Tag Archives: jenson button

Lots of action in Malaysia except for Vettel who marches on

The Malaysian GP was full of overtaking, pit stops, accidents, etc… but is was serene for Vettel at the front as he waltzed off to his second victory and a 24pt lead in the championship. Jenson Button who described his own race as “confusing” finished up in second as he put his McLaren where it needed to be and kept hold of his tyres for long enough to make it stick. Heidfeld confirmed the pace of the Renault as he took the last podium place with Webber taking a hard earned fourth spot.
The DRS was used for the first time really in Malaysia and seemed to work quite well at certain points, i.e. getting people along side the other guy (Mark Webber used it a few times), but sometimes it seemed to spoil the show as the car using it just drove clean by – though you have to [...]

Testing over, Australia is approaching

So testing for the 2011 season is done, the teams have their data and we have the times. There isn’t many surprises within the testing times though I would have expected more from McLaren – not another year spent catching up? If Red Bull stop throwing away points McLaren don’t have a chance. Ferrari should push them hard and expect Alonso to want that title.
Australia is an odd place, it doesn’t seem to be that indicative of the season and doesn’t always show the true pace of the cars. We also know that you can win by being clever here as Jenson Button has shown. Don’t expect the Red Bull to be off the pace though, or for the brakes to explode, they will be hard to beat.
The tyres will be the great unknown in Melbourne as there isn’t really anywhere to use the new rear wing or Drag reduction device, [...]

Alonso shines under the lights of Singapore

Love him or hate him Fernando Alonso is a great F1 driver, he soaked up tremendous amounts of pressure to secure a back-to-back victory for himself and Ferrari. He needed those points to give himself a hope in the title and now he’s only 9 points behind Mark Webber, that would be under two in last years system. Button is now 25pts off the pace but that’s still only a single race victory. With four races to go a DNF would probably be the end of the title chances unless everyone else suffers similarly. With races in Japan, Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi on the calendar and with some doubt surrounding the Korean GP there is simply no margin for error.
The race itself took part under floodlight which is the norm for Singapore, which into it’s third year didn’t seem to prove an issue to the drivers as they [...]

Webber triumphs in Hungary as Vettel loses his cool, again

The hungaroring isn’t the most interesting track on the calendar, it’s narrow, twisty and boring, the drivers hardly have anywhere to overtake and it only seems to produce and interesting race when something untoward happens. Sundays race was no different really, the only incidents happening under the safety car, with Rosberg’s wheel going walkabout, Kubica and Sutil colliding in the pits and Vettel getting a penalty.
Webber avoided all the interesting goings on by staying out during the safety car and then using the Red Bull to the max to open up such a lead to Alonso that he could stop and rejoin in the lead – that’s some pace, the others have a lot to do. Vettel would have won the race had he not got a penalty under the safety car but in some ways that seems to sum up Vettel’s season so far.
The Ferrari’s capitalised on Vettel’s [...]