Category: 2009

Race Notes: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2009

Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Date: 1 November 2009
Circuit: Yas Marina Circuit
Location: Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Distance: 55 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Interviewers: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

For this race I did not have the 5Live audio option on Freeview and the BBC’s streaming version made each of my browsers crash (I tried FF and IE).

Does anyone know why this isn’t called the UAE Grand Prix? Seems strange that after years of naming GPs after countries or territories we’re naming this one after a city. Maybe the locals are trying to promote the place and get one up on their neighbouring Emirates.

Coverage begins at 12pm UK time.

A quick review of Brazil with new World Champion Jenson Button, Muse as backing music, works well. He says the last 3 laps were the longest laps he’s ever driven. Very pleased to get it after 21 years of working for it, 21 years since his Dad put him in a kart.

Live in the paddock. Brawn garage. JB has a ‘World Champion’ sticker on his lid. Coulthard says for them this race is a celebration of a championship-winning year but he doesn’t think they have the pace here to win.

A look of the points: The interest this weekend is that one point gap between McLaren and Ferrari.

Chatting with Richard Cregan, ex-Toyota F1 and has spent the last year or two overseeing the Yas Marina construction project. He says he likes the ‘can do’ attitude of the people in this part of the world.

Quali recap with Lee McKenzie, she points out:
Q1. Grosjean and Kovalainen spun. Alonso was very slow but he seemed to be expecting it.
Q2. Kovalainen then had transmission failure. Raikkonen slow.
Q3 in darkness. Hamilton very fast, Vettel tried hard but Hamilton lowered the bar considerably at the flag. Webber 3rd. Button had vibrations on the brakes.

Grid
Hamilton, Vettel
Webber, Barrichello
Button, Trulli
Kubica, Heidfeld
Rosberg, Buemi
Raikkonen, Kobayashi
Nakajima, Alguersuari
Alonso, Liuzzi
Sutil, Kovalainen*
Grosjean, Fisichella

*Kovalainen had a 5-place drop for a gearbox change.

We go to a review of Renault’s year. A very fast review. Lots of ups and downs with the whole Piquet thing, Grosjean coming in, car sometimes fast and sometimes slow and now Alonso is off to Ferrari.

Review of BMW. Less of a review, more a 20sec montage to music and maybe two sentences after it. This is their 70th and final race and they only had one podium all year.

McLaren. Started with a terrible car and turned it around to become winners. The guys say Kovalainen is expected to leave the team (most of us expect Raikkonen to come in). DC says Heikki is capable of winning, given the chance – he just hasn’t had the chance. (DC has been in the exact same situation against Mika.)

Ferrari. Worst ever start to a season, and the first season without a pole position since 1993. Massa injured, Badoer and then Fisichella in. Both they and we are looking forward to Alonso alongside Massa in 2010, it’ll be a great partnership.

Seems that’s it for the recapping the teams, apparently nobody cares about the rest.
We jump into a skit with Humphrey taking part in his first ever race in a Lotus Elise championship at Silverstone. This is show how hard it is to race, and also to promote GoMotorsport, getting more people involved in racing. (They cleverly used only a .net domain so I had to Google it to find it.) This piece is badly edited – he damaged the front of the car but it has mysteriously repaired itself..

Gridwalk
Martin Brundle and Eddie Jordan on the grid.

Boris Becker: “Amazing, they all say a lot before races how its gonna be but its all true what they say, amazing place.”

350 British marshals are helping here, here’s one of them: “Really good, fantastic experience, thanks to BARC for the opportunity and the ATC for accomodating us. I’ve been doing this 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes, its in my blood so I’ll carry on. We’re all a team.”

Lewis Hamilton: “Great job all week, incredible feeling to be up front at the last race. We’ve got the pace and a good strategy to win. We never anticipated we’d be so fast at the end of the season though that was our goal.”

Mark Webber: “Went pretty well yesterday in quali. Sensational circuit. Predict a good fight with JB, Lewis pretty strong and Seb and I, all three of us. For sure I’m not gonna do anything to hurt Seb’s chances, totally in the team’s interest not to lost too many points on that front.”

Quick chat with cricketer Andrew Flintoff.. but I don’t care. He says this is his first experience at a GP but I swear Brundle has talked to him elsewhere..

Richard Branson, arm in a sling. Says he turned a quad bike over and he just had an operation on the shoulder. EJ thanks him for swearing on TV before when everyone said Eddie would be the first (at the first race, no less).

Jay Kay. Says compared to this race, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do at home. One of the finest tracks in the world. Looking for a Ferrari podium.

