Brazilian Grand Prix

With a run at the beginning of the year, the even money was that Button would clinch it; it was only a matter of when. With his recent slow performances and even being second fiddle at BrawnGP from a performance standpoint, it was almost surprising that the title was decided this late in the season. England is happy, and with an Ashes win, the queen’s subjects may just become unbearable to be around until next year.

Mark Webber did his best to keep Red Bull in the running for the Constructor’s Championship, but with Button’s fifth and Barichello’s eighth, there aren’t enough points left in the Middle East in two weeks to allow the battle to continue. Hard to believe that at the beginning of the season it was touch and go if BrawnGP would even have enough money to challenge for the championship, yet they were able to deliver a result that stunned all of the major players. The team should be congratulated for a job well done (and you know that there are some Honda executives getting a royal ass chewing starting with “why didn’t you let Brawn-san call more of the shots last year when it was our name on the car”).

Robert Kubica drove a race that I don’t think anyone saw. It was uneventful and only for bragging rights. The Pole will be at Renault next year and will have the shoes of Alonso to fill. Hopefully, he will have them steam cleaned before he tries to get into them.

Lewis Hamilton was back on the podium in third place, muttering the whole time, something about him being a better driver than Button, more rambling about it not taking 10 years to do it. The finish was enough to move McLaren ahead of Ferrari in the standings, but when you are battling for third and fourth, you’ve already lost.

Sebastian Vettel put in a solid drive and finished in fourth place. He may not be a Schumacher-in-waiting, but the German delivered when the team was looking for maximum points. His star is still rising. If it is proven that he is a good development driver, than he should be able to pick which drive he would like in a few years.

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Kimi Raikkonen has as much as given up. He recovered from an early incident to finish in sixth place, but the performance is definitely not what the bosses from Maranello have been looking for, only to be confirmed with their signing of Alonso. I don’t think that they are going to get what they were hoping for out of Alonso, except maybe confirmation of how much cheating has been going on at some of the other teams.

Buemi pushed the Toro Rosso as hard as he could and could do no better than seventh. Doesn’t seem like much until you realize that he was ahead of Barichello at his home track. You have to give the Red Bull family credit, they are able to spot talent.

Speaking of not spotting talent, Fisichella wasn’t lapped, but other than that, not much could be said. Facts are that even Ferrari can not find a quick Italian to run their car. He may have been better off staying with Force India. What is evident is that the Ferrari is not an easy car to drive at the limit. F1 Clienti probably will not highlight that fact when they try to pawn one of these things off for 2 million Euro at the next auction.

Everything has been more or less decided; the only thing left to happen now is determining who will be the inaugural winner of the Abu Dhabi race. We’ll find out that bit of trivia in two weeks.

Race Results

1	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	1h32m23.081s
2	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 7.6s
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 18.9s
4	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 19.6s
5	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	+ 29.0s
6	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	+ 33.3s
7	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 35.9s
8	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	+ 45.4s
9	KOBAYASHI	Toyota	+ 63.3s
10	FISICHELLA	Ferrari	+ 70.6s
11	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 71.3s
12	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 73.4s
13	GROSJEAN	Renault	+ 1 lap
14	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
15	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 41 laps, accident
16	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 44 laps, gearbox
17	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 50 laps, out of fuel
18	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 71 laps, accident
19	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 71 laps, accident
20	ALONSO	Renault	+ 71 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	1m13.733s

NOTE: Kovalainen originally finished ninth, but had 25s added to his race time due to an unsafe pit stop release.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	89 Points
2	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	74 Points
3	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	72 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	61.5 Points
5	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	49 Points
6	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	48 Points
7	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	34.5 Points
8	TRULLI	Toyota	30.5 Points
9	ALONSO	Renault	26 Points
10	GLOCK	Toyota	24 Points
11	MASSA	Ferrari	22 Points
12	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	22 Points
13	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	17 Points
14	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	15 Points
15	FISICHELLA	Ferrari	8 Points
16	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	5 Points
17	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	5 Points
18	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	BRAWN-MERCEDES	161 Points
2	RBR-RENAULT	135.5 Points
3	McLAREN-MERCEDES	71 Points
4	FERRARI	70 Points
5	TOYOTA	54.5 Points
6	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	34.5 Points
7	BMW SAUBER	32 Points
8	RENAULT	26 Points
9	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	13 Points
10	STR-FERRARI	7 Points