Germany Win Race of Champions With Schumacher and Vettel

Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel have won Germany their third straight Race Of Champions Nations Cup victory this afternoon.

The annual race-off between the best drivers of nations of the world was held in the Beijing Bird’s Nest stadium, which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Germany raced against Great Britain in the final, with Schumacher beating Jenson Button in round 1, before Andy Priaulx beat Vettel in round 2.  The final race off between Schumacher and Priaulx led to Michael, the most successful F1 driver of all time, winning by over one second.

It means Germany are now the most successful country ever in the Race of Champions.

The home crowd had a good cheer for Ho-Pin Tung when he delivered a remarkable win over Mikko Hirvonen in the buggies.

Abu Dhabi GP 2009: Vettel Wins Final Race Of Season

Sebastian Vettel clinched the final race win of the season in a thrilling evening race in Abu Dhabi.

It was the emirates first ever F1 Grand Prix, and I think I am one of many who will be heaping praise on the new Yas Marina Circuit, its fantastic facilities, near perfect track and brilliant conditions led to a terrific weekend to cap off the 2009 season.

Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber came in 2nd place, holding off a real late surge from World Champion Jenson Button who tried everything to get passed the Australian but couldn’t so had to settle for 3rd place.

In truth, Lewis Hamilton should really have been in first or at least on the podium, but reliability struggles hit the out-going World Champ, his brakes failing and the McLaren mechanics not willing to keep a potentially dangerous car out on track.

Button had a slight embarrasing moment when star rookie Kamui Kobayashi pulled off some epic overtaking to put his Toyota ahead of the Brawn car during the first stint, the Japanese going on to finish 6th and almost certainly securing himself a 2010 drive with Toyota.

Rubens Barrichello missed out on the runner up spot, and in potentially his final race with Brawn GP finished in 4th, having to hold off massive pressure from Nick Heidfeld who tried to give BMW their best send off possible.

Yesterday’s birthday-bo Sebastien Buemi cleaned up with the final points as some big names finished well down the table, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing 11th, Raikkonen 12th and Fernando Alonso 14th.

Giancarlo Fisichella had a poor send off in potentially his final Grand Prix, getting a drive-through penalty and ending the day down in 16th.

Look out for The F1Fanatics Blog Official 2009 Season Review soon!

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1h34:03.314
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    17.857
 3.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    18.467
 4.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    22.735
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    26.253
 6.  Kobayashi     Toyota                (B)  +    28.343
 7.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    34.366
 8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    41.294
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    45.941
10.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    48.180
11.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    52.798
12.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    54.317
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    59.839
14.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +  1:09.687
15.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1:34.450
16.  Grosjean      Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Fisichella    Ferrari               (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap

Italian GP 2009: Barrichello Takes Strategic Win Of Quality Race

Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag, and another win for himself and the Brawn GP team in today’s Italian Grand Prix after  a fantastic strategic effort from Ross Brawn.

The single stop strategy employed by the white cars of Brawn led to Jenson Button joining Rubens on the podium in 2nd, with Kimi Raikkonen being gifted 3rd place on the last lap.

Race Review

Lewis Hamilton didn’t get a great start, unlike Kimi Raikkonen and the Finn was forced onto the grass going down to the first chicane.  He managed to make a pass on Adrian Sutil, while the rest of the field fed around without bother – Timo Glock the only driver having to use the escape road.

Then into the second chicane, the first major incident – Robert Kubica tipped Mark Webber’s Red Bull round into the gravel and the Australian was forced to retire after just a handful of corners.  The incident led to front wing damage to Kubica’s BMW, and the Pole was forced into the pits some laps later as the FIA were concerned about its’ safety at 220mph.

Heikki Kovalainen had a terrible start, losing out to Barrichello and then Liuzzi and Alonso, despite claiming pre-race that he could win the GP and indeed his KERS system.

Hamilton then started to pull well away from Kimi Raikkonen, who to all intents and purposes held up Adrian Sutil as the Ferrari looked to struggle.

These 3 drivers at the top on 2 stop strategies made a big gap over the two Brawn’s behind them, and then Tonio Liuzzi held 7th well with Fernando Alonso hustling the Renault behind him, trying to squeeze every last bit of performance from the R29.

Hamilton pushed incredibly hard, the McLaren right on the ragged edge many times.  He pitted early, and Raikkonen & Sutil pulled ahead.  Hamilton was released into favourable traffic ahead of Liuzzi and Alonso.

