Jenson Button clings to narrowing lead

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Jenson Button's Belgian Grand Prix lasted just five corners

Jenson Button has gone from runaway leader of the F1 championship to man on the run.

Having scored 61 points from a maximum of 65 over the first seven races, Button has only picked up four in the last three.

Remarkably, he still has a reasonably healthy lead in the championship. But with his team mate closing in it might not last much longer.

Here’s how Button’s closest rivals have cut his championship lead:

Jenson Button's championship lead (click to enlarge)

Button has been on the podium since he won the Turkish Grand Prix. At the time many were saying the season was over.

That all changed when Red Bull’s revised aerodynamic package at Silverstone – which coincided with a downturn in Brawn’s form – left Button suddenly looking vulnerable.

And even now the team believe they have cracked the problem, it’s Rubens Barrichello who’s making the most out of the car.

The mainstream press have begun writing ‘Button under pressure’ headlines. Button snapped at The Times’s Ed Gorman in Spa after being asked whether he really wanted to win the world championship.

However badly things are going for Button, his rivals must do better to stand a chance of beating him.

Even if the series leaders continue to pick up points at the same rate they have over the last three races – when Button had his three worst results of the year so far – he will still retain enough of a margin to be champion:

Button 78
Barrichello 76
Raikkonen 74
Vettel 63
Webber 61.5
Hamilton 57

The identity of the closest driver to Button has changed three times in the last four races. Although all three are closer to Button than they were five race ago, his lead has only been reduced by ten points.

Even with his recent problems, this championship is still Button’s to lose. Barrichello has done a much better job tapping the pace of the Brawn in the last two races. If he hadn’t got bogged down at the start at Spa (again) he would have done even more damage to Button’s lead.

Even at this late stage the 2009 F1 season is proving incredibly difficult to read. In just the last fwe races we’ve seen a resurgence of Mclaren and Ferrari, though McLaren, struggled at Spa and Force India came out of nowhere to get on the podium. The widely expected dominance of Red Bull last weekend failed to materialise.

It makes the final five races extremely hard to predict. Force India’s impressive low-drag trim should serve them well at Monza, where we can also expect the KERS cars to be strong. Point-and-squirt Singapore looks like McLaren territory. On paper, Suzuka should be good for Red Bull, but they’d probably prefer to tackle it with the hard compound – Bridgestone are bringing medium and soft.

Button still has a good lead and the scoring system means he only needs to keep picking up points in fours and fives to stand an excellent chance of winning the title. His rivals needs to start stringing wins together – but the fact that six different drivers have won the last six races shows how hard that will be.

Do you think Button is suffering under the pressure? Or is his drop in performance explained by setup problems and some bad luck? Have your say in the comments.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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98 comments on “Jenson Button clings to narrowing lead”

  1. Its not all bad luck for Button. There is a significant drop in performance and it shows when compared to Rubens. Its gonna be hard to tell if its pressure or technical problems. Maybe his entire crew is under a lot of pressure and not 100%

    In either case I’m enjoying this change of pace. We have been spoiled by close championships recently and I would like this season to be the same. Nothing better than the WDC being decided in the last seconds of a race.

  2. Max should resign now!!!
    1st September 2009, 7:24

    I hope Brawn lets his drivers fight freely for the championship, I would hate to see another “Barcelona” being pulled on Barrichello.

    1. Barcelona how about austria 2002, that was a swift kick in the jimmy for him I imagine.

  3. if the points would be going at this rate think tha Hamilton would have more than 57

    1. 18points in the last 3 races. means 30 over 5 races. currently he has 27.

      1. Someone get Ruudje a blackboard :-)

  4. Every week we hear the same feedback from Jenson, he is always struggling for grip.
    Initially this seemed to be something that both Brawn drivers suffered with, but recently Rubens seems to have either set the car up differently or adjusted his driving style to suit, whichever way you look at it it doesn’t stand well for Jenson. Personally I think a lot of Jensons problems are in his head, he has experienced the car performing in absolute ideal circumstances with a massive performance advantage, and now the rest of the field have caught up and the Brawn is having minor set up issues, Jenson seems to be blaming the car when what he needs to do is just get on with it. He is making too many mistakes now, and although you predict that he may have enough points Keith with the field now so competitive behind him, I fear he is still on a downward spiral mentally and he needs somebody (Probably Shove) to shake him up and get him to take some responsibility.
    I like Jenson, but this recent run of form suggests there are kinks in his armour that are not typical of a world champion, he just needs to get on with the fight, and understand that you have bad days sometimes and not to dwell on them. For Sure. :)

