Postby JoKeR1980 » April 26th, 2009, 10:13 pm
LAST RACE - 26th April
Grand Prix of Bahrain
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Bahrain GP: Winners and Losers
Sunday 26th April 2009
STAR OF THE RACE
Jenson Button showed that he has the metal to be a World Champion with his third win in four races. Driving a very careful race, the Brit brought his Brawn GP car home in such extreme conditions that his engineers were telling him to cool it as early as Lap 7 - and that was running in free air.
He made a great start, tucking up his championship rival Sebastian Vettel and condemning him to a first stint behind Lewis Hamilton. He dispatched Hamilton with a supreme bit of overtaking (more of that below) and then drove within the parameters laid down by Ross Brawn.
He was never really under pressure thanks to Vettel being delayed by Trulli and then Trulli being delayed by Vettel, but if Trulli couldn't get past the Red Bull then he wouldn't have got anywhere with the Brawn.
That 'Milepost' just gets quicker and quicker.
Overtaking Move of the Race
Lap 2: Jenson Button on Lewis Hamilton for P3.
Button knew that he needed to get past Lewis Hamilton in a hurry, and he also knew that it was going to be difficult getting past a McLaren equipped with KERS. Yet such is the Brawn's agility in the braking zone that Button was able to dive inside into Turn 1 and get his car stopped. It looked a very neat move on a driver who hates being overtaken.
Alonso made a brave move on Trulli round the outside on Lap 14, but as we know, Trulli's a nookie when it comes to strong arm stuff.
WINNERS
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 2nd
'Katie's Dirty Sister' took Seb to P2 and installed him as Jenson Button's clear title contender. We ought to point out that Sebastian likes to give his cars names and for this race we got....Katie's Dirty Sister. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened if the Dirty Sister hadn't been held up behind The Anthony Hamilton Pension Scheme and the World's Fastest Winemaker, but probably not that interesting as there was little on-track overtaking after half distance. Raikkonen steaming past Glock being the one glorious exception.
Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 3rd
Trulli proved that he is both faster than Glock, and that the Toyota is a knackering beast to drive. The difference between Lewis Hamilton and Trulli after the race was amazing. Lewis sauntered over to reporters with his drinks bottle (you notice how he can't answers questions without it) looking like he'd finished a 10-lap charity karting sprint. Trulli looked like he'd been jammed into a microwave-grill unit for two hours on 215C.
Though he said he was disappointed that Toyota didn't win their first GP, we could have told him that wasn't going to happen from the moment they published the qualifying weights.
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 4th
Lewis came within a gnat's of a podium when he grabbed P2 momentarily on Lap 1. Had he been able to delay Trulli long enough, then that would have been the Toyota strategy out of the window. It wasn't to be and this time he really did settle for 4th place behind Jarno. As long as he can keep scoring points he stands a chance of a late-season recovery.
Rubens Barrichello, BrawnGP, 5th
Rubens suffered a bout of old-gitism in the middle of the race when he got stuck behind Nelson Piquet Junior. As they were racing for position it seemed hard to know who he was appealing to by constantly taking his hand off the wheel. They weren't going to blue flag Junior and I can't imagine anyone in Flavio Briatore's Renault team asking Nelson to move over because the Brawn GP was on a different strategy. Not even for The Nearly-Retired-one.
A three-stop strategy wasn't the way to go, but he made the best of a bad job by squeaking in front of Raikkonen in the final pit-stop.
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 6th
Though commentators were keen to say that Raikkonen had saved the Scuderia from their worst season start ever, it's hard to see why. In 1980 Jodi Scheckter scored a 5th place at Long Beach in the fourth race; in 1981 Didier Pironi scored a 5th place at Imola in the fourth race. In what way are those 5th place finishes better than a 6th?
It hardly matters, the fact is that Raikkonen looked good for his result and didn't inherit any places. Had Barrichello stumbled in the tiniest way possible on his final pit-stop it would have been a 5th place. What's more he had the wrong tyres (Grommit) to go mixing it up with Timo Glock on Lap 44, but he still got in front of the Toyota.
