Silverstone the bums on seats may be a little , I guess.
      I`ve heard of people who aren`t even going to bother watching F1 on TV for the rest of the season. Sad, & not what I`d do, but I can see why (Brawn`s dominance, all the politics = total depression & disbelief setting in)

      1. I am from the UK. I like Jenson he is nice but I don’t rate him although he’s doing amazing this year. I’m a Hamilton and Vettel fan but more importantly I want to see close racing and a fight for the championship. It’s a shame the Brawn Bandwagon are just loving this boring dominance

        1. I’m English in England and I am a Lewis Hamilton fan thru and thru.
          I don’t find the season boring at all – an evolving & reordering of the F1 hierarchy – (maybe temporarily maybe not) is something I’m really enjoying. I’m sure it helps that Jenson is British but I’m also thrilled to watch his flawless performance with deserved spoils.
          Watching the old guard often trip over themselves as they try and scrabble together at least an explanation of this seismic shift.
          Watching Rubens genuinely struggle to maintain any consistency as the pressure of keeping up with Jenson eats at him. I hope it doesn’t alter Rubens often chilled and happy demeanour.
          Also, enjoying watching the World Champ slowly coming to terms with his inverse position. Driving a surprisingly poor package extremely well. Monaco grabbing back that beautifully taken slice of luck she presented him last season. Serving a healthy dose of humble pie.

          That’s just a small part of the detail I enjoy in F1, whatever the result and I always love it…

          Keep on Jenson, fantastic performance!

    3. Bull. I’m from the UK and I find it boring. I’m a Ferrari fan, and I found their dominance boring (I didn’t even watch the rest of the season once it became clear they had it in the bag).

      However, the fact is that Brawn (or Honda at the time) made the right decision(s) for this season, and developed a stunner of a car. It is not Brawn’s fault, or Jenson Button’s for that matter, that they are doing so well – this is F1…it is up to the rest to catch up. Just like it was when Ferrari dominated.

      It’s not JB and RB suffered two absolute dismal seasons to have what they have today.

      1. Completely agree, Loki.

  10. Vettel’s mistake was inconsequential. He only deprived himself of second place with that mistake and nothing more.

    1. Don’t you need to back up that assertion with some arguments? (Say laptime comparisons, even anecdotal evidence, …)

      Not saying you are wrong, just that it’s so strange seeing such a bold statement with nothing to back it up!

      1. I really was inconsequential. JB was right on his tail and would have ended up ahead after the first round of pits anyways.

    2. It’s hard to tell.

      Button would probably have overtaken him after the first round of pitstops, but at least Red Bull probably wouldn’t have gambled on short-fuelling him for the second stint… If anything, they would have fuelled him longer, which means he would have at least been able to hold on to second place.

  11. Didn’t Vettel say the same? I think the point is that Button was faster than Vettel already in the first stint (while he was on a higher fuel load). Which means Button would probably have gotten past Vettel after the first pitstop.

  12. Yes … I hope Jenson … wins all the races
    and gets the Championship
    He is good man … and he deserves it

    1. I’m not a Jenson fan but I agree he is a really nice guy.

      Found it funny at the start him talking to DC saying “First of all I find it really hard to talk to you seriously”

  13. will be supporting jenson and lewis at silverstone but i wish there was a bit more racing at the front this season. i think that we where all a bit spoilt by the last two seasons with all that went on.
    i’m sure it will be normal service next season.

  14. HounslowBusGarage
    7th June 2009, 21:22

    If Vettel hadn’t made that mistake would a three stop strategy have actually worked? Certainly it would have allowed a short stint on the sub-prime tyres, but three stops is a heck of a penalty.
    I’m still not sure of the wisdom of Red Bull in terms of race strategy. Whadda you think?

  15. Unlike many others’ i didn’t find the race to be boring. It was a fantastic race. As till the last second two redbulls were fighting. At the begining Barrichello’s woes and in between confusion of vettel made it fully interesting race.

    BTW lots to think about for Barrichello and McLaren. Ferrari was also not that competitive how they looked before the race.

    1. Two Red Bull’s fighting?

      They were told to back off – this is why I don’t like this engine rule! They should fight till the end!!