  5. I think the problem (IMHO) is that the car must fit his driving style.

    Jenson has difficulties in adapting his driving to the characteristics of the car. In the first races, the car matched perfectly the driving style of Jenson and he was unbeatable; from the moment Brawn started to evolve the car because the other teams were approaching, Jenson is in trouble. Rubens is taking more from Brawn’s car despite he’s not better driver than Jenson.

    The good news for him is other teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Force India!…) are taking points out from Red Bulls, so it’s going to be difficult for them (Red Bull’s) to recover, mainly if we take in consideration mechanical problems they are having, and the 8 engines rule.

    Rubens could give some headache to Jenson if he continues getting good points and Jenson still continue of being out of the points.

  6. If Button doesn’t manage to win the championship, he’ll go down in history as the joke of the decade. The way things are progressing it might just happen :) I really hope it doesn’t. I don’t want to rake up another conspiracy theory, i think we have enough of there theories, but i’m tempted to make this point :-

    Brawn & Button are doing this on purpose imho. They just don’t want to cake-walk to the championship. They want to make it look close. Maybe this was discussed at the FOTA meetings? i dunno, but its a possibility. The way button has fallen off the Radar is astonishing. Four points from three races? This Button slump is since silverstone, coming in the backdrop of rubens blah blah accusations against Brawn. Maybe Mr Brawn wanted to show to the world that he treats his drivers equally, hence the slump from button. maybe Button was given a Monza trim car for valencia & might get a monaco spec car for monza. Otherwise there is no reason for him to suffer like this. I’m happy Mr Brawn has done this, its good for me,him & the sport. :) :) :)

    1. mp4, you love it don’t you! :)
      I bet you loved the X-Files…..”Trust No-one” Sometimes though things are as they seem!
      I love your quote “I don’t want to rake up another conspiracy theory” Followed by the worst conspiracy theory posted here yet! Sorry mate but even I don’t think Ross Brawn is playing F1. He needs to attract sponsors and needs to secure the long term future of the team, that is 100’s of millions of pounds he is trying to secure. For Brawn to walk the championship would attract all the sponsors he needs, to think he would “throw” a couple of races to makeit look a bit closer is even by X-Files standards a bit out there……:)

    2. If Button doesn’t manage to win the championship, he’ll go down in history as the joke of the decade

      Hmmmm. No he won’t.

      1. Yes he will

        1. Infact just ahead of Badoer

  7. I thought someone would have noticed this by now.

    Since Turkey, the driver who has taken most points off Jenson Button is not Rubens (10), Vettel (13), Webber (13),

    but Kimi Raikkonen (14), and that too inspite of finishing behind Button in 2 of the 5 races.

    The inability of the 3 closest contenders to string together a consistent performance is at blame here.

    Jenson’s season resembles that of Alonso in 2006. Alonso scored 84 points in 9 races and suffered a major slump. However, Alonso had an impeccable Schumacher on his heels who could perform consistently well.

    For Jenson thankfully, there is no Schumacher breathing down his neck.

    BTW, going by Keith’s prediction, Jenson should win with 78 points. Is this the least points per race (4.6) scored by the WDC?
    2007 was 6.5 points per race for Kimi,
    2008 was 5.4 points per race for Hamilton

    1. Except that during Alonso’s “slump,” he was still finishing regularly on the podium, apart from a couple of races where he finished fifth. Jenson hasn’t been near the podium now for five races.

    2. But Alonso’s slump in performance is due to that ridiculous mass dumper ban, which had a major significance in the whole car performance.

      You can only blame Button’s slump on himself. Ok, the BGP 001 had a hard time in Silverstone and Nurburgring, but he has underperformed when compared to Rubens.