Crown Prince of Bahrain: “It is spectacular, it does so much for the sport in the Gulf region.” EJ layers on platitude after platitude on the Prince and Bahrain for introducing the sport to the region. The first race of 2010 will be held in Bahrain on March 14th.

Anthem of the UAE

Shots of the King Carlos of Spain walking on the grid with Bernie. Martin Brundle walks up and chats to him casually, as you do.. Not on mike this time.

Flypast by an Etihad jet. Jake calls it an Emirates jet despite the race being named after Etihad and there being giant Etihad banners all over the place. Sponsorship fail.

Replay of yesterday’s piece with Martin and David racing two-seater F1 cars around the track a few weeks ago when it had just opened.. dust everywhere. Showing us the racing lines.

Ted Kravitz tell us who has improved the most since March. Ferrari are 2.8sec faster, Force India 2.6, Red Bull 2.0, BMW 1.8, Toyota 1.6, Brawn 1.0, with Renault and Ferrari much smaller gains. I recognise the music but I’m not sure what it is..
He also tells us about the fuel weights but it doesn’t interest me.

Lee has found Ron Dennis. He’s in an overview role at McLaren now. He says the team are doing a great job, quick interview because it is time to race.

Hah, the lead-in music is the KLF! 90s classic.
We’re into the FOM intro.

Engines fired.

FORMATION LAP

55 lap race

1.2.3.4.5.hold.GO!

Hamilton leads immediately. Everyone clear and through lap one.

Replay: Webber cuts across Barrichello’s nose and little pieces of Brawn go flying.

BMW and Toyota fighting.. I am having big trouble getting Firefox to stay open without crashing as it loads the 5Live audio feed, so I’m trying to fix that while following the busiest part of the race..

Hamilton building a big lead already!

L5 – Great helicopter shots.
L7 – CGI of the first corner showing everyone’s positions! Not sure it was all that useful in this instance but it will be in future when existing camera angles aren’t enough.

Heikki is told if he can’t pass Kimi, he should save fuel instead. Millions of fans suddenly gather around their TVs to watch the amazing spectacle of guys saving fuel.

L10 – Not that good of a race at the moment, though Webber is fast and catching his teammate.

L13 – Lewis is told he has to pick up the pace, or fall into the clutches of the 1-stoppers.

F1 journalist @WillBuxton via Twitter:
“Apparently the Yas Hotel will be lit up in the colours of the flag of the winning driver at the end of the race.”
That’s crazy!!

L17 Barrichello and Kubica are the first to pit. They succesfully negotiate the tricky pit exit.
Hamilton sets the Fastest Lap.

L18 – Hamilton pits, so does Button. Button beats Kobayashi… no, side by side.. hairpin, and again along the straight, Button brakes too late and Kamui takes the position! He’s a feisty one this new guy, isn’t he?

L19 – Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, and Buemi pit. Hamilton is told he may have a brake problem.

L20 – Vettel pits and comes out in the lead!!

Ted Kravitz says McLaren are clearing a space in the garage!

Hamilton pits. Wow, he pulls into the garage and gets out of the car. We can hear Martin Whitmarsh telling Lewis that ‘the data shows a problem, they might take it off and find nothing but they can’t risk it.’ With that long straight I concur, very big shame though, this basically kills the race stone dead.

L23 – It has all gone quiet again. Rosberg has been told to take risks because Trulli is slow.

Order:
Vettel, Webber, Kobayashi*, Button, Barrichello, Raikkonen*, Kovalainen*, Heidfeld, Trulli, Kubica, Rosberg, Nakajima*, Buemi, Fisichella*, Alonso*, Grosjean*, Sutil*
* yet to make their first (or only) stop

Kobayashi flying!

Hamilton with Lee: “Problem with the right rear brakes, it was too dangerous to continue. Struggling to stop the car.”

Getting dark in Abu Dhabi now.

Brundle is talking about how Kobayashi had a poor GP2 season and Grosjean had a good one, yet F1 is all about absorbing pressure and Kobayashi is doing well with it, Grosjean isn’t.

L28 Gaps opening between cars.. not much going on..

L30 Raikkonen pits.
L31 Kobayashi also in.
L32 Now for Kovalainen, can he beat Raikkonen? Yes, by some margin!

Wow, Sutil and Grosjean are side by side *without crashing*!

It got dark very quickly..

This is one of the most boring races of the season. The images coming through the TV look fantastic but that’s not really enough – we could use some racing.

Kobayashi and Nakajima started next to each other… Kob is now 8th, Nak still where he started.

