BUTTON REMAINS COOL TO WIN F1GP IN BAHRAIN !!

anestis mantzouranis

In the words of Rob Thomas
from the song `Smooth’ .. “Man, it’s a hot one, like seven inches
from the midday sun .. “And so it was at the Bahrain circuit for the F1GP on 26th April. More
accurately though, the dry, hot 37 C degree desert heat – 51 on track –
meant that drivers and teams had serious management issues to contend
with. Management of tires, engines and management of their own
concentration and energy levels to see out the race.Whilst reigning champion Lewis Hamilton from the Vodaphone sponsored
McLaren team, was fastest in practice, with a time of 1min33.647 in his
19 laps, it was Ferrari and Mercedes who seemed to struggle most with
their engines and tire management during the main event.

But it would appear that Jenson Button was the coolest of all the
cool kids, as he drove his Virgin sponsored, Brawn team to the podium,
to tally a very cool 31 points for the season.

” We were worried by fluid temperatures in particular,”
said engineer Rob Smedley, “and sections of the Brawn cars’
bodywork were cut away at the rear before the race to allow for
cooling”.

This makes 3 wins from 4 races for Button, who won in Malaysia, of
course in Melbourne
and came 3rd in China last weekend. However, this was a very definitive
win with a gap of 7.2 seconds ahead of German Sebastian Vettel of Red
Bull who incidentally, he lost to in China.

Whilst not taking anything away from the brilliant race run by
Button, he does have a little to thank Hamilton for.

An early race duel between Vettel and Hamilton, saw Vettel lose when
Hamilton burst through to separate the Toyotas who had a tight flank.
This allowed Button a small window to squeeze round the outside of
Vettel in Turn One and was ahead of him ever since.

” I was very surprised when Lewis came up beside me on the first
lap, ” said Vettel, “and later on I just did not have the
tyres to attack and do any better.”

The champion (Hamilton) then briefly snatched second on the opening
lap, but ran wide and slipped back to third before being dropped
to fourth with superb braking technique by Button at the first turn of
the second lap.

Hamilton went on to finish in 4th with a strong race despite some car
issues.

Button’s team mate however, had some struggles in the second Brawn
car to finish 5th after 3 pit stops.

Veteran Felipe Massa had a bad start with a Turn One incident that
caused him to Pit early for a damage check of the front fender. This
caused him to finish 14th without much damage to his career total
points.

Our own Mark Webber was as furious as the Red Bull that sponsors him
after being blocked at the start of the race. He later surged from the
back of the grid for a respectable, albeit disappointing, 11th spot.

It seemed to all be up to the timing of the pit stops towards the end
though, and by Lap 37, Button, Trulli and Hamilton all went to pits
together leaving Vettel out in front.

On Button’s return though, fresh car and driver meant that was back
in front to hold this until the finish line.

This was an excellent result once again for the team created from the
ruins of Honda, and salvaged by Richard Branson’s Virgin empire to hold
the top of the race season with a very strong lead of 50 points over Red
Bull’s 27.5.

And as that Rob Thomas song concludes .. ” .. cos you’re so
smooth ! ”

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F1GP – Gulf Air
Bahrain Grand Prix

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time
1	20	Jenson Button	Brawn	01:31:48.1820
2	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:31:55.3690
3	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	01:31:57.3520
4	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	01:32:10.2780
5	21	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn	01:32:25.9610
6	4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	01:32:30.2390
7	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	01:32:31.0620
8	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	01:32:40.9570
9	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams	01:32:46.3800
10	8	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	01:32:53.3310
11	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull	01:32:55.8230
12	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren	01:33:06.0060
13	11	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso	01:33:06.9870
14	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+1 Lap
15	19	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India	+1 Lap
16	18	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+1 Lap
17	12	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
18	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	+1 Lap
19	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1 Lap
20	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams	DNF

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Overall Standings

Drivers

1. Jenson Button (GBR) 31.0pts

2. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) 19.0

3. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 18.0

4. Jarno Trulli (ITA) 14.5,

5. Timo Glock (GER) 12.0

6. Mark Webber (AUS) 9.5

7. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 9.0

8. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 5.0

9. Nick Heidfeld (GER) 4.0

10. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) 4.0

11. Nico Rosberg (GER) 3.5

12. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 3.0

13. Sebastien Buemi (SUI) 3.0

14. Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) 1.0

Constructors

1. Brawn 50.0pts

2. Red Bull 27.5

3. Toyota 26.5

4. McLaren 13.0

5. Renault 5.0

6. BMW Sauber 4.0

7. Toro Rosso 4.0

8. Williams 3.5

9. Ferrari 3.0

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Jenson Button (GBR) Brawn Grand Prix
celebrates his Win.

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The podium (L to R): Sebastian
Vettel (GER) Red Bull Racing, second; race winner Jenson Button (GBR)
Brawn Grand Prix and third placed Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota

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