    3. Good point, Button leaves every one of his likely championship rivals an opportunity to punish him points wise and the only one who thrives in his absence of form is Raikkonen, who lets face it, has a slender chance at mounting a challenge to Jenson for the WDC. Stop panicking, nothing has really happened to seriously hurt him in his title bid, I can’t imagine the fuss when Red Bull string a few wins together with no or little points for Jenson Button. Anyway, would you rather see Jenson kill the opposition and win the championship by 70+ points or see a similar to last season, final lap thriller? I know I’d rather see the latter, but I still believe Glock handed it to Hamilton on purpose…

  8. It’s been mentioned a number of times by Mr Brundle in particular that a world champion needs to have an inner strength, a core determination to make that leap from driver to champion. I’m not convinced Jenson has that. He’s appearing increasingly fragile as the season progresses. The most important thing though is I don’t think Jenson believes Jenson he can do it.

    Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an idiot…. but we’ll see

    1. “Some drivers may win the champonship, but that doesn’t necessarily make them a champion”.

      – Ayrton Senna

  9. Button is clearly cracking. His outburst in that interview last week shows that he is.

    But even so, but I’m having a hard time believing that Vettel, Barrichello or Webber can amass sufficient points to overtake him with only 5 races to go. I think Button can get it in the bag, just by stumbling home to another couple of 6th or 7th places.

    It’s such a shame that it’s taken so long for Red Bull and Barrichello to really emerge. They’ve come back just too late, and now they’re going to continue to take crucial points off of each other in these last races. Vettel and Webber are still 20 points behind Button, even after he crashed out on Sunday. I’d love to be proved wrong, but I can’t see it happening.

  10. I really don’t think Jenson is championship material.

    He seems a decent bloke, but the fact remains that in the past he has been comprenensively out-driven by many of his team-mates over the course of a full season. Even Ralf easily outscored him.

    1. Outdriven my many of his team mates? Ok, so he was beaten by Ralf, but that was his debut season. He actually impressed massively. Fisi beat him in that dog of a Benetton in ’01, but since then he’s had the beating of all his team mates, except for last year when Rubens finally seemed to get on top of him, although I’d put that mainly down to motivation.

      1. Also as I remember other people mentioning in previous articles although Barrichello outscored Button last year, if you looked at all their finishes in 2008 then Button had a better record than Barrichello.

      2. except for last year when Rubens finally seemed to get on top of him, although I’d put that mainly down to motivation.

        … and that podium at Silverstone?

        1. I think that was more down to the weather, and a good call by Brawn than Rubi out driving Jenson

          1. barrichello made the call to go to full wets in that race, the dude knows his changing conditions

  11. Six different winners in the last 6 races now (and a chance of a 7th if Fisi’s Ferrari dreams come true at Monza!) Great stuff, when was the last time that happened?

    I don’t think anyone’ll be consistent enough to close in and beat Button. When has Rubens ever had 3 great races in a row? Jenson still has the speed to get a few points if he has a bad race.

    1. hungary, belguim, italy and china in 2004, maybe he’s due.

    2. 1985 apparently

  12. @ DanThorn….

    Yeah, it is true that it was in his debut season that Jense was out-driven by Ralf……but wait, I seem to remember that in 2007 one Lewis Hamilton did slightly better in his debut season than his twice world champion team-mate.

    Ok, it might be a bit unfair to compare JB against Hamilton, but I just can’t help feeling that if he were to be champion it would all be a little underwhelming. Good luck to him though, I always appreciated his positive attitude dealing with crap cars over the last few years.

  13. slightly out of topic….. On the eve of Belgium GP, Karun Chandhok had dinner with VIjay Mallya… The next day he gave an interview, in that along with praising Force India this guy was like

    It’s certainly a car I would love to drive in the next 5 races.

    What does it mean? Is Karun going to be a replacement for Fisichella??? Mann i would love to see Karun driving for Force India!!!!

  14. It is surprising that even though Button has underperformed in the last few races his lead has not been cut more. It is a bit like last season when the title contenders kept making mistakes.

    In the early races I remember it was said that Button copied Barrichello’s setup after Button had problems in practice, I wonder if he is still doing this as Barrichello has outperformed Button recently whereas early in the season it was the other way round.

    The Championship is still Buttons to lose but I think if he doesn’t get his act together what could save him is that none of his challengers are dominating at the moment.