With Raikkonen and Sutil then pitting, the now lighter Brawn’s pulled well away with Rubens Barrichello holding a good dap lead over championship rival and team mate Button.

Robert Kubica ended up retiring, with some kind of oil leak – although Martin Brundle claimed on BBC television that they were saving the engine as they were nearing their allocation limit.

Tonio Liuzzi too had a scare when he was driving through towards the Roggia chicane when at around 200mph the clutch appeared to break completely and the Force India driver ended his day in the sliproad of that chicane.  Disappointing after a fairly good weekend.

Giancarlo Fisichella looked largely average making his Ferrari debut, losing out on positions to various drivers, which in the end meant he finished the race in 9th place just behind Sebastian Vettel.  A shame for Fisichella not to score points on his debut.

After the final stops, Hamilton came out in 3rd behind the two Brawns and immediately started chasing.  Hamilton said after the race every lap was like “a qualifying one”.  Raikkonen and Sutil had a pitstop race, but both made mistakes! Raikkonen nearly stalled leaving his box, and Sutil tried to run down half his pitcrew.  Raikkonen came out in front and despite massive pressure would hold Adrian off until the end of the race.

The final piece of action really came from Lewis Hamilton, who, chasing down those Brawn’s managed to lose the car on the exit of the first Lesmo, spinning and smashing into an unforgiving tyre/concrete mixed barrier.  He ripped lots of bodywork off the car and left it strewn across the track. The ensuing double waved yellows and safety car board [in vein!] Raikkonen cruised passed and into 3rd place.

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	1.16.21.706
2	J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	+2.866
3	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	+30.664
4	A. Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+31.131
5	F. Alonso	Renault	+59.182
6	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+1.00.693
7	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1.22.412
8	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+1.25.472
9	G. Fisichella	Ferrari	+1.26.856
10	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+2.00.000
11	T. Glock	Toyota	+2.43.925
12	L. Hamilton*	McLaren Mercedes	+1 lap
13	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+1 lap
14	J. Trulli	Toyota	+1 lap
15	R. Grosjean	Renault	+1 lap
16	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+2 laps

*: Lewis Hamilton crashed on the final lap but was still classified by order of being 1 lap ahead of other runners classified lower.

Fastest Lap: A. Sutil (Force India) – 1.24.739

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	55	Crash
V. Liuzzi	Force India Mercedes	23	Clutch
J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	20	Unknown
R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	16	Oil Leak
M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	1	Crash

Belgian GP 2009: Kimi Raikkonen Takes Ferrari’s First Win Of Season!

Kimi Raikkonen delivered an emphatic first win of the season for Ferrari this afternoon after a highly exciting Belgian Grand Prix.

Suprise pole sitter Giancarlo Fisichella came in 2nd place, Force India’s first ever points and thus podium, while Sebastian Vettel kept his championship hopes alive while others around him faltered with 3rd place.

Race Review

The getaway from the line was mostly noted for Rubens Barrichello’s anti-stall kick in, forcing Kimi Raikkonen around his outside and bunching everyone up into La Source hairpin.

Raikkonen dived onto the astroturf around the outside of the turn and raced down to Eau Rouge with Fisichella in the lead and the BMW’s far up the pack.  Further back in the field various cars including Fernando Alonso, Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil, Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli and Lewis Hamilton were all tangling with bits of bodywork flying everywhere.

The cars were bunched as they headed down the straight to Les Combes, where Romain Grosjean tagged Jenson Button forcing him into a spin.  Jaime Alguersuari tried to miss Button and ended up ramming Lewis Hamilton forcing them both out as well as Button and Grosjean.  This left us with a Safety Car situation with all these cars hanging off the track.

Some drivers including Rubens Barrichello decided to pit in.

When the safety car finally returned to the pits, Kimi Raikkonen using his KERS system to full effect managed to get ahead of Fisichella and that is where he would stay for the rest of the race.  The gap between the two was not very large, and the pitstops [all on the same laps for the pair] didn’t yield a position change.  Had Raikkonen not being using the KERS system then he would almost certainly have lost the place to Fisichella, whose Force India car looked frighteningly quick.

Sebastian Vettel had a very quiet drive to 3rd place, managingto make use of accidents and retirements.

Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld managed to get a great result for their BMW team, with 4th and 5th places.  They stayed out of trouble throughout the race, but were almost certianly helped along by faster rivals being knocked out in the first corner accident.

