Winners and Losers: JapanSunday 4th October 2009
Vettel helped breath life into the Drivers' Championship in Japan as the stewards let Williams get away with the-dog-ate-my-homework of F1 excuses.
Star of the Race
Jarno Trulli, Toyota, 2ndQuite simply one of Trulli's best ever races - and given the circumstances he came into it, even more impressive. He had endured a miserable Singapore GP and seen his team-mate inherit a podium place he probably didn't deserve, yet he bounced back to put the car into P2 on Saturday. At the time there were knowing looks of "let's see how little fuel he has when the car weights are published" but when they were, he was on the same strategy as the Brawns, Hamilton and Vettel.
He started from the dirty side of the grid in what has been a slow-starting race car, yet easily held on to P3 and wouldn't let Hamilton out of his sight. Looking at the state of Jarno in the ante-room to the podium you could tell he had worked for it. He looked like he'd had a tough workout at the gym whereas Lewis looked like he'd strolled across the car park having spent the race in the motorhome.
Overtaking Move of the RaceLap 3 - Jenson Button on Robert Kubica for P10Certainly a contender for overtaking move of the season, this was one of the most sublime passes of 2009, with all the deft trickery of Mansell versus Piquet at Silverstone.
Button was all over the back of Kubica in the final sector of the circuit and on the previous two laps had loomed large in Kubica's mirrors up the inside going into the final chicane. Robert knew Jenson had to get past quickly and that the Brawn driver wasn't going to just settle back into P11. On Lap 3 Kubica knew he would try it again. This time Jenson flicked the car as though he was going to try the outside, Kubica moved across and Button gleefully stuck his Brawn up the inside going into the braking zone of the chicane.
The onboard footage of that will be brilliant to watch.
Winners
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1stVettel kept the dream alive with a dominant win from pole to flag and only Mark Webber's late flying lap stopped him from wringing every single accolade from the Japanese GP. For the non-partisan spectator we couldn't have had a better winner.
Lewis Hamilton, Mclaren, 3rdAnother strong race from Hamilton, though the recent problems with KERS will be a worry. For a system that has performed well all year it's odd to be getting hiccups this late on. Perhaps some of the other teams have invented a jamming device. Lewis would have taken P2 had it not been for - what was explained away as - a gearbox issue.
Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 4thWe saw little of Kimi Raikkonen on television, but his lap times on the FIA timing screen were a joy to behold. In the middle sector he piled on personal best sector time after personal best lap time in his pursuit of Nick Heidfeld. A fantastic job for a car that's supposedly not being developed.
Nico Rosberg, Williams, 5thMy estimation of Rosberg went down a long way after Suzuka as he maintained in an interview with the BBC that at no point did he exceed his Safety Car delta time. How could he know? He told the stewards he couldn't see his delta time because of that pesky Low Fuel warning light...
And what's all this with the "I didn't gain an advantage"? He went from a potential P9 to P5. A psychologist writes: If he hadn't gone over his delta time in the first place why would he need to deny that he gained an advantage?
Nick Heidfeld, BMW, 6thShould have been fourth.
Rubens Barrichello, Brawn, 7thThe Brawns were a long way behind the pace of the front three and Raikkonen, though Jenson Button in clear air was able to put in the same kind of lap times as Raikkonen for a limited period. Before the Safety Car it looked destined that Nico Rosberg would slot in behind Rubens but in front of Jenson. Button quickly closed that gap, pushed up Rubens' pace and the pair of them looked like taking 6th and 7th till Alguersuari wiped out some innocent polystyrene.
Jenson Button, Brawn, 8thButton was unlucky to be stuck back on the grid where he was, had a so-so start, but then got a small bit of luck with Sutil and Kovalainen taking each other out. It only released him for three laps before his own pit-stop though. He was much faster in race pace than Barrichello but "Damage Limitation Jense" still needs to do it in qualifying.