  15. Keith, don’t you mean Button hasn’t been on the podium since the Turkish GP?

  16. Actually, go one further and instead of replicating the last 3 races over the next five, replicate the last five over the next five. This gives you:

    Button: 83
    Barrichello: 77
    Vettel: 77
    Webber: 75.5
    Raikkonen: 59
    Rosberg: 49.5
    Hamilton: 45

    Things to consider, though:
    – Both Webber and Vettel have had two non-points-scoring races. Since they’re the rarity rather than the norm, I don’t see that repeating itself
    – Raikkonen is unlikely to get three podiums again, considering Ferrari have ceased development on the F60
    – Jenson has mostly dropped points through not being quick enough or making his own mistakes, compared to his rivals who have all suffered bad luck they didn’t create. Rubens’ 2 points on Sunday could have been 4 or 6; Vettel could have had the win had Red Bull been a little more savvy with the tyre situation and given him 2 runs in Q3, giving him the chance to qualify better (his first and only lap was spoiled by a small mistake) than he did (of course, teams and drivers win and lose together, but my point is 6 points was not representative of his performance, whereas Jenson probably wouldn’t have scored any anyway)

    1. Both Webber and Vettel have had two non-points-scoring races. Since they’re the rarity rather than the norm, I don’t see that repeating itself

      Vettel had 5 non point scoring finishes (4 crashes and a engine failure). Hardly a rarity. At that rate he would have 2 non points scoring finishes over the next 5 races.

      For Webber it might be more unlikely, but with all the extra competition, not impossible.

  17. Lots of ridiculous penalties/decisions were given towards the end of last year to close up the championship battle but I think this year they want Brawn to win because it would be “good for the sport” and the whole “fairytale thing”

    After the last few races it is a shame Buttons lead hasn’t been cut more with his very very average performances. Would be nice to see a 4 way championship down to the wire but Rubens, Vettel and Webber have to get some high points finishes while Button is cruising around in the middle field complaining about his tyres

  18. Jenson has not had a decent resuklt since he changed his helmet! Go back to the old one Jens!

  19. Jenson Button has gone from runaway leader of the F1 championship to man on the run.

    Are these not the same thing Keith? :)

  20. Also you have to remember that the Red Bull’s are rapidly running out of new engines. We may see a 10 place grid drop before the end of the season for one or both.

  21. I posted this in the “facts and stats” topic too, but couldn’t you compare this year to 1987, in which Mansell won six races but lost the title to Piquet, who had had half the number of wins but was more consistent in the points. In fact, Piquet’s first victory only came in the second half of the season (in Germany) and they were teammates.

    Crazy parallels aside, are the two seasons valid in comparison?

  22. Its a real shame the “champion” is going to cruise home in 7th and 8th for the rest of the season to clinch the championship.

  23. I think the biggest change has been that Red Bull have learned to work with strategies at the front. Vettel seems to make less mistakes now too and Webber seems recovered from his injury.

    Red Bull really has been the fastest car this season. In Melbourne and Malasia they were close to Brawn (Vettel crashed in both) and from China onwards they really became the fastest. Only Monaco was an exception.

    So in reality Vettel and Webber should have been the ones running away with the championship. They managed to mess up just about every race in the first half of the season. Vettel crashed 4 times, the strategies were poorly thought out often too and Webber apparently was still struggling with his injury. Their failure to produce results allowed Button to take the lead in a grand style.

    1. Red Bull didn’t have the best car till Silverstone. The Brawn was best by a mile which is why now it’s not the best we can see how good Jenson is… pretty average

  24. You see, with the current scoring system the difference between Button and Barrichello is 16 points with 6 wins against 1 from brazilian. If the system were that almost F1 fan claims with 12 points for 1st, 8 pts for the 2nd while the same score from 3 to 8, so Button had 83 points against 58 of Barrichello and the difference would be 25 points. Now in one scenario a little more ideal, with the score 12-8 and NO TEAM ORDERS, so Button had 5 wins against 2 Barrichello wins, correcting the farce of the Spanish GP, so the championship would be as follows: Button-79 and Barrichello-62 , 17 points difference, very close to the present. It is concluded that the current scoring system compensated any team orders, and Button really DESTROYED Barrichello at the start of the season, but the WDC is still open, as Raikkonen proved in 2007 that any mathematics difference gives to take off in race car. Sorry for my “jungle English”

    1. Get over it. There were no team orders.

  25. Button’s boon is that the people currently in the fastest cars and his immediate pursuers are 1. a quick rookie who makes errors at critical points 2. a journeyman prone to swoons who cannot take a race by the scruff of the neck as a top shelf driver can. Cf. Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Alonso. He has his teammate worry about, but its hard to see Ross Brawn letting Barrichello take the last fistfull of points off Button needed for the WDC.

