Red Bull Racing’s quest for a drivers’ champion got that much harder as Brawn extended their advantage with a one-two at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
It’s been a while, but Brawn GP once again stamped their authority on the 2009 F1 World Championship. Rubens Barrichello won the race, followed across the line by his team-mate, the championship leader Jenson Button.
Monza tends to be the shortest and fastest race of the year, but far from the smash-and-grab that usually holds sway, this year saw a more complex drama unfold. The reason: KERS. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen have come to the fore in recent races, McLaren and Ferrari finally getting to grips with their hybrid power systems after a dodgy start. It isn’t that their cars are necessarily quicker, more that if they get in the slipstream of a non-KERS rival, they have the power to pass on a long straight – and once they are in front, the magic button helps keep them there.
After the strong performance of McLaren in Valencia, Ross Brawn said he had a few ideas about how to get around the problem. Spa was a bad race for his team, but in Monza we found out exactly what he meant. Brawn, in common with Red Bull Racing and the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi all opted for a one-stop strategy that put them out of sequence with the lighter-fuelled Hamilton, Räikkönen and the impressively quick non-KERS Force India of Adrian Sutil.
Hamilton had pole, with Sutil alongside, but Räikkönen got the better start and slipped into second position ahead of the German driver. Heikki Kovalainen in the heavily-fuelled second McLaren was passed by both Brawns, while Liuzzi showed no signs of rust in robustly holding off a very determined KERS-boosted Fernando Alonso.
Robert Kubica also made a good start, and by the second chicane was up with Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber. The Australian’s heavy-fuel strategy wasn’t given a chance to play out as the two collided. Mark’s car ended up beached, while Kubica sustained bodywork damage and was obliged to pit.
Meanwhile, Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were swapping places. First, Vettel used his better aerodynamics to get a good run at the Parabolica and ease past on the straight, then Alonso fired up his superior horsepower and retook the place. It was nip and tuck.
The top three of Hamilton, Räikkönen and Alonso were pulling away from the field. On a two-stop strategy, they needed to build the gap. Hamilton was putting in fastest lap after fastest lap, and the other two were hanging on, Räikkönen potentially holding up the flying Sutil.
Hamilton stopped at the end of Lap 15 – Sutil and Räikkönen a few laps later. They came out in the same order, and Hamilton emerged in fifth, with Liuzzi between him and the chasers. Jaime Alguersuari retired with a gearbox problem. Liuzzi also stopped, a driveshaft failure ending what had been a terrific return to F1 with a genuine possibility of a podium finish.
Alonso was the first of the heavies to pit, stopping on lap 26. Kovalainen, Vettel and the Brawns followed soon after. Once events had shaken out, Hamilton led again, from Räikkönen and Sutil, but it was the maths that were important now. Hamilton had a 14s lead over Barrichello. He needed to increase that to at least 25s to be in with a chance of victory. The different plot strands were heading towards a collision. Hamilton resumed his dedicated pursuit of laptimes, setting a string of personal bests. He was making up the ground, but not enough. When he emerged from the pits the second time around, the Brawns were well down the road and cruising to a formation finish.
That left Sutil and Räikkönen fighting for fourth. In Spa, it had been Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India that had spent all race tight up behind Räikkönen’s Ferrari. Here is was Sutil’s turn. His car obviously had more pace, but it just couldn’t exploit it, Räikkönen using his boost defensively to maintain position. They came into the pits together. Räikkönen nearly stalled, and got away slowly. Sutil made a mess of his entry into the box, and ultimately the positions stayed the same.
The final third of the race was static, or should have been. Hamilton kept his foot in, and, on the final lap, clipped the kerb exiting the first Lesmo and spun across the track, hitting the wall and spraying the circuit with debris. With Hamilton under no pressure, McLaren sought to justify it by saying he was chasing down Button for second – but if the McLaren had rockets it wouldn’t have caught the car in front. Hamilton just isn’t particularly interested in finishing third any more.
The safety car was deployed, but the chequered flag had fallen. Barrichello won the race in a formation finish with Button. Räikkönen snatched a consolation podium and Sutil garnered a career-best fourth. Alonso was fifth ahead of Kovalainen in sixth. Heidfeld took seventh for BMW Sauber, and Vettel picked up the final point for Red Bull Racing.
Afterwards, Vettel denied his championship challenge is over, but now trails Button by 26pts with four races remaining. Barrichello, however, closed the gap on his team-mate, and is now only 14pts behind. In the constructors’ championship, the maximum pushed Brawn’s lead up to 40.5pts. On the podium, Barrichello was his usually stunned and delighted self, taking a third Italian Grand Prix victory, while Button looked quietly satisfied with his day’s work. His competition are running out of races.
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