Race 01: Gulf Air Bahrain GP
Race 02: Qantas Australian GP
Race 03: Petronas Malaysian GP
Race 04: Chinese GP
Race 05: Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Woking, Surrey, UKTeam Principal: Martin Whitmarsh Technical Directors: Paddy Lowe, Neil Oatley Drivers: 1. Jenson Button 2. Lewis Hamilton Test Driver: Gary Paffett Chasis: MP4-25 Engine: Mercedes FO 108X |
 | Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team Brackley, Northamptonshire, UKTeam Principals: Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug Race Drivers: 3. Michael Schumacher 4. Nico Rosberg Test Driver: Nick Heifeld Chasis: MGP W01 Engine: Mercedes FO 108X |
 | Red Bull Racing Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UKTeam Principal: Christian Horner Technical Officer: Adrian Newey Race Drivers: 5. Sebastian Vettel 6. Mark Webber Test Drivers: Brendon Hartley, Daniel Ricciardo Chasis: RB6 Engine: Renault RS27 |
 | Scuderia Ferrari Malboro Maranello, ItalyTeam Principal: Stefano Domenicali Technical Director: Aldo Costa Race Drivers: 7. Felipe Massa 8. Fernando Alonso Test Drivers: Giancarlo Fisichella, Marc Gene, Luca Badoer Chasis: F10 Engine: Ferrari Type 056 |
 | AT&T Williams Grove, Oxfordshire, UKTeam Principals: Frank Williams, Patrick Head Technical Director: Sam Michael Race Drivers: 9. Rubens Barrichello 10. Nico Hulkenberg Test Driver: Valtteri Bottas Chasis: FW32 Engine: Cosworth CA2010 |
 | Renault F1 Team Viry-Chatillon, France and Enstone, UKTeam Principal: Eric Boullier technical Director: Bob Bell Race Drivers: 11. Robert Kubica 12. Vitaly Petrov Test Drivers: Ho-Pin Tung, Jerome d'Ambrosio, Jan Charouz Chasis: Renault R30 Engine: Renault RS27 - 2010 |
 | Force India F1 Team Silverstone, Northampshire, UKTeam Principal: Vijay Mallya Technical Director: Mark Smith Race Drivers: 14. Adrian Sutil 15. Vitantonio Liuzzi Test Drivers: Paul di Resta Chassis: VJM03 Engine: Mercedes FO 108X |
 | Scuderia Toro Rosso Faenza, ItalyTeam Principal: Franz Tost Technical director: Giorgio Ascanelli Race Drivers: 16. Sebastian Buemi 17. Jaime Alguersuari Test drivers: Brendon Hartley, Daniel Ricciardo Chasis: STR 05 Engine: Ferrari Type 056 |
 | Lotus Racing Hingham, Norfolk, UKTeam Principal: Tony Fernandes Technical Director: Mike Gascoyne Race Drivers: 18. Jarno Trulli 19. Heikki Kovalainen Test Driver: Fairuz Fauzy Chasis: T127 Engine: Cosworth CA2010 |
 | Hispania Racing F1 Team Murcia, SpainTeam Principal: Colin Kolles Technical Director: Toni Cuquerella Race Drivers: 20. Karun Chandhok 21. Bruno Senna Chasis: Hispania HRT Engine: Cosworth CA2010 |
 | BMW Sauber F1 Team Hinwil, SwitzerlandTeam Principal: Peter Sauber Technical Director: Willy Rampf Race Driver: 22. Pedro de la Rosa 23. Kamui Kobayashi Chasis: C29 Engine: Ferrari 056 |
 | Virgin Racing Dinnington, South Yorkshire, UKTeam Principal: John Booth Technical Director: Nick Worth Race Drivers: 24. Timo Glock 25. Lucas di Grassi Test Drivers: Luiz Razia, Andy Soucek Chasis: VR-01 Engine: Cosworth CA2010 |
Spanish GP marks the first outing in the central European continental, and also marks that the current Formula one season has gone by about a third. It is hard to imagine another household name in winning any race besides those two from the Brawn GP. The end of the day analysis can tells you much more but Brawn GP is still the team to beat.
The safety car was brought out four laps later and the race restarted. But the field quickly evaporated to only 15 runners as Heikki Kovalainen is out in some sort of porblem at lap 7. Barrichello and Button slowly pulls away from the third man Massa at a very substantial time.
First pit stop window opened at lap 17, Glock was the first to pit followed by Button and Alonso. Raikkonen became the 6th retiree with anpther disastrous hydraulic problem. When it became apparent that Barrichello first stop was amazingly fast, it learns quickly that the Brazilian was in a three-stoppers. After round one pit stop: Barrichello leads ahead of Rosberg (on long fuel) and the order changed nothing much. Too much dismay, Vettel who has a faster car, was tucked up behind Massa who was holding things well.
Now in the middle stinct, Barrichello came in for his second pit while Webber became increasingly close to the top four now. However, Barrichello was struggling with some problem and had not been fast enough to tickle off Vettel in third. Button was also been radioed over to inform that he just need to be quicker as both Massa and Vettel were on hot pursuit. Webber on heavily fuel early on also making fire pace too.
Now, the fields were making their second stop, a third one for Barrichello. The only funnier moment seems another strategical error for Ferrari - Massa was asked to save fuel and see if can get to the end! Webber's long middle stinct paiud him off. Massa slowed down and let Webber, Vettel and Alonso to pass him until the chequered flag.
