Bahrain GP. Race Review. Jenson Button wrapped up win number three for himself and Brawn GP in the sweltering conditions of Bahrain, easing to the front through a combination of smart strategy and the return of the dreaded "Trulli train". There were no safety cars, no monsoons, no crashes, no real controversial incidents and, as far as we know, no lying. This was F1 back to obdurate normality after the action packed first three races. Though Jenson Button will care about that not a jot, as he and Brawn take a commanding lead in both championships back to Europe with them.
Button's win was made possible thanks to a bit of luck, a decent, if not exactly ground-breaking, strategy from Ross Brawn and a solid hour and a half of driving from the Brit. He hit the front after the first round of pit stops, as his fuel advantage over the Toyota pair allowed him to ease past early leaders Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli, and then extended his advantage as his closest rival Sebastian Vettel was hindered by getting stuck behind Trulli's slow and hard-tyred Toyota. Despite Button then having to take the harder, slower compound for his last stint, his advantage was enough for him to ease to the checkered flag, comfortably clear of Vettel and Trulli.
The Brawn man didn't make the best start, as the lighter Toyota of Timo Glock took the lead from Trulli, with Lewis Hamilton making the best use of his KERS to get past Button into turn one. Vettel dropped from 3rd to 5th, ahead of Barrichello, the heavy Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso's Renault. Crucially, Button forced his way past Hamilton on lap three, making a neat pass into turn one despite Hamilton's nitro button.
That pass proved to be the making of his race, as the top three pulled away from Hamilton, who set about ruining Vettel's race by keeping the Red Bull behind him. In theory, the German had the beating of Button on strategy today, but by the time he was able to make use of his longer first stint in clean air, he was too far behind the leaders to make an impact.
After the first stops, Button led from Trulli, Vettel, Hamilton and Barrichello. The Toyotas chose to take the handicap of the hard compound in their middle stints, which turned out to be a bad call. Timo Glock, who had led, saw his pace completely dry up as he fell back into the clutches of Raikkonen, while Trulli held onto second place, but further compromised Vettel's afternoon as he dropped off Button's pace. The Trulli train was back in a very big way.
Vettel made it past the Toyota in the final stops, but now he had to bite the bullet and take the hard compound, ironically ending up holding up third placed Trulli, who was now on the faster soft tyres. He closed the gap to the front slightly as Button eased off to ward off any overheating issues with his car, but never looked like getting close to the Brawn, leaving Button to secure his third win in the opening four races.
Vettel came home in second to take his second podium is as many weeks, while Trulli finished third, looking rather despondent afterwards that the Toyota challenge sagged so badly in the middle of the race. His efforts to pass Vettel late on in the race while he was on the preferred tyre were not helped by a hapless Giancarlo Fisichella getting in his way as they lapped the Italian, a messy moment that completed a twofer for Findia's pair of drivers in the "driving like a dunce" field for this weekend.
Hamilton gave McLaren something to smile about ahead of the fun of Liegate on Wednesday with a decent drive to a lonely fourth place, not able to live with the pace of the front three over the race distance, but still happy with a more competitive weekend than the rest so far this year.
Rubens Barrichello had another average showing in the face of his team mate's performance, a strange switch to a three-stop strategy midway through the race not really paying off for the Brazilian. He ended fifth, a result which sees him hang on to second in the driver's standings, ahead of Vettel and Trulli. Behind the Boobens, Kimi Raikkonen brought Ferrari's miserable run of pointless races to an end with a solid, if unspectacular, 6th place. Ferrari's race wasn't without the usual technical dramas though, Felipe Massa being beset with KERS issues throughout that forced him into an early stop and eventually ending the race down in 14th, with the Brazilian even suffering the ignominy of being lapped by Button.
The points places were rounded out by the recovering Glock, who briefly made it ahead of Raikkonen after the second stops, only for the Finn to KERS his way past later on in the lap, and Fernando Alonso. A single point is scant reward for the double world champion, but he at least made a claim for the thinly-contested "move of the race" award with a wheel-banging jostle with Trulli around the outside of turn four.
Nico Rosberg finished out of the points in ninth place after a rather anonymous performance, while Nelson Piquet Jr made a decent stab at justifying his continued place in F1 by finishing in the top ten, running very close to his illustrious team mates pace for most of the afternoon, which is probably as good as the guy can ever hope to manage. Mark Webber's recovery drive from the back of the grid was stymied by getting stuck behind heavier cars, firstly the one-stopping BMWs, but also the Force India of Fisichella, the McLaren of Kovalainen and also the Renault of Piquet.
The most miserable team in the paddock after the race would undoubtedly have been BMW Sauber. Their super-heavy cars both picked up damage on the opening lap and were forced to pit for repairs, and they never recovered, finishing 18th and 19th of the 19 finishers. The only retirement, despite the pressure on the cars from the heat, was Kazuki Nakajima, who limped into the pits with a handful of laps to go with oil pressure issues.
The Bahrain race may not be one that lives in the memory for too long, but it has produced ten more points for Button, who now leads the championship by 12 points from Barrichello and 13 points from Vettel. Nevertheless, the Red Bull man would have been right with the Brit had he got clear track time at the start, so as we head to the start of the European season in Barcelona, those two are very much the men to beat.
| Race Result after 57 laps | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time/Reason | Pts |
| 1 | Jenson Button | Brawn - Mercedes | 1:31:48.182 | 10 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | +7.100 | 8 |
| 3 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | +9.100 | 6 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren - Mercedes | +22.000 | 5 |
| 5 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn - Mercedes | +37.700 | 4 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | +42.000 | 3 |
| 7 | Timo Glock | Toyota | +42.800 | 2 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | +52.700 | 1 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Williams - Toyota | +58.100 | |
| 10 | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | +1:05.100 | |
| 11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | +1:07.600 | |
| 12 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren - Mercedes | +1:17.800 | |
| 13 | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | +1:18.800 | |
| 14 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | +1 Lap | |
| 15 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India - Mercedes | +1 Lap | |
| 16 | Adrian Sutil | Force India - Mercedes | +1 Lap | |
| 17 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso - Ferrari | +1 Lap | |
| 18 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | +1 Lap | |
| 19 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | +1 Lap | |
| R | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams - Toyota | Oil Fail |
Drivers Championship -
1 Button 31pts, 2 Barrichello 19pts, 3 Vettel 18pts, 4 Trulli 14.5pts, 5 Glock 12pts, 6 Webber 9.5pts, 7 Hamilton 9pts, 8 Alonso 5pts, 9 Heidfeld, Kovalainen 4pts, 11 Rosberg 3.5pts, 12 Buemi, Raikkonen 3pts, 14 Bourdais 1pt.
Constructors Championship -
1 Brawn-Mercedes 50pts, 2 Red Bull-Renault 27.5pts, 3 Toyota 26.5pts, 4 McLaren-Mercedes 13pts, 5 Renault 5pts, 6 BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4pts, 8 Williams-Toyota 3.5pts, 9 Ferrari 3pts.
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