Monday, September 14, 2009

Barrichello v Button: Battle of Brawn between Formula One's B specials

Only 14 points now separate the two team-mates going into the last four races of the season.

14 September 2009:

Rubens Barrichello moved up from fifth on the grid to win his third Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

A heavy fuel load during qualifying on Saturday left him down the grid, but Brawn were gambling with a one-stop strategy for both cars that paid off after the stops.

Ross Brawn, widely considered to be the best strategist in the paddock after his successes at Benetton and Ferrari, was confident on Saturday that the strategy decided on for both of his drivers would pay off. And so it turned out to be.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, starting the race on pole, had a slow start, but quickly set about opening the gap, needing around 15 seconds to stay ahead of the Brawns.

After putting in what he described as “qualifying laps” for much of the race, he emerged from his first stop ahead, but struggled to increase his lead, and as the Brawn drivers stayed within touch it was inevitable that he would lose after the next round of stops.

No comments:

Post a Comment