The Official 2009 Japanese Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

I thought Button drove a better race than Barrichello

I thought Button lucked into the result. He qualified badly and then ran through a yellow flag zone. So it was all his own doing. His positions were only only made up because

- the crash in front of him which released him
- 2 cars coming out behind him and blocking Kubica, stopping the faster car.

It was a race of get-out-of-jail-free cards for Button and he should consider himself extremely lucky to get what he did.

Strange race. Perfect from Vettel. The rookies struggled. Oddly good race from Trulli.

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I thought it was a bit disappointing from Nick. Unlike Montreal last year, there was pretty much no way that letting Kubica past could disadvantage him.

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X (@ed24f1)

Also quite funny to see Jenson moaning after the race saying Rosberg gained through the sector. Jenson said he has splits on his wheel which "don't allow" him to go faster through yellow zones. Didn't *quite* work during qualifying did it?

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Covfan Wrote:
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> You could just put that last sentence as your sig
> so you don't have to type it everytime.

Don't even get me started on that fackin last line of his in every post

Wasn't the best race ever, a few overtakes here and there. Not the worst ever though, Brawn will surely rap up the constructors at Interlargos imho. Well done Lewis too for keeping Raikkonen at bay with no Kers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2009 05:11PM by mika19b.

Jenson and Barrichello where both doomed before the race started, their strategy was to start in the top 10 not behind, and the cars in front of them had more fuel... even if they have the where driving the Mclaren from 2005 they where fighting against all adversities.. not to mention that the field is tighter than in 2005

one thing i didn't understand is what happened with Nick?, he was in front of Kimi and in the pitstop they hold his car up for enough time to go out behind Kimi/Kubica.. they wheren't working on the car where they??

and Kovalainen is a fair racer.. he always talks about using little old school tricks to keep drivers behind, but here he used a dirty one

I don't understand why Rosberg was not penalised?

Is a safety car not just the same as full course yellow? So essentially doing the same as Button, Barichello n co from qualifying?

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Is a safety car not just the same as full course yellow? So essentially doing the same as Button, Barichello n co from qualifying?

No. Button and co ran full throttle through a yellow flag zone. Rosberg DID Slow down, just not enough (the dash display tells you the split time you should be doing, or something along those lines). But he couldn't possibly tell how much he should be slowing down because it wasn't displaying the targeted time as it was displaying the Low Fuel message.

Rosberg attempted to abide by the rules and only couldn't because of a technical issue. Jenson and Rubens made no attempt to abide by the rules.

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Slash Wrote:
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> one thing i didn't understand is what happened
> with Nick?, he was in front of Kimi and in the
> pitstop they hold his car up for enough time to go
> out behind Kimi/Kubica.. they wheren't working on
> the car where they??

The BBC commentators said that they were re-filling the engine with pneumatic air.

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X (@ed24f1)

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Is a safety car not just the same as full course
> yellow? So essentially doing the same as Button,
> Barichello n co from qualifying?
>
> No. Button and co ran full throttle through a
> yellow flag zone. Rosberg DID Slow down, just not
> enough (the dash display tells you the split time
> you should be doing, or something along those
> lines). But he couldn't possibly tell how much he
> should be slowing down because it wasn't
> displaying the targeted time as it was displaying
> the Low Fuel message.
>
> Rosberg attempted to abide by the rules and only
> couldn't because of a technical issue. Jenson and
> Rubens made no attempt to abide by the rules.


Ah right, I was under the impression that he set his fastest sectors of the race under the safety car.

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matt3454 Wrote:
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> DaveEllis Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is a safety car not just the same as full
> course
> > yellow? So essentially doing the same as
> Button,
> > Barichello n co from qualifying?
> >
> > No. Button and co ran full throttle through a
> > yellow flag zone. Rosberg DID Slow down, just
> not
> > enough (the dash display tells you the split
> time
> > you should be doing, or something along those
> > lines). But he couldn't possibly tell how much
> he
> > should be slowing down because it wasn't
> > displaying the targeted time as it was
> displaying
> > the Low Fuel message.
> >
> > Rosberg attempted to abide by the rules and
> only
> > couldn't because of a technical issue. Jenson
> and
> > Rubens made no attempt to abide by the rules.
>
>
> Ah right, I was under the impression that he set
> his fastest sectors of the race under the safety
> car.

