Jenson Button on a roll

June 8, 2009

Jenson Button on a roll

It was a top race with frills & thrills, drama & all the makings of a soap opera but in the end one man came on top & that was the one & only Jenson Button. After all not often you see a driver being stalled at the starting grid & colliding midway besides spinning of the track, Barrichello being the unlucky man this time. Vettel from Red Bull camp might also be grieved as he took pole in qualifying only to be surpassed by the eventual winner in the form of Jenson Button who overtook him on the first lap itself as Vettel went just wide on exiting turn 9. It was a day of mixed fortunes for Brawn GP as their ace driver this season Jenson Button won in the end & Brazilian Barrichello had to retire midway. Now it seems that the sixth win from seven races of the season for Button should be enough for him to win the driver’s championship with a 26 points lead at the moment. It would equal a record along with Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher, some of the all time greats of the sport.

Jenson Button The Istanbul Park remember is one of the 3 anti clock wise racing circuits in F1 GP. Besides the slew of measures taken at the beginning of the season seems to have paid off as weaker teams like Red Bull, Brawn GP & even Force India aren’t a walkover anymore. These changes were introduced to nullify the superior cars like that of Ferrari & bring driver’s skills at the fore. The official Formula 1 website states

“The regulation changes for 2009 are some of the most extensive ever introduced to Formula One racing and fall into three main areas – aerodynamics, KER’S and tyres. Formulated with help from the Overtaking Working Group’s (OWG) engineers, the new rules aim to (1) reduce the aerodynamic sensitivity of the cars to turbulence; (2) increase overtaking opportunities; and (3) slow the cars in the very quick corners. To compensate for the loss of down force from the aerodynamic changes, slick tyres have been brought back for the first time since 1997 to boost mechanical grip. As a result of the changes the 2009 cars appear quite different to their predecessors, with the removal of the vast majority of barge boards (now only allowed in a very small area – see red arrow), wing lets, chimneys and cooling gills leading to much cleaner looking designs.

Forthcoming Technical news articles will examine each of the key areas of change in detail.”

Fellipe Massa, winner last year, finished sixth ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Toyota’s Timo Glock. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Williams’ Nico Rosberg had a battle for fourth the forth spot which Trulli won this time. Kimi Raikkonen had a hard afternoon with his Ferrari at ninth ahead of Alonso’s Renault, the Spaniard was followed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton & then came BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima. McLaren had a poor day after Heikki Kovalainen was 14th.