Jenson Button made it three wins in four races. As competitive as the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel could be, he cannot challenge for the win. And in my opinion, Button has Jarno Trulli to thank for.
In the second part of the race, after the first pit stop, Vettel and Barichello got held up by the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, which is on the prime tyre. Since the Toyota is clearly under the pace set by Jenson Button and the fact that it took some time for Vettel to make it pass the TF109, it created a quite comfortable gap between Button and Vettel. And on the last stint when both the BGP001 and RB5 change to the prime tyres, it is simply too far a distance for Vettel to catch the leading Brawn.
Alex Yoong, supported by Steve Slater in his blog, stated that the win is clearly a win for Jenson Button and not Brawn. They simply concluded that the Brawn is not that competitive as indicated by Barichello, sidelining the fact that Barichello was held up not only by Trulli, but Timo Glock as well in the earlier part of the race. The only thing right Jenson Button had done is to wrestle the third place with Hamilton earlier. He passed the McLaren on the very second round, on the first corner. Had Hamilton maintain the position, Button may have one hell of a difficult time to overtake the KERS-equipped MP4-24. When the Toyotas pit, earlier than others as expected, Jenson assumes the lead.
And thus, marking the first win in normal race condition for Jenson Button. The first win is in the wet in Hungary 2006; the second is under the safety car in Albert Park; and the third is sitting still on the starting grid as the race got red flagged in Sepang.
Hamilton made a superb run to third upon starting the race and ended up in fourth. On the option super-soft, he nearly challenge for the podium. After changing to the prime medium-hard tyres, the McLaren simply went off pace as Hamilton went further and further away from Rubens Barichello.
Raikkonen scores the first three points for Ferrari this season, thus not making history as the worst season ever for Ferrari. The crucial moment for Raikkonen was when he wrestle back the seventh place he lost to Timo Glock when the Ferrari driver comes out of the pit lane. A few laps later Nico Rosberg makes his last pit stop and comes out ninth, just behind the last point scorer Fernando Alonso.
Felipe Massa meanwhile have issues with his ECU and had to turn off his KERS device, making him stopped earlier and thus losing precious place in the race. The earlier stop for the KERS saw him fuelled and made his F60 heavier than the rest of the field. And the extra 30kg without the precious 80bhp, making him seem very burdened to monster the car. As suspicious as it could be, Ferrari has been having problems with the ECU misfiring a lot and at the same time damaged the KERS device from functioning in normal parameters. Note that the ECU is a standard unit produced by McLaren.
Ferrari did not install any new parts on the F60, but they focused on fine-tuning the car - and in some way it paid off. Compared to McLaren that has been spotting interim parts on Hamilton's MP4-24, the Scarlett Car is not that far off.
Nelson Piquet made quite an improvement as he secure tenth, closing the performance gap to his teammate. Piquet has been consistently out-qualified by Alonso 4-0 this season. If we take it from last season, Sakhir mark the 20th back-to-back race where Alonso has out-qualified his teammate.
Alonso's drinking water pump malfunctioned early in the race, he virtually dehidrated when the race finishes. He brave the car to secure eight place although at the time, he was probably on the brink of losing conciousness. When he parked his car on the parc ferme, he fell down and has to be attended by the medical team. Luckily there's no permanent damage.
Mark Webber, impeded by Sutil in qualifying and started 18th on the grid, manage to finish 11th. Has he started further up the grid, we might see some drivers losing their points.
The worst qualifying turns out to be the worst ever race result for the BMWs. Both BMWs are forced to pit early to change their front wing assembly as they damaged their nose cones. The fact that they already opted for a one-stop strategy when the race started made them almost three seconds off the pace of the front-runners and they have no way defending against the rest of the field. Their strategy, is definitely a one-stop although they eventually forced to do a two-stop, the first one being only for front nose change. A two-stop strategy might see them secure better results as they are running on KERS and lighter on fuel. This is simply because on the long run, the Force India and Toro Rosso will definitely left behind; the KERS will make the difference. Furthermore, Sakhir featured three long straights.
The run-in with Kazuki Nakajima didn't do any help for Kubica, who in pre-season was aiming for the championship. Nakajima later retired from the race. It nearly became a rare event where all the car made it to the chequered flag.
Sakhir mark the last of the first flyaway races. When the Formula One circus comes back to Europe, we might see a different pecking order. And most probably the order that will last until the end of the season.
The circuit of Catalunya bears hope for teams like McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW that their upgrades will translate into a better performance. It is time for them to take back the lead, to claim what they know to be theirs - glory.
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