JENSON RIDES LUCK FOR ANOTHER WIN
Well the big news in F1 was that the FIA wanted to set up a £40 million budget cap for F1 teams. A good idea in theory to deal with the credit crunch, just that Ferrari don't agree and at the time of writing, they want out of F1! That's shortsightedness on their part, but I do think the FIA are going to have to raise the cap as a compromise. In the meantime, the F1 show headed to the Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix. It was 2009's first race in Europe. All teams know this circuit like the back of their hands, it's a regular testing ground. It was also the first real chance for teams to make modifications to their cars. Was that going to affect Brawn's superiority? Who knows.
Well what can affect a team's superiority is complacency in Q1. Surely Ferrari should have learned their lesson by now. Exit Raikonen early doors. Both Brits made it through into Q2 though but McLaren haven't managed to keep up with the progress of the other teams but Lewis got KOd, and would start P14, Jenson made it into Q3 though. Trulli got the first Q3 time and was then beaten by Glock. Vettel then looked like he had the edge before Barrichello outgunned him before Vettel replied. In the meantime, Jenson way way down. He started his final run with just one second to spare...and claimed his second pole in a row! Even he admitted that that lap was more luck than judgement!
In the race itself, well Lewis did well to avoid a first corner pileup, but wound up dropping back to 15th in the process. Still, he was fuelled heavy and the safety car had to come out anyway. After that was dealt with, his progress actually looked to be pretty smooth and he got as far as 6th. Nice work but eventually he did have to pit and he found himself down in 10th. Late on in the race and he was complaining that his tyres were "finished". Slight problem, McLaren were still sniffing a points finish and told him to bear with things. Those points never came, Lewis eventually finished 9th. Well he's finishing races which is better than Damon Hill was doing at this stage in '97 but still, the reigning world champion is not happy and has pretty much white flagged as far as the title race is concerned and rightly so.
Jenson of course was well ahead of the early pileup but still found himself mugged by Barrichello on the first lap. The championship leader seemingly couldn't keep up with his Brazilian teammate and it looked as though he'd have to play second fiddle for once. And so Brawn switched to a strategy that was meant to benefit the Brazilian, except for some reason he wasn't able to make the most of it! He pitted halfway through the race and somehow Jenson found himself in the lead. Cue one very puzzled Rubens. Not what Brawn had in mind but they're not going to complain about Jenson's second win in a row and their second 1-2 of the season. Put this one down to the insanity that F1 can provide.
Well, Jenson still leads the championship on 41 points and has extended his lead to fourteen points. Further down, Lewis remains in 7th with 9 points(and his 4th place in Bahrain).
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