L42 Kubica vs Buemi, contact, spin! Kubica spins trying to get around Buemi, loses a place to Rosberg while he recovers.

L43 Vettel and Button pit. Seb has a clear lead and Button beats Barrichello!

All done bar the shouting. The only entertainment is watching the decorative lights on the hotel as they change colour. Blue. Orange. Purple. Different every lap, how can you get bored? Umm..

L45, 10 to go.

L49 Button is catching Webber at half a second per lap, but we are running out of laps.

L51 Vettel is only now putting laps on the back end of the field, strong pace from everyone yet still a boring race.. I wonder if that means lapping the backmarkers helps racing?

L52 Fisichella on Grosjean! Grosjean goes across the run-off and will have to give up the place for cutting the corner.
Brundle: “Its hardly going to change our day is it?”
Hah. Snark factor 50.

Button has caught Webber! Mark is all over the place, will he hold on?

LAST LAP

Great fight between Button and Webber, nice and clean, no weaving and Mark manages to hold him off. This is how it should be done. No hard blocking a la Kobayashi in Brazil.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL WINS!
Webber 2nd, Button 3rd.

Vettel screaming on the radio: “Bitte! Bitte! Kate’s dirty sister did it again!”
A reference to the name he gave his car..

Donuts from Vettel but we can’t see it because the director is showing us the crowd, and the hotel again.. it was showing a chequered flag! Not as good as a donut though..

About now @WillBuxton corrects himself when he realises it was a flag they were showing rather than the winner’s colours..

Parc Ferme.

Replay of the donuts. FIA likes to penalise them. Brundle says donuts should be mandatory.

Drivers head upstairs.. Button talking to Webber, swears live on worldwide TV! Despite us being able to hear them all season, the drivers still haven’t cottoned on to that fact..
Legard apologises on behalf of the BBC. I just realised I haven’t mentioned Legard at all in these notes, did I mentally tune him out? Did I still listen and take in the info? I have no idea.

Podium

Anthems for Germany (Seb) and Austria (RBR). Sorry Austria, your anthem is way too long.

Trophies

Back to the guys. 19 weeks, or 133 days until we do it again. DC says, “it was a great bit of action on the last lap. Great spectacle in Abu Dhabi, incredible season.”

Ross Brawn: “It was a great race. There are some things we could learn from the circuit, fabulous place. We haven’t quite got the pace of Red Bull at the moment but we made the best of what we had. Our reliability record is stunning.”

Pit board being held up behind the BBC guys, by a BrawnGP man: “Will you marry me Fatna?”
Hopefully she is race-mad and thinks this is romantic!
Boris Becker is around again.. Get James Corden off my TV screen, he’s not funny.

Conference

Vettel, P1: “Had a very good start, not enough to beat Lewis but it was good, I was surprised. I was able to stay close enough, we were a little heavier. In the last sector the car was a dream today. Nearly went wide at pit entrance, unfortunately then he had to retire but up to that point it was a fantastic race, then we had a cushion to Mark and I could pace myself.”

He’s been drinking his sponsor’s product, I can’t keep up with his fast talking.

Webber, P2: “Made a pretty good launch (start), tried to get back on the inside, got hit quite hard on the left rear and was worried about a puncture, relieved it wasn’t. Seb was just quicker today, especially the last stint. At the end, thought this is gonna be quite tight, we had a slight top speed advantage, we had a good clean fight. Want to thank the team for their patience with what happened (broken leg), my best season, 16 podiums together, very good.”

Button, P3: “Fun race. Lot of understeer on the Prime tyre. Outbraked myself against Kobayashi but he was faster at the point anyway. The last couple of laps were a lot of fun, I was very excited about that battle, Mark is always difficult to overtake and it was clean but on the edge, it was perfect, I really enjoyed the fight. Today was a bonus after the championship in Brazil. Thanks to everyone at Brawn and Mercedes. Congratulations to Seb, sterling pace today and we didn’t have the legs and we couldn’t challenge them. I’m looking forward to coming back to Abu Dhabi.”

Vettel again, what’s next? “We’ll face a long winter with no testing. The guys in the factory are pushing hard. No refuelling next year. This was a special season all round, hopefully next season will be just as exciting.”

And so say we all!

