Button dominates as Toyota fade
Toyota aced the front row with Jarno Trulli claiming their first pole position since the Japanese Grand Prix four years ago ahead of team-mate Timo Glock. As expected however, both TF109’s were lightly fuelled and it was Jenson Button who made best of the situation to take control of the Bahrain Grand Prix following the first round of pitstops.
It was a fairly routine race, the first of the season not to feature at least one safety car period, but the battle for the race victory was fairly straight forward for Button as Glock got the jump on Trulli and led the field in the early stages but then Toyota opted to run the harder prime tyres during the second stint and both Glock and Trulli quickly fell away from the leading Brawn Mercedes.
Toyota’s strategy not only cost them any chance of a race victory but also allowed Sebastian Vettel to get the jump on Trulli in the second and final stop and the Red Bull Renault racer would go on to finish in second position, withstanding the late race pressure from Trulli back on the softer (faster) option tyre.
The opening lap of the 57-lap race was key to Button’s success as he initially lost position to Lewis Hamilton who made best of his KERS-equipped McLaren Mercedes off the line, but a brave move from the Brawn driver later in the lap saw him regain the position and therefore allow him to tail the Toyota duo to the first round of stops.
Trulli finished in third position for Toyota after a strong race only compromised by strategy, while Lewis Hamilton kept the battle for second and third in his view until the closing stages when the McLaren Mercedes driver dropped away on the harder prime tyre.
Rubens Barrichello and Brawn Mercedes opted to switch to a three stop strategy on his way to fifth position and the extra stop did not seem to cost – or gain – the Brazilian veteran in anyway.
Kimi Raikkonen started from tenth position in his Ferrari and took the chequered flag in sixth making good use of his long first stint to vault a number of his rivals. Sixth position may not be a great result in the long history of Ferrari, but it was a good run from Raikkonen as he secured the team their first points of the so-far difficult season.
Timo Glock will be disappointed to finish seventh after leading the early laps of 57-lap event but it was the decision to switch to the harder prime tyre for the second stint that really cost him, combined with his very light fuel load heading into the race.
Fernando Alonso started from seventh position in the leading Renault and took the chequered flag in eighth position after a pretty lonely race. The double world champion lost out to Raikkonen who made up ground with his long first stint.
Williams Toyota leave Bahrain disappointed as Nico Rosberg started ninth and finished in the same position.
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Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima was forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the first lap and his race was effectively over at that point as he dropped towards the rear of the field to battle with the struggling BMW Sauber team. He later retired the FW31, the only driver not to complete the distance.
Nelson Piquet had an error free and fairly strong race in the second Renault to finish in tenth position ahead of Mark Webber who was very aggressive in the opening laps following his qualifying disappointment on Saturday. However, as Webber suggested on Saturday, starting 18th was always going to make it all but impossible to challenge for points.
Heikki Kovalainen started 11th and finished 12th in his McLaren Mercedes after plummeting down the field early on having opted to start the race on the harder prime tyre, while Sebastien Bourdais finished in 13th after a strong race in the leading Toro Rosso Ferrari, chasing Kovalainen across the line.
Felipe Massa’s rotten season continued at Sakhir as he pitted early in the race for a new front wing following the slightest of contact with team-mate Raikkonen at the start. With reported problems with KERS on his F60, it was then just a case of finishing the race for the unhappy Massa.
Giancarlo Fisichella led home Force India Mercedes team-mate Adrian Sutil in 15th with Sebastien Buemi next up in the second Toro Rosso Ferrari. BMW Sauber’s season hit an all time low today with Kubica and Nick Heidfeld both pitting with minor accent damage at the start of the race and then circulating at the back of the field for the remainder of the race. The team effectively opted to end Kubica’s championship challenge last year to focus on this F1.09 package, and it is pretty clear the car is a turkey.
Button remains at the head of the drivers’ standings with 31 points ahead of Barrichello on 19 and Vettel on 18. Brawn Mercedes extend their lead in the constructors’ championship as they now have 50 points to the 27.5 of Red Bull Renault and the 26.5 of Toyota.
The teams now pack up and head back to their European bases with many working hard to add new aerodynamic packages to the cars ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks time. McLaren Mercedes meanwhile head to Paris to face charges of bringing the sport into disrepute. As ever, it never stops in Formula One...
Earl ALEXANDER
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