    High quality in a team—in development, driver quality, and strategy—comes to the fore sooner or later. Kimi beat Hamilton because Ferrari excelled in these categories in the closing races. Ferrari lost last year because their racecraft fell apart under Domenicali. Redbull does not have the complete package and I fear the will not get the job done. Dieter needs to sell more sugar water and hire Smedley or someone for his pit wall.

  26. I cant help but hope for Rubens. I know he probably isnt consistent enough to take the title, but IF he DID win WDC after 17 years it would just be insane.

  27. Paige Michael-Shetley
    1st September 2009, 17:03

    Well, the mistake in qualifying at Valencia cost Button. If not for that, it probably would have been he and not Barrichello who won in Valencia.

    I expect Brawn to be good in Monza. They don’t have a very draggy car and have good mechanical grip, and they have the Mercedes power. Plus, Monza is usually a pretty hot race. (That is, when it doesn’t rain.)

  28. Button has a smooth fluid, “Prost-like”, approach to his driving. Ruebens, not so much…a little more aggressive. It is a little easier for Reubens to put heat into the fronts while not so much for Jenson. If Brawn can’t figure a way to get more heat into the fronts sooner in the stints Button will have a big problem heading into the home stretch of the championship.
    Having said that, don’t look for too much from the Brawns at Monza. Points, yes. The win, I don’t think so.

  29. Mussolini's Pet Cat
    1st September 2009, 17:31

    Button won’t give up, he is British after all. We’ll have our second Brit World Champion in as many years, mark my words.

    1. Button won’t give up, he is British after all

      The british drivers know for their perseverance or something?

      How can you be so sure that Button won’t give up ? It was appalling to watch him race at Valencia. I suspect Button was too busy trying out the new codemasters Wii on his Nintendo instead of sorting out his tyre temp problem. Hence the poor performance. He was drifting in the same manner as the Brawn in the game. He’ll become a laughing stock if he doesn’t win the championship.

      1. I’m laughing already, it has already been a meltdown. Now we will see if he can glue himself back together, that would be a great champion.

      2. Mussolini's Pet Cat
        2nd September 2009, 0:04

        Using your ingracious theme, will you laugh at Button as much as I laughed at Massa last year??

        1. I laughed at how the championship boiled down last year. Massa won it, but then glock gave it to hammy. That almost caused me to not watch anymore, it was worse than barri moving over for schumi in austria 02. F1 needs to get its act together shortly with false winners, my patience is running thin.

    2. Button has almost given up. All he does now is complain on the team radio. If he doesn’t have easily the best car he can’t win or do anything

      1. Just like Vettel you mean?

  30. Can you imagine how boring this season would have been with most number of wins determining the champion?? No one would have been close to Button!

    1. Yep, in two races he will have won the championship. Vettel would need to win all of the final races to beat Button.

  31. BTW Barrichello should be punished for throwing oil on the track in the last two laps of Belgium GP…

  32. I bet on Raikkonen…….

    I feel he will be playing a major part in the world championship……..

    Just imagine Kimi Raikkonen the 2009 World Champion…lol.

    1. I think he’d have to win all 5 races…with button scoring very little.its possible…he put the 2006 mclaren on pole @ monza. singapore being a street track, he may do well. Japan he can win, Brazil the ferrari should suit and abu dhabi who knows.

      1. he put the 2006 mclaren on pole

        It was a fake pole. he pitted 7 or 8 laps earlier than schumi, but it was good enough for 2nd. I always feld that monza 2006 was a rigged race. Kimi, the heir apparent joining schumi on the podium & alonso’s engine blowing up. Extra treat for the tifosi.