LosersRace StewardsLet's hope the New-Look FIA of Jean Todt or Ari Vatanen can clear out everyone currently involved in race stewarding. F1 is a high tec sport governed by referees with the consistency of a weather vane. How can Sebastian Vettel get a drive-through penalty in Singapore for exceeding the pitlane speed limit (even though he didn't go faster than the speed limit, just took a shorter route) and get a penalty when Nico Rosberg didn't. Rosberg exceeded his Safety Car in-lap delta time by driving too quickly. Fact. That's an end-of-story kind of penalty. The fact that he couldn't see his delta time because he had a Low Fuel warning light on his steering wheel is a Williams problem. It's the dog-ate-my-homework of F1 excuses. He may not have been unsafe, he may not have gained any advantage, but when you leap from an estimated P8 or P9 to P5 then you have to have an excuse that is more compelling than a Low Fuel light warning obscured my target time. This is the stewards and the FIA ignoring evidence from their own officials, it's Interlagos 2007 all over again and it absolutely stinks.
It also takes some comprehension to work out how and why Rubens Barrichello can get a one-place grid demotion in qualifying while Button gets a three-place demotion for committing the same offence only four or five seconds apart. If that kind of adjustment can be made many hours after the event then they should adjust the race result. It almost certainly won't affect the outcome of the season but it just makes clear-cut offences seem negotiable.
The Extinction of OvertakingF1 must do something about its technical rules before next season. At the end of the GP, with four laps to go from the restart, it should have been an overtaking bonanza. The sad fact is that the order of the top 10 at the finish was the same as at the restart. A few had a look, nobody was able to make a move.
Franz Tost, Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso bossoWe maintained that Alguersuari looked out of his depth in Singapore and now he's becoming expensive. Franz Tost has made two mistakes: the first by dismissing Bourdais too soon and the second by promoting Alguersurai into the team ahead of his time. What was that old Cher song...?
Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, 11thHe started 11th and he finished 11th. Kovalainen had moments of brilliance and moments of stupidity in the race, but the good far outweighed the bad. He had an amazing start that saw him rocket past Kubica into 9th place by Turn 1. He eased himself past Sutil early on in the race but then allowed Sutil up the inside into the chicane on Lap 14.
It was Prost versus Senna all over again and the chicane is just too narrow to allow two cars to pass through it easily side by side. True Sutil didn't leave him much room at the exit, but then he probably thought tha Heikki would let him go as they both knew he was stopping in a few laps' time.
Later on in the race Kovalainen pulled a cameo overtaking move on Fisichella, as they both emerged from the pitlane together, by diving up the inside into Turn 1. It was clear from where Giancarlo put his car that he wasn't expecting anyone to appear on his left-hand side.
BBC CommentaryIt's worse than I thought. The race commentary team are still getting expert assistance and they're still missing all kinds of stuff. Last race they failed to notice that Nick Heidfeld's epic run of GP finishes had come to an end. This race they failed to notice Rosberg putting a move on Sutil that demoted him from 7th to 9th on Lap 2. And later on that Kubica had overtaken Heidfeld off camera.
Sure, there's a lot going on at the start of the race, but if they've got help via a commentary box producer as a third pair of eyes they shouldn't miss significant action or at least correct their mistakes. It's not like any GP these days is an overtaking fest.
And they're getting hysterical, like some 30's B-movie heroine. You want some pipe-smoking, brogue-wearing, square-jawed hero to dive straight in there and give them a good slap.On no part of the opening lap was Giancarlo Fisichella in front of Jenson Button though you'd think he was. Button had his front wing virtually attached to Kubica's gearbox at the hairpin on Lap 1 with Fisichella in no position to make a move. Coming into the other overtaking point of the circuit, the chicane, Button was still busy trying to look up the inside of Kubica.
He started from P.10 on the dirty side of the grid and lost out to a KERS car on the run down to Turn 1 and finished the opening lap in P11, all over the back of Robert Kubica.
Brundle: "Button's had an awful start."
Leggard: "It's a shocking start."
Jordan: (And this is an hour and a half later) "Button had a horrific start."
He lost a single place...go figure (or as they should say on the BBC these days, "go figure from the get-go down the straightaway, fo sho.").
Jake Humphry did manage to score the most fantastic put-down of David Coulthard in qualifying, though. Tight for time he asked his pundits, "Who's going to be on pole - in a word ...?"
Eddie Jordan came up with a name straight away and then DC started to fumble his way through an answer when Humphry cut him dead with a withering. "I'm sure you were going to say Vettel in the end." Humphry and Crofty are the stars of the 2009 coverage.
"Damage Intimation" Andrew Davies http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3265_5606775,00.html
