Formula 1 | seasonal f1 moan
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Turkey
Saturday, 6 June 2009 ‡ 10:53
Lots of news regarding the teams who will be or not be racing next year. I think its a huge shame about these teams having to make these types of comments this year, surely has a massive distraction on their 2009 task.
It seems this race has already been awarded to Massa, since he has 3 wins in a row at this track, but i don't feel Ferrari, let alone Massa will be anywhere near the front during qualifying or the race. As the first session of qualifying is over, Hamilton again will be starting at the tail end of the pack, 16th. McLaren's Kovalainen only managed 14th at the end of the second session, with no other surprises. The final session, Webber as usual does very well in qualifying with a 4th spot, with Barrichello and Button in front and Vettel on pole. I don't feel Kimi in 6th and Massa in 7th will be too much of a threat to the Red Bull and Brawn cars as long as no major incidents occur.
Vettel takes off from pole closely followed by Button and as Barrichello drops it on the start, he allows Trulli and Webber to jump up with half the rest of the pack, as Rubens drops to mid field. Vettel then makes a mistake half way around allowing Button to lead, from which Vettel never recovered and Button never faltered. Apart from Barrichello really trying hard to fight his way back up, nothing really exciting happened from then on. Red Bull should have switched from their three stop to a two stop after this but they didn't which i reckon lost Vettel the chance of regaining the lead in the race.
As predicted the Ferrari's where nowhere and McLaren's didn't really threaten anyone. Toyota's and William's did well, unfortunately Nakajima had wheel problems during his pit stop which dropped him right down the field. Barrichello retired and faces a massive 26 point gap in second place, with Vettel in third, 32 points behind Button, its up to Button to just collect as many points as possible after Nurburgring the second half of the season and surely secure the drivers championship by Monza, but then i don't think Barrichello could take points off Jenson.
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Saturday, 9 May 2009 ‡ 15:01
An exciting finish to the end of the qualifying session with Button just managing to start his final flying lap 2 seconds before the end - securing another pole position start this season. Vettel just lost out to Button and so did Barrichello. An amazing set of laps with less than 1 second separating the top 8 starters. Again Ferrari have such a relaxed attitude with Kimi (probably) sucking on ice lollies when he decided that his 1m21.2 would easily take him into the next qualifying session and didn't. Absolutely pathetic decision from whoever made it and worse decision from Stefano Domenicali allow it. If Ferrari and Kimi have decided to give up the fact that they have no chance this season of winning the WDC title, they may as well not attend any races this season, save money, work on developing next year's car and come back in March 2010.
The first corner was like a ten pin bowling alley, with Sutil and Trulli coming together on the track after both had left it for different reasons, causing both Toro Rosso's to collide. Debris all over the track we had a 5 lap safety car stint with Barrichello leading from Button, Massa, Vettel and Webber.
As the race began on lap 6 Rubens continued with the formation behind him unchanged until the first set of pit stops. Kimi having hydraulic problems with his Ferrari was out on lap 17. Apart from a close encounter with Alonso coming out of the pits, Hamilton drove a lonely race to finish just out of the points. With Buttons fourth win and finishing comfortably over 13s ahead of team mate Rubens in second and Webber in third, he must feel he has a chance to win the 2009 drivers championship. McLaren having trouble and Ferrari's not really on the ball, Buttons nearest rival, apart from his team mate is Vettel 18 points adrift.
Rubens i feel does not have the aggression to challenge Button, he's too nice. Vettel and Webber will be chasing Button hard but i think the Brawn will have the advantage on most tracks. It has been good to see different cars up front and i think Button is showing that he does have what it takes to be champion.
Labels: brawn, button, ferrari, mclaren, vettel
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