    2. yep, I was just thinking that. Everyone else seems to be throwing it away…

  33. maybe he can do that if they win the next five races

  34. Jenson didn’t cruise to his first six wins. At least a couple the RBR was a better car and Jenson did what he had to do at the time he had to do it to secure a win either by timely overtaking or stragey and some fast laps when needed.

    No one else has come near that kind of consistency this season and he has four more wins over the next guy Vettel with 2.

    That’s why he’s leading the title by 16 points. Far more than Hamilton had at this time last year.

    You’d all be complaining if he’d won race after race and score decent points and the title was already wrapped up.

    Rubens showed poor form and bad luck at the start of the season. All three title contenders have bigged up their chances and yet Webber who practically thought he had the title in the bag judging by his words at his last race hasn’t even scored a point since then.

    I cannot believe Jenson does not have some decent finishes left in him between now and the end of the season.

  35. I agree with Aardvark-six different winners in 6 races(!) and we all lived to see it. I cannot remember when last this happened, but perhaps in Indycars in the early 90’s.
    This variety in winners will help Button to the end of the season.
    In a Shu/Mika H.-type season, he would be dead meat!
    Winners still to come…Fisi, possibly, and Alonso usually manages to sneak one or two in.

    1. I’m not sure if the banker will agree to crash at singapore for nando :)

  36. It’s a weird downturn.. Don’t know why.

    In any season Jenson would be in big trouble!
    But many teams that where on a backfoot are now getting to grips with their car, so many of the slow cars of the beginning are now picking up points and there is no dominant force!
    And that is saving Jenson’s championship, simple as that!

  37. Article errors for Mr Coolantine:

    1. “Button has been on the podium since he won the Turkish Grand Prix.”
    2. “last fwe races”

    I think Button may have been playing it a bit too safe regarding risk-taking for points. Crashing out isn’t good for the championship, but neither is finishing outside the points.

    1. Mr Coolantine

      Yeah!! he's really "Cool" ;) so is his blog!

  38. I know i have always been a big big fan of barrichello and i like this more then some but dont you think it would be an amazing feel good story if barrichello could win the championship after all those years of being the number two guy too schumacher. All those years and never once really saying anything bad about it and he was always willing to take one for the team too make sure that the number one guy could win it. I think that he deserves it and like i said it would be a feel good story. What do you think? do you think people would feel the same as me about it? I think it would be a very very popular win.

    1. I love barrichello, not as popular as you think though, unless ur in brazil. I’ve learned through my years people cheer for people who stand up for themselves and not the supporting cast(schui). It would be my dream to see him win and a feel good story but i feel that the f1 world doesn’t give him the credit he deserves.

      1. Barrichello is not that popular in Brazil. Maybe he is, but he is seen as a bit of a joke, mainly because of his statements to the press, in which he said he would win big but had to play second bannana to other drivers. His first victory, while brilliant and emotional, also cast a shadow on him, and to this day some still claim he can only win “weird” races, and not win in normal conditions.

        It’s not his fault really. He was forced to occupy a vacum left by Senna’s death and as a result people are really harsh on him (as opposed to Massa, who is seen as a warrior). Hope he wins so he can shut up these critics!

        1. Giant21, Valencia had nothing “weird” about it and barrichello won on sheer pace and consistency.

          He drove just like Schumacher in his heyday and that’s quite an accomplishment for a 37 year old veteran driving for 2 hours in such hot conditions.

          I believe he can repeat that yet again this year altough I concede it’s very hard for Woobens to beat Jenson to the title.

          But he will mostly surely be on the grid next year.

          1. I know he can win races in normal conditions… I meant that the Brazilian people (of which I am a part) tend to believe that, in normal conditions, he is prone to a mistake of a stupid mechanical failure (car not leaving the grid, running out of gas), and that he only wins when someone inavdes the track.

            Complete nonesense, I agree, but he is tagged with that.

  39. yes he deserves more than anyone, the fact is that he is very unlucky to become a wdc

  40. this was in agreement. Schumi driver one and Rubinho driver two…simple as that

  41. I dunno why mclaren are doing this???

    This is an excerpt from the post-race interview gien by martin whitmarsh

    “Heikki drove very strongly from 15th on the grid to sixth at the finish, optimising a one-stop strategy that necessitated comparatively heavy fuel loads, and nursing his tyres judiciously all afternoon. Lewis was tapped by another car at La Source, and was then slammed into the wall at Les Combes by yet another. But that’s racing.

