Sonntag, 26. Apr 2009, 11:01
Jenson Button claimed his and Brawn GP’s third victory of the season despite initial worries about the pace and reliability of the car.
Off the grid, Lewis Hamilton made a good start in his McLaren, moving up from 5th to 3rd while Timo Glock got past pole-sitting Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli to take the lead. Further down the field, there were a number of incidents which ended with several drivers having to pit for new nose-cones, including the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld as well as Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa pitted on lap 3 after reporting a problem with his KERS system which he was advised to turn off. There was also a good start made by Mark Webber who had started 18th after being blocked by Adrian Sutil. The Australian made his way up to 11th by lap 5.
On Lap 8, Jenson Button had instructions over his radio to start turning his engine down due to worries about whether the Brawn could handle the extremely hot temperatures, but Button continued to set fast times. On the following lap Timo Glock pitted and put on the medium compound tyres for an extended middle stint. This proved costly as he struggled with them and subsequently dropped back from the leaders. Trulli also switched to the medium tyres in his first pit-stop and re-joined in 6th place, but was overtaken by Fernando Alonso a couple of laps later as he too lost ground. The rest of the leaders all put on softer tyres in their first pit-stops and maintained their pace with Jenson Button crucially exiting his first stop ahead of both Toyotas. Button and Barrichello each had a different strategy with Button on a 2-stop and Barrichello stopping 3 times and they were both competitive throughout the race.
McLaren also looked to be improving as Lewis Hamilton was amongst the leading pack all the way through the Grand Prix and eventually finished in 4th place. His team-mate Heikki Kovaleinen was stuck in the midfield after being involved in a first-lap collision with Robert Kubica which although Kubica came off worse, Kovaleinen never got up to the same sort of pace as his team-mate.
There were also encouraging signs for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen scored their first points of the season in 6th. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo attended the race and will have been pleased to see his team avoid making their worst ever start to a season. In contrast to Raikkonen, Felipe Massa had a difficult afternoon due to the problems with his KERS. He was lapped by the leaders and finished down in 14th where towards the end of the race he was most notably battling with the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella. There was a minor collision as Massa passed the Italian veteran on lap 52, but neither car sustained any significant damage.
It was also a miserable race for BMW as both of their cars were damaged on lap 1. After having their nose cones replaced, Kubica and Heidfeld continued, but spent the rest of the race trundling around at the back and were the last two cars to finish. Remarkably over the 57 laps there was only one retirement from the race as the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima came into the garage on lap 50 with an oil pressure problem.
1) Jenson Button – Brawn GP
2) Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull
3) Jarno Trulli – Toyota
4) Lewis Hamilton – McLaren
5) Rubens Barrichello – Brawn GP
6) Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari
7) Timo Glock – Toyota
8) Fernando Alonso – Renault
9) Nico Rosberg – Williams
10) Nelson Piquet – Renault
11) Mark Webber - Red Bull
12) Heikki Kovaleinen – McLaren
13) Sebastien Bourdais – Toro Rosso
14) Felipe Massa – Ferrari
15) Giancarlo Fisichella – Force India
16) Adrian Sutil – Force India
17) Sebastien Buemi – Toro Rosso
18) Robert Kubica – BMW
19) Nick Heidfeld – BMW
20) Kazuki Nakajima – retired.