7th place finisher Rubens Barrichello never looked like troubling those at the front after his poor start.  He did well to end up in the points, but in all honesty was lucky to finish with his Brawn GP car pluming smoke for the final 3 laps.  The Brazilian’s car then set on fire as he returned to the pitlane after the race!

Just finishing ahead of Rubens was Heikki Kovalainen, the sole finishing McLaren using good strategy to make the position from a poor qualifying start.  8th was Rosberg picking up vital points, but Mark Webber really should have been there but he had a pitlane incident where he was released into the path of Heidfeld, focing the German to nearly crash and got given a drive-through penalty for it.

Timo Glock should also have finished higher than 10th, but a fuel rig failure ruined his chances of points from early good running.

Sutil, Buemi and Nakajima came next in the classifications with fairly average races, and Luca Badoer brings up the rear of the field [again] in what is likely to be his last Ferrari race.

Fernando Alonso retired with a broken front left wheel and suspension, while we do not know Jarno Trulli’s problem possibly a fuel pressure issue.

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1.23.50.995
2	G. Fisichella	Force India Mercedes	+0.939
3	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+3.875
4	R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	+9.966
5	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+11.276
6	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+32.763
7	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	+35.461
8	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+36.208
9	M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	+36.959
10	T. Glock	Toyota	+41.490
11	A. Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+42.636
12	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+46.106
13	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+54.241
14	L. Badoer	Ferrari	+1.38.177

Fastest Lap: S. Vettel (Red Bull) 1.47.263

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
F. Alonso	Renault	27	Tyre/Suspension
J. Trulli	Toyota	21	Fuel Pressure (Poss.)
J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	1	Accident
R. Grosjean	Renault	1	Accident
L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	1	Accident
J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1	Accident

Belgian GP 2009: Fisichella Takes Shock Pole Position

Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella has delivered the small team it’s first ever pole position after a stunning qualifying session in Belgium, where the form book really was turned on it’s head.

Fisichella the flambouyant Italian was amazingly fast throughout the session in the heavily revised Force India car, and the investment has paid dividends to its owner Vijay Mallya.

Although likely to be light on fuel, this must signal the first points of the season for the team based in Silverstone.  If not that, it signals to Ferrari that Giancarlo Fisichella could deliver something for them, unlike Luca Badoer who did not help his cause by qualifying last and ending Q1 in the wall.

Jarno Trulli made second place in the significantly faster Toyota, and Nick Heidfeld made a shock return to the top with 3rd position.

Rubens Barrichello will start 4th, the highest qualifying Brawn after Jenson Button faltered and did not get out of Q2. He will start in 14th tomorrow, a big harm to his world championship chances.

Kimi Raikkonen did much better than Badoer and will start 6th, those around him must be concerned about his KERS system.

Vettel and Webber made 8th and 9th for Red Bull, so should make valuable ground tomorrow.

The improving McLaren’s have struggled in Spa this afternoon, with Hamilton making just 12th place and Kovalainen 15th.  Another big name between them is Fernando Alonso in 13th.

We thought the Toro Rosso’s looked good, but neither managed to get out of Q1 with Buemi starting 16th and Alguersuari 17th.

Romain Grosjean lines up alongside Badoer at the back, after the young French/Swiss made progress.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
 3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
 5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
 7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

European GP 2009: Barrichello Takes Emotional Victory

Rubens Barrichello took a highly emotional victory in this afternoon’s European Grand Prix, winning his first race for 5 years – his last victory was at the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix with Ferrari.

It puts Barrichello right back into title contention.  Lewis Hamilton will be aggrieved  not to have won, having led most of the way he was let down by a pit crew failure. Kimi Raikkonen stormed through to finish in 3rd position.

Race Review

Both McLaren’s made a good start off the grid, as did Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button.  Button tried to go down the inside of Vettel who made a slow start, but the German forced the Briton into the pitlane exit area where he let off the throttle.  The resulting masses of space and the KERS system allowed Raikkonen to easily sweep around the outside and into 4th position.

Button lost multiple places further back, and was forced to rescinde a place to Australian Mark Webber after cutting  a corner following Fernando Alonso who at the time was defending against Webber.

Sebastien Buemi was cut up in the first few turns and lost his front wing, having to crawl back to the pit for a new one.  He was joined by Romain Grosjean who lost his wing when Timo Glock made a very late overtaking dive at the inexperienced Frecnhamn turned into the Toyota.

These position changes allowed those at the back, including Luca Badoer to make up a few places.

The top order remained relatively unchanged as the drivers hit their pitstops.  Lewis Hamilton was pulling out a good lead with fastest lap times.

