Sunday, April 26, 2009

Button and Brawn GP back on Top

Jenson Button won his 3rd race of the season and this will be his most important win as this victory in scorching conditions in Bahrain proved that Brawn GP does have the package to last the whole season and could very well be the clear favourites for both the Championship as of now. Button had a flawless race and his race was way quicker than both Vettel and Trulli who were the only 2 drivers on the grid who realistically had a chance to take him on. Rubens Barrichello once again proved to be a valuable side-kick as he scored points for the team despite his adventurous 3 stop strategy.

Sebastian Vettel is proving to be the real challenger to Button as after a magnificent win in China once again had a very consistent race and managed to come second and tale vital points as he goes into the European leg of the season. Red Bull is a car without either the double diffuser or KERS but still the car thanks to its aerodynamics is amazingly quick and if only the double diffuser comes into it, well Vettel could be on a league on his own. Webber though did not score points after a disastrous qualifying should be proud of his 11th place finish.

The Toyota did manage to get both cars on points while Trulli did score a podium finish by coming 3rd had every reason to be disappointed after having a great qualifying session where they occupied the front row of the grid. Toyota has been very consistent now and though it may be tough for either Trulli or Glock to challenge for the driver’s championship the team still has a chance to fight Brawn and even RBR for the constructor’s title.

Kimi Räikkönen had a brilliant race and despite all the problems that Ferrari had, managed to score a credible 6th position while the 2008 champion Hamilton once again scored points by coming in 4th. Alonso of Renault came 8th to score the final points available. With 2 weeks to go for the Spanish GP Ferrari, McLaren and Renault will be hoping to catch up with the likes of Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota as they have some major updates coming in for the car. Traditionally the big guns of the F1 start pulling away from their competitors during the European leg but interestingly this season, they will be trying to catch up with them.

Williams continue to confuse us and after 4 races this season and with a potentially good car to not only score points but take podium finishes, they continue to languish back and so far has scored only 3.5 points and Ferrari are all set to overtake them in the next race means that Williams will be once again in the bottom fighting it out with the likes of Toro Rosso. Gone are the days when Williams were the most dominant team in F1 while Minardi used to struggle to finish races but now STR is just above Williams and seems like they will be fighting out for the 8th place.

BMW had one of their worst ever results as neither Kubica nor Heidfeld had a car which seriously looked like finishing in points and this would be disappointing for the team as last year around the same time they were leading the constructor’s championship. BMW needs a quick revival of fortunes or they may join Williams and STR at the bottom of the table. Force India well already seem to be destined to the fact that they will once again finish at the bottom and win the wooden spoon while all they can hope for now is some serious luck to score it’s maiden points.

Button was surely the driver of the race and he richly deserves the win while Vettel who I predicted to be the Dark Horse for the season is living up to it and come Europe with the new diffuser Red Bull will be posing some serious challenge while Ferrari and McLaren have shown improvement though they may find it tough to challenge Brawn as the gap has widen a lot but they can go only one way from here and it is definitely going to be a way up.

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