Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso
by Erik Nielsen
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
In spite of my last article, McLaren tried to prove that it wasn’t just Red Bull’s ability to take their own cars out of contention that would lead to a desired result for the Woking based team, but that they could do it all on their own. It was Hamilton’s race to lose, and between driving a clean race and having the team’s flawless pit stops, he made it look easy.
Jenson Button had to work at it, but traffic and pit stop strategy allowed him to get ahead of Fernando Alonso and stay ahead to make it a perfect weekend for McLaren. Ron Dennis was even rumored to crack a smile. Some said it was still his smirk from having the moxie to ask investors to raise enough capital to purchase 48% of McLaren’s road car division during the worst recession of memory. Then again, nobody ever accused him of having “small attachments”.
After darting in and out of the pits for tires most of the weekend Fernando Alonso could not get the timing just right to spoil it for McLaren, but the Ferrari didn’t seem to be that far off the pace. Massa had a miserable weekend and would probably rather forget the whole event. The Maranello team is going to do their best to keep McLaren and Red Bull honest with the pace, but it doesn’t seem like they will be able to succeed every weekend by putting both drivers on the podium.
Felipe Massa
Red Bull had a good weekend, but they really needed a great weekend to stay on top of all of the points tables. Vettel finished ahead of Webber, but they were neck and neck and neither could keep up with McLaren. The team made cryptic comments that lead those on the pit wall to believe they were having braking issues, but no one outside of the team will really ever know for sure.
Tires seemed to be the issue for everyone this weekend. The softer option was only suited for five laps or so, the harder one tended to start to degrade after 15. A premium was offered for the first engineer that was able to get someone to translate the phrase “what do you mean, oops?” into Japanese for effect so the Bridgestone engineers to understand.
Rosberg finished ahead of Schumacher. Again. The PR spin machine has started. All comments are now on Schumacher focusing on 2011 and that development would start on the new car. Schumacher seemed to be on pace in the closing laps to at least finish in the points, but when timing and scoring was done, both Force India cars finished ahead of him to get the last two points paying positions.
Fernando Alonso
Force India was happy and has put together a solid package for the last two seasons, remarkable for how little they spend compared to the top tier teams. Now if Schumacher had finished behind both Virgins or both Lotuses (Loti?), then he may have had second thoughts if this come back was the right thing to do. Surely he didn’t do this because he had car payments that needed to be covered?
Kubica was able to set the fastest lap in the Renault and finished on the lead lap in seventh. His team mate jumped the start and had a drive through penalty. It was not a good weekend for French teams. The Peugeots were the favorites at Le Mans and, even entering four cars, it still ended up a 1-2-3 for Audi. Again. But that is a story for another column.
You don't see this every day - Fernando Alonso riding the curbs on a BIKE!!
Buemi brought home honors in eighth place for Toro Rosso. The junior Red Bull team has recently considered changing their slogan to “we’re better than Virgin, HRT and Lotus”. It is still good to be ahead of the also rans.
Racing is back on the continent in two weeks as the circus goes to Valencia for the GP of Europe. While this location does its best to try and compete with the harbor track of Monaco, the usable surface is wider and there is more run off room. There are also plenty of container ships and high cranes in the background that the local TV station does its best to crop out of the pictures when you watch the race. Well, no one ever said this wasn’t a show.
Race Results
| 1 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 1h33m53.456s |
| 2 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 2.2s |
| 3 | ALONSO | Ferrari | + 9.2s |
| 4 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | + 37.8s |
| 5 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 39.2s |
| 6 | ROSBERG | Mercedes GP | + 56.0s |
| 7 | KUBICA | Renault | + 57.3s |
| 8 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 9 | LIUZZI | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 10 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 11 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes GP | + 1 lap |
| 12 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 13 | HULKENBERG | Williams-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 14 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 15 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 16 | KOVALAINEN | Lotus-Cosworth | + 2 laps |
| 17 | PETROV | Renault | + 2 laps |
| 18 | CHANDHOK | HRT-Cosworth | + 4 laps |
| 19 | DI GRASSI | Virgin-Cosworth | + 5 laps |
| 20 | GLOCK | Virgin-Cosworth | + 20 laps, steering |
| 21 | TRULLI | Lotus-Cosworth | + 28 laps, brakes |
| 22 | DE LA ROSA | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | + 40 laps, engine |
| 23 | SENNA | HRT-Cosworth | + 57 laps, gearbox |
| 24 | KOBAYASHI | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | + 69 laps, collision |
| Fastest Lap |
KUBICA | Renault | 1m16.972s |
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 109 Points |
| 2 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 106 Points |
| 3 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 103 Points |
| 4 | ALONSO | Ferrari | 94 Points |
| 5 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 90 Points |
| 6 | ROSBERG | Mercedes GP | 74 Points |
| 7 | KUBICA | Renault | 73 Points |
| 8 | MASSA | Ferrari | 67 Points |
| 9 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes GP | 34 Points |
| 10 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | 23 Points |
| 11 | LIUZZI | Force India-Mercedes | 12 Points |
| 12 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | 7 Points |
| 13 | PETROV | Renault | 6 Points |
| 14 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 5 Points |
| 15 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | 3 Points |
| 16 | KOBAYASHI | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1 Point |
| 17 | HULKENBERG | Williams-Cosworth | 1 Point |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 215 Points |
| 2 | RBR-RENAULT | 193 Points |
| 3 | FERRARI | 161 Points |
| 4 | MERCEDES GP | 108 Points |
| 5 | RENAULT | 79 Points |
| 6 | FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES | 35 Points |
| 7 | STR-FERRARI | 8 Points |
| 8 | WILLIAMS-COSWORTH | 8 Points |
| 9 | BMW SAUBER-FERRARI | 1 Point |