Race Result

Driver Gap Pts
1 Vettel 55 laps 10
2 Webber 17.8sec 8
3 Button 18.4sec 6
4 Barrichello 22.7sec 5
5 Heidfeld 26.2sec 4
6 Kobayashi 28.3sec 3
7 Trulli 34.3sec 2
8 Buemi 41.2sec 1
9 Rosberg 45.9sec
10 Kubica 48.1sec
11 Kovalainen 52.7sec
12 Räikkönen 54.3sec
13 Nakajima 59.8sec
14 Alonso 69.6sec
15 Liuzzi 94.4sec
16 Fisichella 1 lap
17 Sutil 1 lap
18 Grosjean 1 lap
DNF Hamilton Brakes
DNF Alguersuari Gearbox

Another win for Vettel and a deserved one. Even without Lewis’ problems he could well have still won this race, he was fast enough and was catching Hamilton before the retirement.. of course we don’t know how much of that was down to the brake issues.
I like the symmetry of the best four drivers and two teams of the season taking the top four positions in the final race, despite the resurgance of McLaren and Ferrari in the second half of the year.

Drivers’ Championship

Driver Prev AD Total
1 Button 89 6 95 C
2 Vettel 74 10 84
3 Barrichello 72 5 77
4 Webber 61.5 8 69.5
5 Hamilton 49 49
6 Räikkönen 48 48
7 Rosberg 34.5 34.5
8 Trulli 30.5 2 32.5
9 Alonso 26 26
10 Glock 24 24
11 Massa 22 22
12 Kovalainen 22 22
13 Heidfeld 15 4 19
14 Kubica 17 17
15 Fisichella 8 8
16 Buemi 5 1 6
17 Sutil 5 5
18 Kobayashi 0 3 3
19 Bourdais 2 2

The top four drivers hammer home their advantage, yet it is the Red Bull drivers who made the most of this race with a maximum score for them. Surprisingly given recent form neither Raikkonen or Hamilton scored.
Heidfeld asserted himself over Kubica at the last gasp.
Buemi scored a decent haul this year for a rookie and a Toro Rosso driver.
Good to see Kobayashi get on the board, he’s a hot prospect for the future.

Constructors’ Championship

Constructor Prev AD Total
1 Brawn 161 11 172 C
2 Red Bull 135.5 18 153.5
3 McLaren 71 71
4 Ferrari 70 70
5 Toyota 54.5 5 59.5
6 BMW 32 4 36
7 Williams 34.5 34.5
8 Renault 26 26
9 Force India 13 13
10 Toro Rosso 7 1 8

Brawn and Red Bull cemented their significant advantage over the field, with RBR fighting to the last even though the titles had already been wrapped up.
McLaren and Ferrari are unchanged as the ‘best of the rest’.
Toyota are a clear 5th with Williams just losing out to BMW at the final hurdle.
Toro Rosso prove that the last-placed team doesn’t always have to score a flat zero.

Next Event

That’s it for the season! Thanks to the BBC for their coverage, better than ITV’s but still room for improvement in many areas. Thanks also to everyone for reading these and for bearing with the delays in these posts this season due to my studies. The next race is the 2010 Bahrain GP in March.

In the meantime I’ll continue to blog through the winter as it takes my fancy, you may have noticed I don’t really keep to a schedule! Watch out in particular for the F1 car launches in Jan/Feb, but before then I am going to try and catch up on the IRL and GP2 seasons. I’ll also be active on the Twitter account and at Sidepodcast and in blog comments here, there and everywhere.

If you are the type to stop reading blogs during the offseason have a good break and I’ll see you in March, I hope. If you are as obsessed with this stuff as I am, I’ll be back very soon..

Flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

F1 2009 for Wii and PSP

I’m getting excited about the new F1 2009 game coming out for the Wii.

I know, I know, it isn’t a ‘proper’ gaming system and F1 2010 for the PS3 / X-Box will be far better – but I don’t own either of those things and that game isn’t out in two weeks’ time.

This is the first officially-licensed F1 game to launch on a non-Playstation system for years (damn that Sony and their exclusivity deal) and even the last PS game was some 3yrs ago, so you can imagine a lot of us are getting quite excited!

Check out this video which explains how the game will appeal to novices and the experienced alike:

(that’s Anthony Davidson, BAR/Honda/BrawnGP test driver, alongside David Croft of BBC Radio 5 Live, and also quotes from a game developer)

I know, the Wii graphics are not stellar. I.Don’t.Care. I get to play an F1 game online without needing to bother spending hours on car setups, a pricey console or a proper wheel, or in the case of the PC I don’t have to worry about graphics cards and drivers and ‘will it run on my system?’. How cool is that?!

Of course, I almost certainly will spend hours on car setups and if they release a proper wheel I’ll probably get it… but that’s not the point. If I just want to pick up a controller and have a quick race against Button and Hamilton around Interlagos, I can. In 2 weeks time, I will.


