Penalties give Hamilton an easy ride in Singapore
Lewis Hamilton dominated the 61 lap Singapore Grand Prix to take the chequered flag ten seconds clear of Timo Glock on a day when his main race rivals eliminated themselves from contention after making mistakes.
Hamilton�s second race win of the season, his 11th with McLaren Mercedes, was sealed when first Nico Rosberg and then Sebastian Vettel were handed penalties for errors exiting and entering the pit lane. From the point, the Hungarian winner was able to back off, conserve the car and a relatively easy victory.
"It has been an incredible weekend in terms of the whole show," said Hamilton. "Obviously not a perfect Friday but Saturday was great. I have my Dad and my step-mum, Linda, here. I have my girlfriend here and I have got a friend of mine here. I got to meet Beyoncé here, so it has been overall an incredible weekend. A great experience. I am very, very happy and I look forward to the celebration tonight."
Timo Glock put in his most impressive race in a long while from sixth position on the grid. He made best of a battle between Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso on the first lap to move ahead and run in fourth position. When both Rosberg and Vettel took drive through penalties, the German racer was able to take a comfortable runner up position and end his recent points drought.
"It was a really good race for me," said Glock. "The start was a bit of a mess up in the first corner. I had to attack quite a lot but then I had a good first stint. But I knew I could not go the pace of the first two or three guys, so I just settled down for me and concentrated on it and saw what I can do with my car, keep it on 100%.
"Before I came to Singapore I knew that last year we were good here. The driver can make a difference here and I just pushed as hard as possible. My team did not say where I am and then suddenly they said you are safe for P2 and I was really surprised and just brought it home at the weekend."
Fernando Alonso recorded the fastest lap of the race on his way to third position, his and Renault�s first podium position of the season. Alonso was never in a position to challenge the front-runners, but he achieved his pre-race objective of maintaining his position and surpassed his predictions with third position. He dedicated the result to former Renault managing director Flavio Briatore.
"It was fantastic obviously and the result is great for us to be in the first podium of the season," said Alonso. "We did not have the pace all weekend to be on the podium and we have the podium, so much better than we expected. It has been a difficult time for the team. Now we put that behind us and we concentrate on the remaining races. I dedicate this podium to Flavio at home as he is part of the success we had today."
Hamilton started the race from pole position and made a great getaway off the grid as Rosberg slotted into second position ahead of Vettel. The trio quickly pulled away from Glock in fourth position with Rosberg keeping the pressure on Hamilton until the first pit stop.
Exiting the pits after routine service on lap 19, Rosberg slid wide on the pit exit, crossing the white line before ducking back into a legal position.
The error however cost the Williams driver an almost certain second position and a possible race win as he was handed a drive through penalty for crossing the white line.
Rosberg was especially unfortunate in that he was forced to take his drive through penalty just after the safety car had bunched up the field. He went on to finished 11th.
With Rosberg out of contention, it was down to Vettel to take the challenge to Hamilton. However, on his second pitstop, the Red Bull driver was found guilty of speeding in the pit lane and he too was handed a drive through penalty. Vettel also ran wide and damaged his diffuser on the high kerbing, but still managed to recover to finish in fourth position.
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello finished fifth and sixth for Brawn Mercedes, Button getting the jump on his team-mate in the final round of stops and then nursing a brake problem to the chequered flag. Heading to Japan next weekend, Button has a 15 point advantage over Barrichello while Brawn has all but clinched the constructors� championship.
It was another poor race for Heikki Kovalainen who started in eighth position and finished in seventh in the second McLaren Mercedes ahead of Robert Kubica in the surviving BMW Sauber. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was eliminated from the race as Adrian Sutil spun his Force India and then clipped the F1.09 trying to resume his race. This brought out the sole safety car period of the race, the one that cost Rosberg any hopes of a points paying finish.
Kazuki Nakajima finished just out of the points in ninth position in his Williams, unable to find a way to pass Kubica in the closing stages, but able to hold off Kimi Raikkonen in the leading Ferrari. Jarno Trulli finished a distant 12th in the second Toyota and was never a factor while Giancarlo Fisichella and Tonio Liuzzi were the final runners in 13th and 14th.
As expected, there were a number of retirements with Romain Grosjean first to call it a day with a brake issue on his Renault, swiftly followed by Heidfeld who was unceremoniously eliminated from the race by Sutil.
Mark Webber ran as high as fourth in the opening laps before he was forced to concede positions to both Alonso and Glock for passing after running wide and off the circuit on lap one. The Nurburgring winner lost pace as the race progressed and then spun into retirement following a front right brake failure.
Braking issues also eliminated Sebastien Buemi in his Toro Rosso Ferrari, while team-mate Jaime Alguersuari attempted to leave the pits before his refuelling was complete and later retired with a gearbox failure.
The F1 circus packs up tonight in Singapore and heads straight to Suzuka for next weekend�s Japanese Grand Prix. Sadly Formula One did not provide much of a show in terms of racing once again, but the event organisers made up for that with a truly sensational grand prix facility that hopefully the sport will do justice to next season.
Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International
Italy GP - Race: Monza - 13/09/2009
One-Stopper Seals Brawn 1-2
Brawn GP's decision to put both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button on a one-stopper may not have given them cause for celebrations after qualifying but they got to spray the champagne when it counted most - after the race.
The one-stop strategy saw both Barrichello and Button move ahead of the leading trio of two-stoppers to take the victory and hand Brawn GP the 1-2.
It also put a rest to cries that the team's Championship leader is starting to crack under pressure as when the pressure was on Button it was Lewis Hamilton who crashed.
Chasing down his fellow Brit, Hamilton had the gap down to less than a second only to put his car into the wall on the very last lap in a rather mean looking accident. Hamilton, though, did walk away unhurt.
The McLaren driver's accident saw Kimi Raikkonen climb onto the podium with the Brawn drivers after the Ferrari driver, for the second successive race, held off a long and arduous chase from Force India's Adrian Sutil.
Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Nick Heidfeld and Sebastian Vettel completed the points.
Results
01 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:16.21.706
02 J. Button Brawn GP + 2.866
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 30.664
04 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 31.131
05 F. Alonso Renault + 59.182
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1:00.693
07 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:02.412
08 S. Vettel Red Bull + 1:05.407
09 G. Fisichella Ferrari + 1:06.856
10 K. Nakajima Williams + 2:42.163
11 T. Glock Toyota + 2:43.925
12 L. Hamilton McLaren + 1 lap(s)
13 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 lap(s)
14 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 lap(s)
15 R. Grosjean Renault + 1 lap(s)
16 N. Rosberg Williams + 2 lap(s)
Did not finish
17 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 + 31 lap(s)
18 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso + 34 lap(s)
19 R. Kubica BMW + 38 lap(s)
20 M. Webber Red Bull + 53 lap(s)
PlanetF1.com
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