  16. Max was right with hundreds of million’s spent on building new cars the racing is sensational, spectacular overtaking, cars tucked up behind each other late diving into corners, drafting up the straights.Drivers showing there racing prowess, in evenly matched cars this season is turning out to be the most exciting for years just as Max said it would.How could we ever doubt what this man say’s he’s alway’s right, we should follow him blindly to a future of great F1.

  17. HounslowBusGarage
    7th June 2009, 21:42

    Yes Jugnu, I can’t quite understand how uncompetitive Ferrari were in the race either. I would have thought that Istanbul was their kind of track as well.
    MacLaren know that they have designed a dog; a real dog. Unless thay have a mega-load of improvements for Silvertsone, it might be time to abandon 2009 and aim for 2010. However in the past, teams that produced a rubbish car for the first part of the season have sometimes been able to suddenly replace it with a vastly superior model for the second half. I do hope MacLaren are able to do the same.

    1. I remember 2004 where Mclaren’s B spec car was much better. Of course they had testing back then.

      1. Very true, Mahir C.
        Under a cap, of course, major devepoments like B spec cars would become almost impossible.
        A car as dominant as the Brawn could well stay miles in front all season.

  18. Granted if it’s not your driver doing all the winning then it might appear boring to some. But I think some people may have been spoilt by the drama of the last couple of seasons.

    It happens fairly regularly where one team, and one driver in particular, is dominant. Check out 2004, 2002, 2001, 1993, 1992 etc.

    I think the main problem this season is that Button is driving fantastically well and Rubens, Webber and Vettel just aren’t good enough. Their cars have the pace but they don’t. Qualy and race lap times suggest that 1 car shouldn’t have won 6 out of 7.

    1. hear hear!

    2. Absolutely agree, Button is just driving brilliantly this season and deserves a lot of praise… and Rubens is simply being outclassed.

      However, I’m not sure we can say Webber and Vettel are just not good enough. The Red Bull is strong, but still not quite matching the Brawns. I think Rubens is, really, the only person who could be challenging Jenson, but he’s running out of time.

    3. you must be joking.
      The fact that Jenson is not laping the RBR cars just tells that he is not good enough.
      The dominance of the Brawns is so clear that drivers like Schumi would have minutes advantage over the next cars. The race laps being so close tells us that either Jenson is taking it easy or just plain slow. Note that in race conditions Jenson never runs over the bumps or limiters. Because he does nor need to. The car is probably 1-3 seconds faster per lap in race conditions.

  19. Rules changes have amounted to nothing and a combination of that and team orders made Turkey an appropriately named GP. Good on Button for his success, and no one is more deserving of benefiting fully from Honda’s 2008 investment, but it sure makes for a boring 2009 save for Barichello’s antics.

  20. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    huh?! was there a race today?

    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    1. yep, but it wasnt around an oval track and there bwas all type of complicated stuff like different shaped cars with different engines, so you wouldn’t have got it anyway.

  21. I’m getting more bored of Rubens than the racing.

    He stalled it at the start and runied his gearbox.. end of. It doesn’t “happen on the other side of the garage” because Button doesn’t let it.

    Why can’t he just realise he’s too old for F1 these days and bow out gracefully, instead of driving into people (just like Melbourne again) and making a fool of himself.

    1. I guess you are not paying attention to reality. Is not uncommon for one driver to get “old parts” that are more prone to break. I do recall Alonso complaining about the same. You would not say Alonso was too old to drive F1 would you?

  22. I dont like the headline. Reads like Vettels error was the reason for Buttons win. Button drove with his Brawn GP on his own league. Flawless and classy. Vettel never has had a chance. As the other readeers mentioned the error was inconsequential.

    1. well one thing with Button winning so many at the start of the season…Bernies winner takes all concept may now be hidden away and never seen again..

      All the fears of what… if a driver wraps up winner takes all system early then what is the point of the rest of the season.

      Well done to Button nice win, Vettel should have turned down his revs more at the end after he exited pits behind his team mate as he is running out of his motor stocks.
      He also should have been more aggressive behind Button…I am sure Button would have been more cautious going into T1 after 1st round of pitstops when vettel caught him had Vettel had a big lunge at him. Might have made that bit of time to stay ahead of MW or even pulled away from Button??…we will never know.

      Well done to webber also, true rock this year.

      Brawn seem to have taken an extra step in performance and RedBull have also pulled away from the rest..so becomes interesting to see if RB can make a gain and either draw along side again or even jump a little bit further.