What he needs to do is bring a recognisable father figure to the races so that the TV crews can focus on Raikkonen Senior and not Luiz Massa when something happens to him on track.
Fernando Alonso, Renault, 8th
Alonso had a pretty scary start where he stuck two wheels onto the grass to avoid Nico Rosberg running down to Turn 1 and almost lumped his car into the back of Felipe Massa. He pulled a fantastic move to get by Jarno Trulli, but otherwise it was a fairly low-key race. He was only 13 seconds in front of Junior by the line.
Nelson Piquet Junior, Renault, 10th
Junior bought some time at Renault. He was in sight of his team-mate at the finish line and did nothing stupid on track. He also renewed his friendship with Rubens Barrichello, so all in all, a good afternoon's work.
LOSERS
Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 14th
This was more like a 57-lap race simulation than an attempt at points after a first corner sandwich that broke his front wing and an issue with his KERS device. You can't imagine the ongoing KERS saga is going to be fixed any time soon, especially when they're so busy redesigning the diffuser and the floor.
What Felipe needs most, though, is for Kimi Raikkonen to do well. Because if the Finn chucks in the towel at the end of 2009, then he's going to be sitting alongside Fernando Alonso in 2010 when Ferrari will have a Championship Contender again.
And Fernando likes a lot of attention.
Mark Webber, Red Bull, 11th
Despite working his way up to 11th place early in the race, Webber struggled to make up further places. He was desperately unlucky to be stranded at the back of the grid, but it might be God's way of saying - get your killer Qualy 1 lap in early.
Robert Kubica, BMW, 18th
Kubica's driving style is getting him into incidents with a lot of cars. In the three races I've seen him this year he's had contact of some kind with another car. When he overtakes anyone, the carbon fibre vultures gather. As a ratio of overtaking moves made to cars hit, he and Rubens Barrichello must have the highest strike rate in F1. Or just the highest strike rate full stop. Button and Raikkonen are the other end of the scale.
F1 As A Spectator Sport...?
The Crown Prince of Bahrain admitted on camera that his country's race isn't a sporting event. No, it's a branding exercise. The state of Bahrain uses the Grand Prix to promote the country in the world as a brand.
There is no groundswell of popular support for F1 in Bahrain. On Saturday for Qualifying the grandstands had less people than an English Football League Two bottom of the table clash. In Japan or Spain or the UK the grandstand on the start-finish straight would have been almost full for Qualifying.
During the race the main grandstand was half full. It was embarrassing. What's more the landscape the race passes through is a sandy quarry. State of the art? No, state of my ****. And it's the same story in China and in Malaysia where free tickets help boost the numbers.
What Bernie Ecclestone has to understand is the overwhelming majority of F1 fans don't care that the media centre is able to hold 500 accredited journalists, or that the grandstand looks like two wings of a Stormy Petrel (especially when it's equipped to seat 10,000 and 17 turn up). What they want is a circuit where they can instantly distinguish where the cars are, that facilitates overtaking and produces a good race.
As long as Silverstone or Donington or Montreal or even an improved Imola can do that, they should be on the calendar.
BBC Coverage
More underwhelming coverage from the BBC who seem incapable of running GP highlights after the race. When they broadcast a football match, they immediately go back to the pundits in the studio to review the highlights and the controversial incidents.
There's none of this second class treatment; "if you'd like to hear what Alan Hansen thinks about the sending off decision, or see the two goals, or see if Torres was offside, press the red button." No, give it to us straight.
We had a few more Leggardisms to enjoy: "What magic is Ross Brawn weaving on the pitwall...?" I don't know, let's see, has he got his cape on again...?
Plus the hilarious moment when the timing screens reshuffled as they do at the end of each session in Qualifying and Jonathan announced that Button and Barrichello were 14th and 15th in Q1. Martin Brundle's reply was witheringly brief.
Oh, and we missed Mike Gascoyne.
