European Grand Prix

Rubens Barichello was able to prove that the old guy in F1 still has the skills necessary to hold off a young challenger in a quick car to have his first win in five years. The Brazilian had his countryman’s recovery in his mind as his helmet commentary reflected on a recovering Filipe Massa, but the usually slower of the Brazilians was able to hold off pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton for the win.

Ross Brawn had his classic Cheshire Cat grin on his face as he and the team let the race come to them. Hamilton lead from the start, but as so often happens in F1, this one played out in the pits rather than any on track action. The boy wonder had that catch phrase on his mind during his second stop, in the context of “I wonder if the bloody team remembered the bloody tires?” The Woking boys did their best Keystone Cops impersonation, but the damage was done and second place was as good as it could get.

Ferrari fans were able to breathe a small sigh of relief when it
became clear that Kimi Raikkonen was going to finish on the third step of the podium. It made up for the embarrassment that was Luca Badoer’s weekend. The Italian test driver seemed to be running a test on the F60. The high point seemed to be that he was only 3 seconds off the pace in qualifying, and it pretty much went downhill after that. In thirty years of watching F1, I can’t recall someone pulling over to be passed on the exit to the pit lane. EVER. And then crossing the white line on pit out for a penalty. I still don’t know what was more painful to watch, Luca’s effort (or lack thereof), or the grimace on Michael Schumacher’s face that said “Damn, I wish I hadn’t hurt my neck on that motorbike.” If you only started watching Ferrari in the Herr Schumacher years, this is a glimpse of why those of us that have been around went into therapy to forget the mid-80s.

Kovalainen was driving for his job this weekend. The silly season has kicked into higher gear and the rumors of who is going where and when were flying. The Finn has not impressed McLaren and one doesn’t need to be Fellini to figure out the next plot twist reading the press releases.

Niko Rosberg finished in fifth, but more importantly, he was the only son of an F1 driver to race this weekend. Piquet the Younger was given the opportunity to find career development opportunities elsewhere over the summer break.

Fernando Alonso is rumored to be driving for Ferrari next year.
The fact that he was wearing Ray Ban Wayfarers only added to this speculation. I’ve been wearing them since the mid 80s, but as an overweight PhD engineer, I never really thought I was a fashion trend setter. Expect sales of that model of sunglasses to go up in Spain this week.

Jenson Button started looking for excuses on why he finished in
seventh. None were really satisfactory for us to print.

The last point of the weekend when to Kubica for the soon-to-be-defunct BMW team. The economy downturn has hit the makers of the self-claimed ultimate driving machine. Diesel car ads started running in the USA this week for their brand so the marketing folks are already changing their tunes. If anyone really wants to throw away several hundred million dollars, the team is supposedly for sale.

After suffering from withdrawals over the break, you don’t need to wait too long, real racing on a real course returns to Spa this weekend.

Race Results

1	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	1h35m51.289s
2	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 2.3s
3	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	+ 15.9s
4	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 20.0s
5	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 20.8s
6	ALONSO	Renault	+ 27.7s
7	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	+ 34.9s
8	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 36.6s
9	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 44.9s
10	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 47.9s
11	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 48.8s
12	FISICHELLA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 63.9s
13	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 64.5s
14	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 86.5s
15	GROSJEAN	Renault	+ 91.7s
16	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
17	BADOER	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
18	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 4 laps, retired
19	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 16 laps, brakes
20	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 34 laps, engine
Fastest Lap	GLOCK	Toyota	1m38.683s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	BUTTON	Brawn-Mercedes	72 Points
2	BARRICHELLO	Brawn-Mercedes	54 Points
3	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	51.5 Points
4	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	47 Points
5	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	29.5 Points
6	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	27 Points
7	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	24 Points
8	TRULLI	Toyota	22.5 Points
9	MASSA	Ferrari	22 Points
10	GLOCK	Toyota	16 Points
11	ALONSO	Renault	16 Points
12	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	14 Points
13	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	6 Points
14	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	3 Points
15	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points
16	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	BRAWN-MERCEDES	126 Points
2	RBR-RENAULT	98.5 Points
3	FERRARI	46 Points
4	McLAREN-MERCEDES	41 Points
5	TOYOTA	38.5 Points
6	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	29.5 Points
7	RENAULT	16 Points
8	BMW SAUBER	9 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	5 Points