I was under that impression too, solely from Jensons interview. But the FIA and Williams press releases both state Rosberg did slow for the accident, just not as much as he would of had he been shown the split system that he was meant to be shown. So nothing against Jenson, but I'm taking Rosbergs side with this one.

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SchueyFan Wrote:
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> The BBC commentators said that they were
> re-filling the engine with pneumatic air.

They might have been, but the reason the car was delayed was the right-rear wheel not being secured.

DaveEllis Wrote:
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I thought Button lucked into the result. He
> qualified badly and then ran through a yellow flag
> zone. So it was all his own doing. His positions
> were only only made up because

Lucked into it in that Kova and Sutil cant race, and that BMW messed up Kubica's race.

As far as pace was concerned he was alot quicker than Rubens when both were in clear air, something Rubens had for almost a full race!!!! Theres no way Button should have seen the rear wing of Rubens.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

As far as pace was concerned he was alot quicker than Rubens when both were in clear air, something Rubens had for almost a full race!!!! Theres no way Button should have seen the rear wing of Rubens.

The pace was meaningless though. Button screwed up the race so badly from qualifying that he wasn't able to get clean air. The only clean air he got was some he lucked into from others having issues.

You know you have had a terrible weekend when on Sunday you get thrown lucky card after lucky card and still only pick up one point.

Button is doing his best to lose this championship, and Red Bull and Rubens are doing there best not to take it. Button better watch himself, because if the Brawn isn't on pace at the next 2 events then Vettel could leap both of them providing the car stays in one piece.

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i can understand Jenosn playing safe in the last gp, but he's been playing safe for a while now and is costing him badly
i don't undertsand he shows speed and pace, but when it comes qualy he's nowhere
and then in the race he tries to make it up but then is too late

i'm a Jenson fan but there's no playing it safe if you start 20
i fear he might need to play it risky in the last GP to win the championship
he better win next race or at leat risk a bit more, or suffer all the pressure at Abu Dhabi

antihero Wrote:
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> waking up at 6.30am for what seemed to be
> a much promising race.


I do that every single european race

Oh I agree Dave, but my point was after all of it Button was in a posistion similar to Rubens, and that should not have happened. Rubens should have been 4th. He was slow today, very slow. Button was lucky, but made use of his luck. Rubens did not make use of his good starting posistion.

Here it was expected RedBull would dominate, they had 4 tenths over everyone IMO. Brazil, Mclaren will be the ones to beat, sorry Lewis. But both Abu Dhabi are tracks where Brawn should be as strong as RedBull if not stronger at Abu Dhabi. At Brazil nobody will stand a chance against Lewis IMO.

When its considered Rubens was only 7th Button's 8th isnt bad. The car was not on the pace, though Rubens was expected to be fourth/fifth (Ross Brawn) they did not have the pace.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Barrichello had a curious race. He went from being held up by Raikkonen (who finished 4th) on the same strategy to 13 seconds behind him in a stint. Clearly he wasn't at all happy with the car after the first stop (presumably coupled with Ferrari making Kimi more comfortable). Whether it was a set of tyres he wasn't happy with or another change they made, it cost him.

Button did get out of jail... again, and it wasn't only his challengers failing. He simply lucked into a points finish, as his race was completely shot behind Sutil and Heikki.

You can't really look at the track form for Interlagos and Abu Dhabi and say "oh Brawn should be stronger there" as it simply doesn't matter anymore.

Silverstone - 6th
Nurburgring - 5th
Hungary - 7th
Valencia - 7th
Spa - DNF
Monza - 2nd
Singapore - 5th
Suzuka - 8th

Since Button won in Turkey, which seems like a hell of a long time ago, he has amassed a woeful 24 points since, with 80 available. This is only 1 more than Nico Rosberg in the same timeframe.

He seemed to get back on track in Monza, although you could argue due to its unique nature this simply can't be looked on logically for a form guide.

Quite frankly Jenson has a problem which he needs to get rectified fast because today he got lucky and in Singapore he got lucky (brakes), but the luck has to run out eventually.

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This race should be a warning for Button!

He can be lucky that Barrichello was finish this race only as 7th. It would be harder for Jenson, when Rubens would had finish the race as 2nd.

Anyway, I'm sure that we will see two dramatic last races and I hope, that the best one will win in the last corner in the last round at the last race.

97kirkc, I'd be interested to see those same stats for those same races for Rubens. I don't reckon he's scored way more points than Jenson in that time... which suggests that it's the car, not the driver at fault.

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