Just to say this hasn’t been a paid piece or something done for a PR company, I did this off my own back because I’m genuinely looking forward to it.

Weekend Preview: 7-8 Nov 2009

Pretty much all of the major events of the 2009 season are now in the history books so this series is winding down. I’ll keep going in a reduced format as long as there is something notable going on.

Feature Events

MotoGP

– GP Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana
– Circuit Ricardo Tormo
– Valencia, Spain
– (17/17)
– www.motogp.com
– 250cc (last ever), 125cc, etc

Valencia is the traditional finale to the MotoGP season and this year is no exception. Reasonable circuit, seems to me MotoGP is the only series to actually produce decent racing at this track. The title having been won, the only thing of note that I can think of is the demise of the 250cc support class, to be replaced by the new Moto2 category in 2010.

UK: LIVE on BBC Two at 12.30pm
US: DELAYED on SPEED at 6pm ET

Other Events

Single Seater:

Superleague Formula

– Jarama
– Jarama, Spain
– (6/6)
– www.superleagueformula.com
– Eurosport: Race 1 live on E2 at 9am Sunday // Race 2 live on E2 at 11.30am Sunday // Shootout live on E2 at 12.30pm

The only open-wheel action this week outside of SudamF3 is the SF finale at Jarama, which could be fun. I’ve never seen a race at Jarama and apparently these cars make the frankly ridiculous concept of the series worth checking out.

Stock Car:

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Dickies 500
– Texas Motor Speedway, Forth Worth, Texas, USA
– www.nascar.com
– UK TV: SKY SPORTS XTRA at 8.30pm Sunday
– US TV: LIVE on ABC at 12.30pm ET Sunday

I can’t make sense of this. I’ve double-checked and Sky says 8.30pm is live. ABC says 12.30pm is live. There is not an 8hr time difference between ET and UK and I can’t believe there is a 3hr pre-race show.


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– O’Reilly Challenge
– Texas Motor Speedway, Forth Worth, Texas, USA
– www.nascar.com
– US TV: LIVE on ESPN2 at 12pm ET Saturday (not covered in UK)


NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

– Winstar World Casino 350
– Texas Motor Speedway, Forth Worth, Texas, USA
– www.nascar.com
– US TV: LIVE on SPEED at 8.30pm ET Friday (not covered in UK)

Sports Car / Touring Car:

V8 Supercars

– Phillip Island
– Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
– www.v8supercar.com.au


Super GT

– Twin-Ring Motegi
– Motegi, Japan
– www.supergt.net/en

Also for those in the UK I believe the new series of Top Gear begins on Sunday.

* * * *
Sources
FORIX (sub req.)
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
Series websites as mentioned
Autosport magazine

Race Notes: Brazilian Grand Prix 2009

Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2009
Date: 18 October 2009
Circuit: Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace
Location: Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil
(PitlaneFanatic) (AerialF1)
Distance: 71 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One with BBC Radio 5 Live audio
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Interviewers: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

R5 commentary: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 interviewer: Holly Samos

Coverage begins at 4pm UK time.

NOTE – My notes will be shorter than usual because this race happened the day before I moved to a new address, so the time I hoped to watch a replay to catch the quotes was actually spent moving all my stuff. Also, I’ll be honest, I thought I’d posted this already. Apologies.

Points situation:

– Button only needs to finish 3rd or better to secure the title today, no matter what Barrichello or Vettel do.
– Barrichello needs to win the race with Button scoring no higher than a single podium position from the last two races.
– Vettel can mathematically win but he needs to win both races and hope the Brawn team has a nightmare.

71 lap race.

Grid

Barrichello, Webber
Sutil, Trulli
Raikkonen, Buemi
Rosberg, Kubica
Nakajima, Alonso
Kobayashi, Alguersuari
Grosjean, Button
Vettel, Kovalainen
Hamilton, Heidfeld
Fisichella
Liuzzi took a 5 place penalty for a gearbox change and he’s at the back

Rubens spoke to Jake after qualifying:
“My engineer Jock Clear was so loud on the radio, it is the first phase of acheiving the dream. I have [the chance] to win the championship but also I’ve tried for years to win the Brazilian GP.”
Says he’s relaxed.

Big focus on Rubens and his guys at the moment from the BBC. Talking with Jock now.

Switching to Button. [I’ll be honest again… I mentally tuned this out in the live show because we’ve heard so many interviews with JB this season, and I was hoping to pick up the quotes later in the week. Oops.]

Felipe! He’s recovering and looking forward to next season, he’s looking for a good race from Ferrari but also from Rubens.