The next action was when Sebastian Vettel’s engine blew for the second time this weekend.  Vettel was angered post race, and indeed we’re pretty sure any continuation of the RBR/Renault deal is now off the cards and the team could be switching to either Ferrari again or perhaps Mercedes Benz.

The Force India’s got themselves in the mix today too, along with the BMW’s but only Robert Kubica would come away with a point.

As the drivers hit their second stops, it was evident that Barrichello was trying to catch Hamilton.  The Brit had a good lead and all was good until he pulled into his pitbox and the tyre men were not ready with new tyres.  This led to pantomime scenes and lost Hamilton many seconds of time, allowing Rubens through and pretty much ended his chance of winning.  Hamilton’s Father was nonchalant smacking his fists together in he back of the garage.

Kimi Raikkonen also made an unseen overtake on Heikki Kovalainen securing the Iceman a quality 3rd position.

The only other DNF of the race was Sebastien Buemi whose brakes gave up late on and led to a huge spin incident.

Kazuki Nakajima suffered a puncture and a delamination of the tyre half way around the lap very late on too.  Luca Badoer and Romain Grosjean had pitlane comedy when Badoer was released, he let Grosjean through, side by side, but then as he put the power down Badoer went over the white line and got himself ANOTHER pitlane penalty.  Throw in a huge spin for the Italian driver and it has left many questioning whether he will ever race a Ferrari again. (I’m free next weekend if you need me Ferrari?!).

And that was that, another pretty lacklustre European Grand Prix in Valencia, made interesting by pitlane comedy and Luca Badoer.  It is good to see Rubens Barrichello win again, and by his tears of joy in the car and parc ferme we know how much it means to him.  Wonderful dedication to Felipe Massa at the end also.  Could Rubens be the World Champion?

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	1.35.51.289
2	L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	+2.358
3	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	+15.994
4	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+20.023
5	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+20.870
6	F. Alonso	Renault	+27.744
7	J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	+34.913
8	R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	+36.667
9	M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	+44.910
10	A. Sutil	Force India Merc	+47.935
11	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+48.822
12	G. Fisichella	Force India Merc	+1.03.614
13	J. Trulli	Toyota	+1.04.527
14	T. Glock	Toyota	+1.26.519
15	R. Grosjean	Renault	+1.31.774
16	J. Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+ 1 lap
17	L. Badoer	Ferrari	+1 lap
18	K. Nakajima	Williams	+ 3 laps

Fastest Lap: T. Glock (Toyota) 1.38.683

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	42	Brake Failure
S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	24	Engine

Hungarian GP 2009: Alonso Takes Pole As Massa Hits Wall In Horror Crash

Fernando Alonso has taken pole position in a highly chaotic qualifying session, which saw Felipe Massa taken away in a medical helicopter and the FOM lose timing screens.

Alonso outqualified everyone in a Renault car which looked unbeliveable, reminding us that the French team based in Enstone could make race winning cars.  He will be alongside Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber just behind in 3rd for tomorrow’s race.

A better McLaren car this weekend has seen improvements from both drivers with Lewis Hamilton starting in 4th, Kovalainen 6th split by Nico Rosberg of the Williams team.

Raikkonen will start the race 7th, his team mate Felipe Massa had a horror crash at the end of Q2.  He was racing around when he was hit on the helmet (in a similar fashion to Henry Surtees) by a piece of Rubens Barrichello’s suspension.  It knocked him out and his Ferrari went straight into the wall.  He managed to brake a little bit, but still smashed into the tyres with enough force to light up the emergency G-Light.  He has been airlifted to hospital and is said to be in a stable condition – more news when we have it.

Rubens Barrichello got knocked out in Q2, and will only start 13th behind Sebastien Buemi who did a marvellous performance to 12th.  Toyota looked disappointing again, just scraping in.  Not as disappointing as their German based counterparts BMW Sauber who failed to get out of Q1.  Heads will be rolling at Munich for sure.

Jaime Alguersuari will start last after a good Q1, he attempted to better his time but the Toro Rosso car broke down on his out lap.  Harsh luckl for the 19 year old who wasn’t too downbeat.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3     
 1.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:21.313  1:20.826  1:21.569
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:21.178  1:20.604  1:21.607
 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.964  1:20.358  1:21.741
 4.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:20.842  1:20.465  1:21.839
 5.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.793  1:20.862  1:21.890
 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.659  1:20.807  1:22.095
 7.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:21.500  1:20.647  1:22.468
 8.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.471  1:20.707  1:22.511
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:21.407  1:20.570  1:22.835
10.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:21.420  1:20.823
11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.571  1:21.002
12.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:21.416  1:21.082
13.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:21.558  1:21.222
14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:21.584  1:21.242
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:21.278  1:21.389
16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.738
17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.807
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.868
19.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.901
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:22.359

German GP 2009: Webber Takes Maiden Victory

Mark Webber took his first ever win in Formula One today at the German Grand Prix, after 8 years of Grand Prix racing.