      1. well one thing with Button winning so many at the start of the season…Bernies winner takes all concept may now be hidden away and never seen again..

        Yeah, I can see I am going to have to eat my hat, as I was giving quite a few posters on this forum a hard time about them using, as an argument, the unlikely scenario of somebody winning all the first races.

        The proof is in the pudding so to speak :-)

  23. i think a test weekend should be set up to allow teams to correct there problems for the sake of the spectator .
    the race had its moments just not 58 laps worth .

  24. Ok, Ok, Thanks to Mosleys’ perpetual rule changes we are now back to Schumacher days when winning was the preserve of one and only Schumacher(now Burton). F1 needs stable rules, the only change needed in F1 is for Mosley and co. be shown the door.

    1. You would get stable rules under a low budget cap. Is that what you are rooting for then?

      It’s the big budgets that makes the cars go so much faster every year and then necessitate new rules to slow them down again.

  25. From 1994 i missed only two races but this is by far the most boring season so far. I think that there will be no more f1 this year except if button falls out in Q1 or mabe Q2

  26. webber and button for driver’s of the day. no mistakes by either driver.

  27. Jenson was great and he diserves all he has achieved. I was gutted for Rubens and Kazuki. Ross is a magician. I was surprised at Adrian as he seemed to be doing so well but then just disappeared to the back of the pack. I was confused by the STR’s performance as they have been fairing much better in general of late, and I hope it is a temporary glitch. Other than being chuffed for Webber and pained for Vettel, the Williams of Nico was great to see up in the points and I hope this is the boost they need. The Toyota’s, BMW’s, McLarens and Ferrari still have much work to do, and watching events unfold should prove interesting. It’s great to see the grid turned on its head…

  28. awfully boring to watch. Even as a schumacher fan, i got bored of watching him win race in race out without any challenge in the 2003-2004 seasons. what more now when i’m not a button fan. i think button is not that great a driver, he is just a disciplined driver, and can work well under pressure. If even rubens the old man can take 3 2nds out of 7 races, it is clear that it is the car doing the winning and not button. I would picture anyone winning races like that with that car. F1 should have a more consistent set of rules, otherwise it would just be like playing a guessing game. Whoever guesses correctly wins all the races. And really, in cases like that you only need 1 race and not 1 season. And please, get those in season testing back on for better improvements on car performances. At the rate this is going, F1 is becoming painful to watch. And no offence to Britons, but i’m getting really tired of listening to the British National Anthem week in week out. Can we hear another country?? Can be any country!!

    1. Even as a schumacher fan, i got bored of watching him win race in race out without any challenge in the 2003-2004 seasons

      I’m sure you meant 2002 not 2003 since 2003 had 8 winners, even more than 2008.

    2. Better than sitting through two national anthems week in week out…

      I agree there should be testing, maybe limited to a handful of events during the season, all the teams present, and spectator access to paddock and pit lane (during breaks). Maybe a race for all the drivers, not necessarily in F1 cars.

  29. For those of you miserable about Jenson’s dominance, remember how Alonso won 6 races in the first half of 2006, then just 1 race in the second half of the season.

    Alonso had a 25 point lead after 6 wins but the title still went to the final round of the season.

    1. That was because Renault’s mass dampers were banned midway through the season.

      1. Yes, traditionally something illegal suddenly turns up on a dominant car ;)
        Maybe not this year, though, as Max may hope he can persuade Brawn away from FOTA

    2. There was testing back then.
      Without testing, this championship is over.

      1. plus there was tyre war.

    3. So much for positivity, eh? :(

  30. Yes, sorry it was a typo error. i meant 2002 n 2004.

    Thanks for pointing that out David A.

  31. Did anybody else notice from the TV images available, only Button didn’t need to use the right hand side of his cockpit as a head rest through Turn 8 throughout the entire race ?

  32. Driver of the day has to be Button again.

    I understand why some people are saying Button winning all the time is making this season a bit boring, especially after the last few seasons. But personally I think it was worse during the Schumacher/Ferrari era, as they didn’t just dominate one season.

    It seems that Toyota are back on the pace after Monaco and that BMW’s upgrades seem to be working.

    When I saw the fuel loads and saw that Hamilton was on a one stopper I thought there was no way he could manage it with his tyre history at the Turkish Grand Prix, but he seemed to make it work, although he didn’t exactly make up a lot of places.