Half an hour to the start.

Martin Brundle joins us to talk about recovering from accidents, replays of Interlagos some years ago when Jos Verstappen’s Benetton hit him on the head.. Ouch.

Lee caught up with Vettel:
“We are ready to fight and to attack today. Let’s see what happens today, it’s a very long race here and the last two years have been exciting. Right now the sun is shining but maybe later we’ll see some showers, we have some good pace. I am motivated, I know it’s not an easy position to start from, we will see.”
Says he’s aiming for 1st or 2nd – he needs to or he’s out of the title fight.

Replay: Something has come off Vettel’s car as he made his way to the grid, DC says it could be dry ice or the drinks system.

Martin’s Gridwalk
He’s on the start line.
Rubens, he waves at the crowd, can you do it? “Yeah, I can. I have a great car in these conditions. If it does rain we need to get it correct at the time, it’s a lottery. My feet are on the ground, we push as hard as we can.”

Mark Webber, a race you can win? “Yep, we’ll give it us our best shot and quiten down the fans who want Rubens to win. The crowd up there are very passionate and emotional but they are racers too and we’ll give them something. After quali I said to Rubens, 8 points will be enough, give me 10! We’re in good shape.”

Martin trying to get down seven rows on the grid, which he’s not done before, to speak to Button and Vettel. En route he spies Kobayashi.
Kamui: “Yesterday was difficult conditions, our performance was really good. Today is another day in dry conditions.” Just a quickie..

Interrupts Tanya yet again! Running theme for the season has been Martin interrupting German TV’s gridwalk.
Vettel: “It’s a long way from the bottom end of the grid but we’ll see what we can do from here.”

Button is not on the grid! Neither are the McLaren guys. No interviews so Martin bails out.

Brazilian National Anthem
Terrible sound quality! We can hardly hear the singer. This may be a blessing.

Button with Lee: “I’m feeling good, a circuit I enjoy racing on, nice and hot. It’s gonna be a challenge. We’ll make the best of it.”

The BBC track guide with Mark Webber went in here somewhere. At this point before the race I’m busy getting myself a drink to consume during the event, so I don’t usually see the track guide.

Ted, fuel weights:
[I think I was still getting a drink because I have no notes and Ted does this at rapid-fire pace, making it hard to follow even if you aren’t trying to transcribe]

Both David and Eddie say they don’t think Button will win this race.

Grid

Barrichello, Webber
Sutil, Trulli
Raikkonen, Buemi
Rosberg, Kubica
Nakajima, Alonso
Kobayashi, Alguersuari
Grosjean, Button
Vettel, Kovalainen
Hamilton, Heidfeld
Fisichella
Liuzzi took a 5 place penalty for a gearbox change and will start from the back or pitlane or something.

Live Notes

I’m now on 5Live coverage. 5 mins to go.

Engines fired.

Formation Lap

All drivers on hard tyres apart from Kimi, Lewis and Nick.

Grid. Tense yet? I am!

1.2.3.4.5.. Go!

Rubens leads, crash! Ferrari and McLaren. Kovalainen. Now Sutil and Trulli crash!
SAFETY CAR
Alonso hasn’t come through. Trulli and Sutil out of their cars, a fight nearly breaks out!
oh FIRE in pitlane, fire in pitlane. Kovalainen pits and takes the fuel hose with him which spills fuel all over Raikkonen, it catches light briefly. Heikki stops and then rejoins. Not sure who got the hose off him. [it was Brawn apparently]

Replays:
Vettel taps Kovalainen into a spin forcing Fisichella wide.
Sutil and Trulli come together, Trulli tried going outside and ran out of road, he should have backed off.

RESTART

Barr, Web, Ros, Kub, Buemi, Naka, Koba, Gros, But, Alg, Vet, Heid, Fisi, Ham, Rai, Kov

Kubica passes Rosberg on the restart.
Button vs Grosjean! Jenson takes him at last, good racing.

Button is straight up to the back of Nakajima and passes him! He’s now 7th, worth 2pts.
Hamilton passes.. someone.. lots of passing all over the field.

Trulli talking to Holly – he says they should ban Sutil for the next race, immediately! Crofty says he should look at a replay and I agree.

Kovalainen passes Grosjean

Action all the way, I haven’t had time to mark a lap counter! This is lap 9 of 71.

L9 – Fastest lap from Webber. Button has got bottled up behind Kobayashi.

L11 – Things have settled a bit, I can get my breath back. Barrichello leads Webber by 1.8sec with Kubica 3rd and Rosberg 4th, Buemi 5th, Kobayashi then Button.