The former Minardi, Jaguar and Williams man stood on top of the podium for Red Bull racing capping off another 1-2 despite a penalty.  Felipe Massa took Ferrari’s first podium of the year.

Race Review

Webber didn’t get a great start from pole position, with Rubens Barrichello and KERS runners like Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa getting the run on the Australian he was swallowed.  In attempts to stop Barrichello, he swung to the right and hit the Brazilian drivers Brawn – an event to which he would later be penalised.

Hamilton went through the gap created by Webber using his KERS system to full effect, but braking early into T1 his rear tyre was tagged by an off balance Webber leading to a puncture for the British racer.

Towards the back there were a few other incidents, Jarno Trulli getting held back in an incident he described as ruining his race.

There were few overtakes in the race, mostly around Lewis Hamilton who was a lap down having to crawl around the 3 mile Nurburgring GP track back to the pits.

Massa got ahead of Button and Vettel from the start, with Raikkonen just behind dropping off Adrian Sutil who drove fantastically well in the Force India.

On lap 2 Button managed to but the superior Brawn car down the inside of Massa, Massa driving a fantastic race today holding off Vettel for a long period of time.

Webber got a drive through penalty and completed it on lap 14 when Rubens Barrichello, his sparring partner at the front took his first of three stops.  Damage limitation working a treat in the end for Red Bull.

Kovalainen and Massa had held up the bunch so Webber got out in front.  Kovalainen slipped back on a lighter strategy to eventually finish the race in 8th place after a long tustle for the final points including drivers right down to Nakajima (12th).

Massa stayed out until lap 25, and with both Brawn’s being on 3 stop strategies he was in with a good chance of a podium.  Vettel was released in front of Massa and never looked like catching Webber but ran much better than he was behind Felipe.

Kimi Raikkonen looked slow, and for a reason.  He had a power shortage which eventually led to smoke coming from the back of the Ferrari and a retirement on lap 35.  It could have been a high double point finish for the Scuderia.

At Rubens Barrichello’s second stop the fuel rig broke and the team had to use the spare, putting less fuel than they wanted to – they had planned to move him onto a competitive 2 stop strategy.  By the end Button was ahead of the Brazilian, and Rubens has claimed the team are favouring Jenson not using the original rig deliberately.  Whether this is true or not is unknown, but Ross Brawn does have a history of team orders….

By the flag, Webber took a comfortable win ahead of Vettel and Massa.  Rosberg worked his way up the field well to take 4th ahead of the 2 Brawn’s and a brilliant Fernando Alonso who worked his way through the field with massively fast laps all this despite a spin on the parade lap.

Sebastien Bourdais retired early on in what could be his final ever F1 race.  The rumour mill circulates he is on his way out of the Toro Rosso team for poor performance.   Jaime Alguersari and Bruno Senna are top of the list to replace the Frenchman, but one newspaper reckoned Sebastian Loeb could be in with a chance of finishing the season with the Faenza based outfit.

Classified Results Standing:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	1.36.43.310
2	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+9.252
3	F. Massa	Ferrari	+15.906
4	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+21.099
5	J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	+23.609
6	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	+24.468
7	F. Alonso	Renault	+24.888
8	H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	+58.692
9	T. Glock	Toyota	+1.01.452
10	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1.01.925
11	G. Fisichella	Force India Merc	+1.02.327
12	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+1.02.876
13	N. Piquet	Renault	+1.08.328
14	R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	+1.09.555
15	A. Sutil	Force India Merc	+1.11.941
16	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+1.30.225
17	J. Trulli	Toyota	+1.30.970
18	L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	+1 lap

Fastest Lap: F. Alonso, Renault: 1.33.365

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	35	Engine
S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso Ferrari	19	Mechanical

Newey Remains Cautious Over RB5 Despite Epic Weekend In Britain

Adrian Newey has declared himself slightly cautious over whether the Red Bull Racing RB5 can continue it’s mega dominance over the F1 field after an epic victory in Silverstone yesterday.