In the end, another win for Button while Barrichello was unable to stop asling himself why he was now in second. Earlier, it was told that both Brawns will be running on 3 stops but somehow, Button's strategy was altered to allow only 2 pits. Red Bull promised a new package on next stop in Monaco. I do hope at least another team can do anything to halt current Brawn's hot red, and my best bet will be on Red Bull.
Brawn was flying and I'm surprised that the real pace setter this weekend were Red Bulls and Ferraris. Ferrari was fast over the weekend but again, luck was not on their side. Keep it up boys! The full race result is as follows:
*The article also features on FORMULA ONE GREEN
Let us ask ourselves, who was the greatest Formula One driver ever? It is Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost or the late Aryton Senna? This is a hard question to answer. Although in terms of records and statistics, Michael Schumacher has a far edge over them; but nothing stops late Aryton Senna to push further beyond his limit, producing some outstanding performance.
Thanks to his good relationship with Honda, he moved to McLaren in 1988. McLaren, now supplied by Honda proved to be the fastest car, joining Alain Prost as his team-mate in McLaren.
ALAN PROST, another Formula One legend..
Andrew Benson added, "Already it was clear that one of F1's great rivalries was in the offing, the young pretender challenging the supremacy of the veteran master, who was determined to hang on to his position.
ARYTON SENNA'S CAREER STATISTICS
No rain, no safety car period. That's the differences between this race and the previous three races. Also, this is a race in Middle East, where Formula One is now going westward towards the crucial middle stint of the European circuits. Track temperature is blistering hot, reaching about 50 degree while the sky is clear and sunshine illuminates the skyline in Sakhir.
The opening phase saw Timo Glock leaped frog his team mante, Jarno Trulli to lead the race. By the end of the first corner, Hamilton leaped to second behind Glock and Trulli; while Button also made a similar move ahead of Vettel. Hamilton was fast but not before he made mistake that allowed Button to overtake him. Massa involved in a tight claustrophic collide with Nakajima where both entered pit for a nose change.
The first round of pit stops, proved to be in Button's favour. After trailing the pair of Toyota by few seconds behind, he found himself in cushion while Vettel was heavily compromised by Hamilton in early laps and Trulli following the first pits. Button slowly pulled away. The train of fight for the second place was imminent among the three; Trulli, Vettel and Hamilton. Glock was suprisingly out of the contention.
Trulli and Vettel battled it all out until the Italian made his second pits, thus releasing Vettel for a faster pace. He led for a brief 3 laps stint when Button pitted earlier than him, but having 3 fast laps were not enough. By the end of the second pit stops window, Button and Vettel emerged far ahead of Trulli, Hamilton, Barrichello and Raikkonen. Raikkonen had a very dramatic cat and mouse game with Glock which proved the Toyota was still somehow faster than Ferrari.
On the final phase, it was a cool and steady for both Button and Vettel with the former had a gap of around 10 seconds of the latter.
In the end, Button took the chequered flag for the third time this season, followed by another strong podium for Sebastian Vettel. Pole seater Trulli came in third. Now you know who had a superior car. In my opinion, Brawn GP still have a faster car than any of the field. However, do not underestimates Red Bull as their engineers were busy designing the new diffuser for them.
One thing for sure, Ferrari finally scored some points here - thanks to a good decent run by Kimi Raikkonen. Massa's continue lackluster of luck was again imminent in Bahrain. The Italian horse power remained ninth but with European circuits ahead, they will remain on focus to catch up the rest of the field.
[source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26042009/23/button-top-bahrain-toyota-wait.html, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8019347.stm,
Last check I had on the weather forecast in Shanghai was a reported cloudy for the Sunday afternoon. First sat in front of the television set and to my surprise, it was raining substantially and the track was completely wet. After two days of sunshine in Shanghai, strong wind had blown the rain clouds over and it had been pouring right from the start. This is a condition that eventually start the race from where we last stop - a rain tainted weekend in Sepang.
The opening phase saw safety car was deployed to lead the race with Sebastian Vettel from pole position, followed by Alonso, Webber, Barrichello and Button. Brawn GP knew that the front three particularly Alonso were on light fuel. However, things were not as easy as a mathematical fuel calculation can be in reality.
Then Alonso pitted early during the end of the safety car period, which indicates how low fuel he was on-board. Alonso's pit was followed by the start of the real action. Hamilton in an improved car with KERS aid, past Raikkonen for 6th place. Since then, Hamilton continued to hunt the drivers in front of him while Raikkonen was losing pace and consistency.
Visibility on the track become reduced. Because of thet, on lap 18, Robert Kubica ran straight, smashing the back of Jarno Trulli. Trulli having lost the rear wing and spoiler retired. However, the safety car was deployed again. 3 laps later, Massa's car came to a stall and he retired as well. We saw a couple of spun-off the track later but nothing compares to Nelson Piquet's crash into the marker and broke off the nose.
The main attention for the second place remained with Button battling Webber all the way. They made sensational moves and passes, a great drama during the boring middle stinct. There was a brief glory for lowly Force India when Adrian Sutil sits on sixth before he had a nasty spun and out on Lap 51, succumbed to pressure from Lewis Hamilton.
In the end, a sweat podium finish for the Red Bulls. Button remained the leader with his third podium in a row. Ferrari remained pointless - a worst start since 1981; while McLaren has a strong improvement.
Who says Formula One is predictable? Now you don't...this is the race result: