JENSON'S BACK BUT RUBENS WINS
(Image taken from BBC)
Monza, another of the traditional circuits and known Ferrari territory. However the run up to this Italian Grand Prix was dominated by something that happened in Singapore last year. Did Alonso win only because Nelson Piquet junior was under orders to crash and therefore cause a safety car? That was something for the FIA to decide. In the meantime there were more driver movements with Badoer getting ditched by Ferrari and Fisichella transferred in from Force India to replace him. Force India then replaced Fisichella with another Italian Tonio Liuzzi, last seen driving for Torro Rosso in Brazil '07 and had since been testing for Force India.
As for qualifying, no one was sure who was going to get KOd in Q1. As it was neither Brit had any serious issues and Glock was probably the biggest name to get cut. Q2 was another smooth run for the Brits but though you have to give credit to Fisichella for at least making Q2 on his Ferrari debut, he was still learning the car and didn't last much longer. In Q3 it was Raikonen that tasted first blood before things went quiet then exploded with Sutl hitting the front only for Lewis to beat him at the last minute to claim his second pole of the season. Further down, Jenson had to settle for P6 though he was happy enough with that result as he was heavy with fuel.
Well Lewis initially held on to his lead and even opened up a pretty tasty gap in the opening laps. Slight problem, he had to come in early and found himself down in 5th after his first pit stop. However he then made his way back up to 3rd becoming the fastest of the two stoppers. He was able to regain the lead mid race but given that he still had a stop to go, that was a false position. He pitted earlier that expected and came out 3rd but was still chasing down the top two right till the end. A podium looked dead cert...untill he suddenly spun on the last lap! Technically he came home in 12th but he really deserved better than that on this occasion.
Jenson took Kovalainen smoothly for 5th at the start but initially looked like he'd have trouble keeping pace with Lewis up at the front though being on a one-stopper meant that he was able to get up to 2nd anyway. His stop proved to be smooth and he was soon back up near the front. However challenging for the lead was always going to be easier said than done, the world championship leader just did not have the pace for some reason to grab glory again. However, 2nd place is still better than he's done for a few races and it's enough to say that he is officially back on form. Four races to go and he is still the man to beat for 2009.
However the credit this time around has to go to Barrichello who made his way up to 4th at the start then, also one-stopping made his way into the lead. From there Jenson was the guy most likely to stop him but the Brazilian handled his car's set up better. Other than a brief blip, this definately proved to be Rubens's show and after falling away from the title race mid-season he has once again proved to be the biggest threat to Jenson's title hopes, claiming his second win of the season and Jenson backing him up shows that Brawn's troubles are behind them as they claim their fourth 1-2 of the season. Now Red Bull need another gear.
Bottom line, Jenson still leads the championship now with 80 points though his lead has been cut to 14 points. Still, whatever happens from here on in he is garunteed his best championship finish since he finished 3rd in '04! Further down, Lewis is stuck in 7th place on 27 points and he will now have to hand his title over though you have to give him credit for being as competitive as he was mid-season.
I suppose I can't finish this report without making some kind of comment now the dust has settled over the Singapore incident. Flavio Briatore has been consigned to the Formula 1 history books. Will I miss him? Not sure, the guy could be arrogant. He twice let equally arrogant drivers dominate his teams(Michael Schumacher with Benetton in the 90s then Alonso more recently) and that leads me to the biggest eyebrow raiser. Fernando Alonso has gotten away clean from this, yet while he may not have been directly involved in Piquet's crash, if it wasn't for his undoubted influence on the Renault team, would Flavio have even considered his dangerous and illegal strategy in Singapore? I think not.
Going back to Flavio though, I do have to give him some credit, some of the things he said put a smile on his face and while I thought he certainly wasn't a winner when he blamed Jenson for the poor performance of his useless '01 Benetton car and then ditched the then newest-quality British F1 driver at the end of '02 in favour of a then-one-time tailender Fernando Alonso, I couldn't fault his judgement too much after Alonso went on to win back-to-back titles. F1 has certainly lost one of the smarter guys in the paddock!
F1 goes on though. Back to Singapore.
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