The RB5, designed in Milton Keynes not far from the Silverstone Circuit featured massive aerodynamic upgrades for this race including a new nosecone, floor and rear wing endplates.

Newey, modest as ever with his fantastic technical ability wants his star driver Sebastian Vettel and team mate Mark Webber to keep their feet on the ground despite Vettel being able to pull away by 1 second per lap from the previously unbeatable Brawn cars.

“I think this circuit is one that was always likely to suit us, and I was hoping it would suit us anyway,” Newey told Autosport this morning

“It would appear that some other teams had tyre warm-up problems, at which point suddenly the performance difference can be much bigger than it would be at other circuits. So obviously we have got to see how this carries over onto other circuits.”

“I will continue to take each weekend as it comes, and do the best we can in those weekends.”

British Grand Prix 2009: Vettel Storms To Victory In Unstoppable Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel stormed to an epic win, something that his fellow countryman Michael Schumacher, the greatest driver of all time would have been proud of.  Vettel, the young German who takes his 3rd race win of his short career led from start to finish in a fashionable style pulling away from Rubens Barrichello at a rate of 1 second per lap for the first stint.

Race Review

From the start we knew that the Red Bull’s were fast, sporting their brand new aerodynamics created by a brilliant Adrian Newey who had been working around the clock to make the RB5 competitive against the Brawn GP cars, and with Vettel carrying plenty of fuel it looked like the German had it in the bag.  We weren’t going to be proved wrong.

Kimi Raikkonen had the pick of the starts, wedging his Ferrari down the outside into the first corner of Silverstone, using the KERS system to full effect.  His team mate Felipe Massa also had a terrific start getting ahead of championship leader Jenson Button, the plucky Brit only managing an overtake through sheer luck of Massa making a minor error.

For the first stint Mark Webber was stuck behind Rubens Barrichello, until the first stops when he could make it past but would play second fiddle to Vettel who had a pitstop sized gap between himself and 2nd place.

The McLaren’s of last years pole position man and winner just went backwards, and while the battle down the field was very entertaining – so much so we spend a good ten laps or more following it on the FOM wold feed between Alonso, Hamilton and Piquet it certainly was not where the former two wanted to be.  World Champions pretty much propping up the table.

Kimi Raikkonen looked to be on for a good race with him closing the gap to Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello, and indeed after having dealt with Kazuki Nakajima it would be the Finn’s downfall to get stuck behind Jarno Trulli after his stop.

While that was Raikkonen’s loss it most certainly was not for Massa who jumped ahead of that slow pack as he made his way to 4th position.  Nico Rosberg followed in 5th at the end, despite a resurgent Jenson Button who spent the race complaining about the BGP001 [which he described as a monster in Turkey] in 6th place. 

The only mega action incidentally came from the two McLaren’s.  A lighter and faster Lewis Hamilton made a move over Kovalainen who lost a little concentration, he noted Sebastien Bourdais behind him and blocked going into Club corner where the Frenchman slammed into the back of Kovalainen causing massive debris around Club corner just after the crest.  Both men dropped out a lap later, and both blamed each other for a silly error.   Hamilton provided action at the same corner as he pushed the McLaren hard he slipped it onto the grass and spun out, but managed to continue to 16th position.

A quick shout for Giancarlo Fisichella too who finished in 10th place, a valiant performance for the Italian veteran racer.

Classified Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	S. Vettel	Red Bull Renault	1.22.49.328
2	M. Webber	Red Bull Renault	+15.188
3	R. Barrichello	Brawn Mercedes	+41.175
4	F. Massa	Ferrari	+45.053
5	N. Rosberg	Williams Toyota	+45.915
6	J. Button	Brawn Mercedes	+46.285
7	J. Trulli	Toyota	+1.08.307
8	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	+1.09.622
9	T. Glock	Toyota	+1.09.823
10	G. Fisichella	Force India Merc	+1.11.522
11	K. Nakajima	Williams Toyota	+1.14.023
12	N. Piquet	Renault	+1 lap
13	R. Kubica	BMW Sauber	+1 lap
14	F. Alonso	Renault	+1 lap
15	N. Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1 lap
16	L. Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	+1 lap
17	A. Sutil	Force India Merc	+1 lap
18	S. Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+1 lap

Fastest Lap: S. Vettel (Red Bull Renault): 1.20.735

Retirements

Driver	Team	Lap	Reason
S. Bourdais	Toro Rosso Ferrari	25	Crash Damage
H. Kovalainen	McLaren Mercedes	24	Crash Damage