  33. How can anyone say it was a boring race? It wasn’t as dull as Monaco, there was overtaking all the way around the circuit, the only annoying thing is that there should have been more up front.
    Its strange how the Ferraris rather gave up half way through, and I was surprised the Red Bulls didn’t have enough power to catch Button – apart from the dirty air problem…..

  34. First things first. I’m a diehard Ferrari fan and an Indian. Yet, am enjoying watching a driver (potentially, well you guys are all arguing whether Button’s that damn good) at his peak. Well, no question, Brawn built Button a “monster of a car”, as Jense himself said. However, no one can take anything away from what he’s accomplished. Last year, McLaren were quite dominant, yet Hamilton didn’t win as many races as he should have had. He won the championship with a BIG DOLLOP of luck, at the last corner of the last GP. A year before, he lost the championship which was already his. Yet we had many proclaiming him to be the greatest thing that happened to grand prix racing. Now, here we have someone who won 6 out of 7 races. No doubt you need a good car, but the driver must be able to deliver with it just as well. What i’m trying to say is that Button IS THAT DAMN GOOD, WORLD CHAMPION MATERIAL, that is. He has earned his rank, doing the toil in dog of a car for years. We are part of something truly magnificient. This guy didn’t have a confirmed drive at the beginning of the year. Now here he is, b1tc#$!app1ng everyone on the track. Bow down people, you’re watching a man do what he does best, at his best. RESPECT!!!

    As a postscript, i must mention that i find it incredulously hilarious, that most of you swoon about fellas from the past who dominated in their respective eras. Yet, when you have the opportunity to watch some of the truly greats LIVE at work, you spit venom. I pity you!

    1. nuff said. i agree 100%. you wrote exactly what i think.

      1. As a postscript, i must mention that i find it incredulously hilarious, that most of you swoon about fellas from the past who dominated in their respective eras. Yet, when you have the opportunity to watch some of the truly greats LIVE at work, you spit venom. I pity you!

        That just has to be requoted! Spot on, cheers.

        While I feel the same about Jenson’s performance. I think it worth mentioning Lewis was in his rookie season matching and beating his World Champ team mate etc.

  35. Come to think of it… the broadcast, it doesn’t show much of the leading cars as much as i’d like to see.

  36. THE reason for the Brawn dominance……….the man himself, please step forward Mr Ross Brawn. If he quit now, and went to work for BMW, i bet they would win hands down next year. Driver of the day, er…..it’s a hard one, who won? oh that will be Jenson, who got fastest lap? oh, Jenson again, and lastly, weights taken into account, who was the fastest qualifier? its that man Jenson again, think he deserves driver of the day. Did anyone else notice how he opened the gap back to Webber, when Vettel pitted from 11 seconds to 18 in a very short space of time, very Schumacher like.

  37. Sri June 8, 2009 at 7:09 pm
    Come to think of it… the broadcast, it doesn’t show much of the leading cars as much as i’d like to see

    there’s not a great deal going on at the front anyway – the only advantage would be if it were n on-board camera…

    I think that overall the race was good, I know that the sport is largely about winning…. okay its all about winning, but still, there is plenty of action and good racing to be seen in the rest of the pack. For instance I would have liked to have seen a lot more of Trulli and Rosberg near the end of the Grand Prix. Also Barrichello and Kovalinen had a great battle near the beginning and it would have been good, if the gearbox didn’t break on his car, to have seen Barrichello battle his way up from the back. In some respects the regulations do help this and I have found this season interesting because of the new regulations. They would have worked much better if Brawn had had the same amount of time as everyone else rather than developing the car for like the whole of last season.

    My driver of the day would probably be Rosberg – I think I read that it was his best result of the season, in a car that frankly isn’t fantastic, which meant he got past the two ferraris and alonso… but we either didn’t see this or it was strategy.

    1. Don’t get me wrong mate. I’m a huge Williams fan, more so for the man who gave the team his name, brought it to life. However, i would want to see the guy who’s doing the winning a tad more than i get to. No disrespect to the other guys, they work equally hard and in some case harder than the leading driver. However, it’s something about the winning car/driver combination, which is superlative and you want to want watch it, to absorb details. YES, i want more on-board action as well…

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