Abandoned!!!
This weekends Formula 1 race in Malaysia was abandoned after just 31 laps due to thunderstorms with torrential rain. Brawn’s Jenson Button went on to win the race albeit with half points because the race didn’t reach 75% distance for only the 5th time in the history of F1. The Briton had a poor start dropping him back to 4th place going into turn two. By the first pit-stop Jenson found himself back in the lead and ended the race in that position when the race was red flagged. German Nick Heidfeld claimed second spot for BMW followed by the Toyota’s of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli in third and fourth. The second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello came home in fifth place followed by Australian Mark Webber in his Red Bull. World champion Lewis Hamilton came home in seventh to claim his first points of the 2009 campaign and the final point went to Williams and Nico Rosberg. I would say that Jenson was the big winner of the day with his strategy perfectly timed with the weather changes to avoid additional pit-stops for tyres. Current constructors champions Ferrari came away with zero points for the second race of the season with Felipe Massa narrowly missing out in ninth while Kimi Raikkonen finished in 14th. And finally Heikki Kovalainen’s tumultuous time at McLaren continued as he failed to finish a complete lap yet again as he dropped it at turn six beaching it in the gravel trap! Brawn GP have proved they are real contenders for the world title this year. But I do wonder how competitive they would be if their diffuser is deemed illegal on the 14th of April when Ferrari, Renault, Red Bull nd now BMW challenge the legality of their diffuser system which is also fitted to the Williams and Toyota. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, if it is deemed legal then you can guarantee that the other teams will have something similar within the next few races. Personally I think it’s sour grapes on the part of the protesting teams!
It seems that McLaren could face further disciplinary action from the World Motorsport Council and the FIA for lying to the stewards in Australia. Lewis Hamilton broke his silence with an individual press conference apologising for his actions after being branded a liar and a cheat. Hamilton went onto say that he was ordered to give misleading evidence by McLaren’s sporting director Dave Ryan which he followed without hesitation. But I think that Hamilton needs to take responsibility for his own actions, use his own judgement on whether he should lie to the stewards or not. Clearly this was a bad decision on his part; Lewis should have used his own judgement and not blindly follow Ryan’s instructions, it’s a case of if Dave Ryan said jump off a cliff; would you do it? The McLaren sporting director has been suspended from his post after 35 years at the Woking based squad. New McLaren team principle Martin Whitmarsh also needs to keep his team in check, it doesn’t reflect well on him having key personnel lying to the FIA and compromising the teams position. McLaren are having a tough enough season without losing five points for a the sake of gaining one point by getting Jarno Trulli demoted from the podium!