L14 – Laps tick by quickly here, only 1m14s.
Button radio: “Kobayashi is 2 laps longer”

L16 – Pitlane incident involving Kovalainen is under stewards’ investigation
L17 – Stewards will investigate Trulli/Sutil incident after the race.
Holly reports from McLaren that Heikki was released early by the team (i.e. he didn’t take off by himself).

L19 – Tweet from @OfficialBrawnGP: #F1 Third fastest lap in a row for RB.
L20 – Heidfeld is the first of the scheduled stoppers.
L21 – Barrichello pits from the lead, where will he come out.. he’s behind Nakajima and ahead of Vettel for 9th – but Vettel passes him immediately.

L22 – Heidfeld has stopped by the side of the track. That long run of no-DNFs and now they are all coming at once. Teammate Kubica pits, he’s out behind Vettel who has pulled a gap on the heavier Barrichello.

L24 – Button passes Kobayashi! Off-screen while we watched Rosberg pit.. We get a replay, sold him a dummy! Ducked right then left to fool Kamui, nice move.
L25 – Great stuff between Nakajima and Kobayashi, side by side!

L26 – Webber pits and he’s ahead of Barrichello by some way, Rubens has a problem? Rubens’ problem is he’s back in traffic!

L27 – Rosberg is slowing, that’s another top 5 car for Button not to worry about.
Holly: “No fuel went into Heidfeld’s car at his stop, he pulled over because he’d run out.”
Oops.

L29 – Button pits from 2nd place, Kovalainen also in from 8th.
Button is out between the Toro Rossos of Buemi and Alguersuari.

L30 – Kobayashi pits, so does Alguersuari.

Big crash from Nakajima at turn 4!

L32 – Ah bugger, looks like Kobayashi just moved over on Nakajima, took his wing off.. Kamui is good but he weaves a bit, that was completely his fault.

L33 – Button dives under Buemi at turn one, committed move, nicely done. Jenson is getting a lot of passing done today.

L35 – Holly update: Rosberg retired due to gearbox failure.

The track is still dirty where Nakajima went off. Mud everywhere.

L37 – Vettel pits from 2nd place. He’s out behind Button for 7th. Took the hard tyre. Fisichella was also in, from 9th.

L40 – After the first stops, Webber leads by 6.3 over Kubica, who is 6.3 ahead of Barrichello and a closely-following Hamilton, then 13.1 to Raikkonen and 1.5 to Button and Vettel who are together.

L42 – Hamilton pits, he’s off Barrichello’s tail and out behind Liuzzi in 8th.

L43 – Raikkonen pits and is out in clear air.

L44 – Steven Roy in the Sidepodcast comments has noticed on the live timing screens the humidity graphs are going vertical – is rain approaching?

L45 – We can see dark clouds approaching.

Button radio – “Hamilton is fuelled to the end, we need 14.4s.”
Jenson needs to stop again but Lewis pitted under the Safety Car.

L48 – Webber is pulling a lead on the field.

L50 – Barrichello pits from 2nd, he’s in clear air ahead of Hamilton.

51 laps completed, 20 to go

L52 – Webber pits from the lead, he takes the softer tyre for the final stint.

L53 – Vettel took another set of hard tyres but may have enough fuel to make the end.. when will he use the soft tyres? Splash and dash or hoping for rain?

L55 – Button pits, and he’s out alongside Kovalainen…. Heikki beats him!
L56 – Vettel pits for those softer tyres, and he beats Kovalainen and Button!

L57 – Order: Webber, Kubica, Barrichello, Hamilton, Vettel, Kovalainen, Button, Raikkonen, Buemi, Fisichella.

L59 – Raikkonen is catching Button.
L60 – Kovalainen pits! That releases Button into clear air.

Kubica is having an anonymous run to 2nd, we’ve barely seen him.

L61 – Hamilton passes Barrichello into the front straight! Lewis 3rd, Rubens 4th.

L63 – Noo!! Rubens has a puncture! It’s all over. congratulations to Jenson Button who will win the title – and he put in a good drive for it too.

L65 – Rubens is now running 8th. Such a crap way for this to end – if he’d lost the title by finishing 3rd that’s fine and that’s the way it was going, but to lose it to a puncture… If Webber DNFs, that puncture would have made all the difference.

L67 – Button radio: “Chance of a few drops of rain near the end.”
Replay of Kobayashi diving by Fisichella! Great move! Fisi does seem to go to sleep near the end of races.

L69 – Two laps to go. Kobayashi has impressed everyone with his drive today, and Kubica is having a great run too.