    “On behalf of all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, I’d like to offer congratulations to Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari on the occasion of their first win of the season,

    and also to Giancarlo Fisichella and Force India on a sensational second place – a refreshing result that is very healthy for Formula 1 in that it demonstrates that the smaller teams are capable of turning the tables on the bigger teams from time to time.

    “Returning to the subject of our team, we’d hoped to be leaving Spa with more than three world championship points – but the reality is that, although our car has been much improved recently, it still isn’t as fast as the quickest cars. But we’ll analyse that, and we’ll work on it, and we’ll hope to do better at Monza in two weeks’ time.

    Why should Whitmarsh congratulate kimi & ferrari?

    I don’t remember ferrari doing the same when mclaren & lewis won at hungary?

    Even big Norbert Haug did the same.

    “Congratulations to Kimi – it must be a big relief for him having achieved his first win for 25 races and compliments to Ferrari for their first victory this season

    Why do this when there is no reciprocation from the other side. i really didn’t like it.

    1. oh messed up the bquote & stuff again :(

      my question is why should mclaren 7 mercedes-benz congratulate kimi & ferrari, when they failed to do so when lewis won at hungary.

      1. Because they want Raikonnen to drive for them next year?

  42. Lewis and Kimi for 2010 ?

  43. Remember that Jense didn’t win a race until his 101st GP—and that was a gift from the leaders that dropped out. I suggest that with Jense, it’s 99% car and 1% driver.

    1. Mussolini's Pet Cat
      2nd September 2009, 0:07

      You clearly know little about motor racing to come out with such tripe.

  44. Being a ferrari fan don`t realy care who`s gonna win the WDC, but to be honest i dont think Button would be a great champion!out of these four drivers(Vettel, Button, Barichello, Webber)i would be happy to see………………………..don`t know, probably Vettel, but just in a few years time!

  45. hmm strange steason, although buttons lead has seemed quite stable over the last 5 races,

    probably because a strong title contender hasnt emerged yet

    1. lol yes there is, he’s called Jenson Button has 6 wins so far and a 16point lead over his nearest rival which is far more than the winner of last years title had at this time last year.

  46. I’m really digging how a lot of the cars are equal this year. There is no clear cut winner, things are still up in the air between four people. This has been a very interesting season indeed.

  47. What s season we will have

    1. yeah what a boring season just like every other one
      f1 is boring so stop going on about it
      god, you’re ruining a perfectly good website with all this crap about f1, you should talk about lawn bowls or maybe boxing.
      if you half wits dont stop talking about f1 i am going to have to give you all a damn good seeing to.

      1. wasiF1(groans)
        2nd September 2009, 4:43

        If you don’t like F1 I have a simple solution to the problem you face: Don’t use this site frederer!

        1. This is website is about F1… a bit odd to talk about other sports… Stopping “trying to look hot”, as they say in my country, and go somewhere happier (maybe one that talks about tennis)

          1. i dont know what country youre from but i have never heard anyone say that before and wouldnt have a clue what ur trying to say

  48. Button should win it now because the field are all so close and different cars will suit different circuits. In theory a range of drivers will win the remaining races. Button will only lose the title if one driver can put together a string of wins, and thats what I dont see happening.
    I still think button needs one more win – maybe not mathematically but certainly to take the pressure of him, and make him feel like a champion again.

    1. yeah true there should be a good range of winners.
      I would like to see win-
      Monza- Fisi (home win and Force Ind’s 1st win)
      Singapore- Webber (tighten champ, 2nd win too)
      Suzuka- Trulli (home win for Toyota)
      Brazil- Barichello (home win)
      Abu Dhabi- Heidfield (1st win and good for BMW)

  49. Fortunately for Button no one else is much interested in winning this seasons championship either.

    Button leaves an ‘open-goal’ and Vettel hits the post,Barrichello trips over the ball,and Webber fires it straight at the keeper.Meanwhile,the real ‘penalty takers’ are standing on the ‘half-way’ line.

    1. Webber fires it straight at the keeper

      Who happens to be standing near the corner flag.:)

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