FORMULA ONE
2009 Spanish Grand Prix Race Report
Button Makes It Four Wins From Five
Jenson Button’s season has just got better, he won the Spanish grand prix and this means that the British driver has taken four wins from the opening five races.
Brawn GP totally dominated the race but it was team-mate Rubens Barrichello who moved into the lead when the lights turned green. But Button’s fuel strategy was to prove superior and saw the Englishman move into the lead at the final round of pit-stops and take the race win. Brawn team-mate Barricello made it home in second place.
Jenson Button has now eked out a gap at the top of the driver’s championship, he now leads by 14 points from team-mate Barricello.
Red Bull driver Mark Webber finished in third place to make it onto the final step on the podium, fourth place went to his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who passed Felipe Massa's Ferrari in the dying stages of the race.
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa had run in third place for the majority of the race but lost this position during the second round of pit stops and then slipped further adrift of the leaders finishing in sixth with what seemed like a fuel starvation problem.
A disappointed Felipe Massa stated, “It’s a real shame to have lost two places in the final stages, even if we’ve finally made it to the scoreboard. We knew we couldn’t match the pace of the Brawns but we had managed to get ahead of the Red Bulls and, but for the fuel problem, I could have certainly stayed ahead of Vettel and Alonso. The final part of the race was a pain. I was already struggling on the harder tyres and then I had to try and save fuel as much as possible, while at the same time staying ahead of Vettel. Then the team told that if I wanted to make it to the finish, I would have to let Vettel by and slow down a lot: if I had made another pit stop I would have finished out of the points. Today, the car’s pace on the softer tyre was reasonably good, even if we’re still lacking a few tenths, but at least we are back to fighting for the top places.”
While Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali said, “We can take some satisfaction from this weekend, but at the same time, it has thrown up further concerns. On the one hand we saw that the effort expended in recent weeks has born fruit in terms of improving the performance level of the car. Both in yesterday’s qualifying and today, Felipe was competitive at the highest level, as was confirmed on the clock: it’s not by luck that we got the third fastest time in the race, which would have been far out of our reach in previous races this year. Once again, the downside comes from the reliability side. Again today, we had problems which forced Kimi to retire and cost Felipe two places in the final stages, having also robbed him of the chance of getting to the podium, which would have been well deserved. This is unacceptable for a team like Ferrari: we must all react to get back to our usual standard, as indeed we have partially managed on the performance side. There is much to do on all fronts and we will tackle it with our usual absolute determination.”
This saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso pass Massa and finish in fifth position.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and Williams's Nico Rosberg finished seventh and eighth in the final points positions.
Nick Heidfeld said, ”It was a tough race but I think it was one of my better ones. I had hoped for points as a birthday present, but honestly didn’t really believe in this as I was starting from 13th. The start was the decisive time when I gained four positions. In the first corner I was hit from behind but luckily my car wasn’t damaged. It was not easy to defend my position against Kimi Raikkonen later on in the race, and our fight slowed me down, so I lost the contact with the front runners. Our pit crew did a fantastic job and got me in front of Nico Rosberg at my second pit stop. It is a great result for us and the race pace proved the new aero package is a clear improvement, which is very good news for the rest of the season.”
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director) stated, “We made a come back for the start of the European season, although our situation after the first lap wasn’t that good. Robert got stuck in traffic at the start, lost five positions and was just able to avoid the early accident. Whereas Nick on the outside was able to gain some places. During the race it was our pit crew that did a great job and enabled Nick to get by another car with every pit stop. Two points for seventh place is not a big result, but it demonstrates the improved performance of the car with the new aero update. We can build on this.”
While seventh placed Nico Rosberg said, “I really believe we could have taken fifth place today but things didn’t go too well. I had a very good first few laps but, after 10 laps or so, I started to experience a problem at the rear of the car which I’ve had all weekend. Something inexplicable would just happen and affect the balance which caused a lot of oversteer. Oddly enough, it would then be ok again. As this was happening throughout much of the race, I couldn’t really push and that really hurt me. Going home with one point is always positive though and we should have a good car in Monaco so I think we’ll have the chance to get a good result there.”
Patrick Head, Williams Director of Engineering said, “Although we were in the points today, it was frustrating not to get more out of the race, particularly as the safety car on the first lap gave our strategy a good advantage over the cars in front. Kazuki was out of points contention early on due to a pitstop to change the front wing. Nico's pace in the first stint was initially good but we then struggled to maintain consistency so we'll have to investigate that. Both cars were reliable.”
It was another disappointing race for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished as he was outside the points in ninth and lapped by race winner Button.
The next race of the season will be on the street circuit of Monaco on May 24.
2009 Bahrain Grand Prix Results
| 1 Jenson Button | Brawn GP | 1h37m19.202s |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | Brawn GP | 1h37m32.258s |
| 3 Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1h37m33.126s |
| 4 Sebastien Vettel | Red Bull | 1h37m38.143s |
| 5 Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1h38m02.368s |
| 6 Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1h38m10.029s |
| 7 Nick Heidfeld | BMW-Sauber | 1h38m11.514s |
| 8 Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1h38m24.413s |
| 9 Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | Lapped |
| 10 Timo Glock | Toyota | Lapped |
| 11 Robert Kubica | BMW-Sauber | Lapped |
| 12 Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | Lapped |
| 13 Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | Lapped |
| 14 Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India | Lapped |
| DNF Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | DNF 17 laps |
| DNF Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | DNF 7 laps |
| DNF Jarno Trulli | Toyota | Crash, 0 laps |
| DNF Sebatien Buemi | Torro-Rosso | Crash, 0 laps |
| DNF Sebastien Bourdais | Torro-Rosso | Crash, 0 laps |
| DNF Adrian Sutil | Force India | Crash, 0 laps |
2009 FIA Formula One Driver's World Championship
| 1 Jenson Button | 41 |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | 27 |
| 3 Sebastien Vettel | 23 |
| 4 Mark Webber | 15.5 |
| 5 Jarno Trulli | 14.5 |
| 6 Timo Glock | 12 |
| 7 Lewis Hamilton | 9 |
| 8 Fernando Alonso | 9 |
| 9 Nick Heidfeld | 6 |
| 10 Nico Rosberg | 4.5 |
| 11 Heikki Kovalainen | 4 |
| 12 Felipe Massa | 3 |
| 13 Kimi Raikonnen | 3 |
| 14 Sebastien Buemi | 3 |
| 15 Sebastien Bourdais | 1 |
| 16 Adrian Sutil | 0 |
| 17 Robert Kubica | 0 |
| 18 Nelson Piquet Jr | 0 |
| 19 Kazuki Nakajima | 0 |
| 20 Giancarlo Fisichella | 0 |
2009 FIA Formula One Constructor's World Championship
| 1 Brawn-Mercedes | 68 |
| 2 Red Bull Renault | 38.5 |
| 3 Toyota | 26.5 |
| 4 McLaren Mercedes | 13 |
| 5 Renault | 9 |
| 6 Ferrari | 6 |
| 7 BMW-Sauber | 6 |
| 8 Williams-Toyota | 4.5 |
| Torro-Rosso Ferrari | 4 |
| Force India | 0 |
All results subject to FIA confirmation
Simon McBride
Thanks to Brawn GP, Toyota, Force India, Williams, Ferrari and BMW F1 teams for suppling the images.