L70 – Final lap

L71 – Felipe Massa waves the chequered flag as Mark Webber wins!!
Jenson Button is the Champion!! BrawnGP are the Champions!!

Congrats to all concerned, a great effort.

Button on the radio: “We Are The Champions!”

Barrichello applauds his team-mate as they circulate the cool-down lap together.

Parc Ferme

Button and Barrichello congratulate, Hamilton comes over too.

Jenson is running around to different people to celebrate!

Podium
Advance Australia Fair for Webber
Austrian anthem for Red Bull
Trophies. It seems drivers have been presented with the logo of the Klingon Empire as a trophy? What we do know is that they have been recycled from local rubbish. No, really. I’m struggling to find a link but it was plastic reused and remoulded to make the trophies.

Champaaaagggneee!

BBC crew in the middle of the Brawn garage with Jenson, the only thing I’ve got from it is:
“Kobayashi is absolutely crazy!”

The world’s media is surrounding the BBC interview, cameras and bodies everywhere. Scenes of all the mechanics and engineers celebrating with a beer (whoever got that one-race sponsorship deal on the sidepods of the cars for the Brazilian beer company was a GENIUS).

Sebastian Vettel isn’t in a very good mood at all and reportedly isn’t talking to anyone.

Meanwhile, lots of celebrating and interviews with all from the Brawn team. Yes they’ve been the focus of a lot of attention this year and it has been a little annoying at times, but let’s just remind ourselves that this team almost ceased to exist last December. The turnaround in fortunes is astonishing so well done to them.

Race Result

Driver Gap Pts
1 Webber 71 laps 10
2 Kubica 7.6sec 8
3 Hamilton 18.9sec 6
4 Vettel 19.6sec 5
5 Button 29.0sec 4
6 Räikkönen 33.3sec 3
7 Buemi 35.9sec 2
8 Barrichello 45.4sec 1
9 Kobayashi 63.3sec
10 Fisichella 70.6sec
11 Liuzzi 71.3sec
12 Kovalainen 73.4sec
13 Grosjean 1 lap
14 Alguersuari 1 lap
DNF Nakajima Accident
DNF Rosberg Gearbox
DNF Heidfeld Fuel
DNF Sutil Accident
DNF Trulli Accident
DNF Alonso Accident

Nice to see Mark pick up another win, shame nobody will remember it with the focus on the title win! Robert seemed to go completely unnoticed in the broadcast and yet finished second.
Vettel did manage to out-finish Button despite starting behind him, but it wasn’t enough as both put in great drives. Despite the puncture Barrichello still picked up a point for 8th.
A good result for Buemi, too.

Drivers’ Championship

Driver Prev BR Total
1 Button 85 4 89 C
2 Vettel 69 5 74
3 Barrichello 71 1 72
4 Webber 51.5 10 61.5
5 Hamilton 43 6 49
6 Räikkönen 45 3 48
7 Rosberg 34.5 34.5
8 Trulli 30.5 30.5
9 Alonso 26 26
10 Glock 24 24
11 Massa 22 22
12 Kovalainen 22 22
13 Kubica 9 8 17
14 Heidfeld 15 15
15 Fisichella 8 8
16 Sutil 5 5
17 Buemi 3 2 5
18 Bourdais 2 2

Congratulations to Jenson Button, the 2009 F1 World Champion!
Vettel’s efforts see him overhaul Barrichello in the table, a valiant chase towards the end of the season but let down by poor reliability earlier in the year.
Webber manages to jump himself out of the clutches of the chasing duo of Hamilton and Raikkonen who cannot now beat him.
Kubica moves up a position and Buemi joins Sutil on 5 points.

Constructors’ Championship

Constructor Prev BR Total
1 Brawn 156 5 161 C
2 Red Bull 120.5 15 135.5
3 McLaren 65 6 71
4 Ferrari 67 3 70
5 Toyota 54.5 54.5
6 Williams 34.5 34.5
7 BMW 24 8 32
8 Renault 26 26
9 Force India 13 13
10 Toro Rosso 5 2 7

Congratulations to BrawnGP, the 2009 F1 World Champions!
Red Bull’s chase came strong in the end but the points lead built up earlier on was good enough for Brawn to hold on.
McLaren and Ferrari switch positions again in the fight for 3rd.
BMW jump Renault with a strong haul of points.
Toro Rosso put some more on the board too, I can’t remember when the last-placed team scored as many points as this. Perhaps I’ll check for the season round-up.

Next Event

Abu Dhabi. (Blogger deleted what I had here and I can’t be bothered to fix)

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