PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog

Ferrari finally confirmed on Wednesday that Fernando Alonso will race for the team next season, replacing Kimi Raikkonen as Felipe Massa’s team mate. Giancarlo Fischella will continue in the role of reserve driver.

Alonso, who has spent the bulk of his Formula One career with Renault, has signed a three-year agreement with Ferrari, starting in 2010.

“I’m very happy and very proud to become a Ferrari driver,” said the Spaniard. “Driving a single-seater from the Prancing Horse is everybody’s dream in this sport and today I have the opportunity to make this dream come true. Above all I want to thank Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who really wanted this three-year contract.

“We already had an agreement this summer starting in 2011, but then, the last days, the picture changed and we decided to anticipate my arrival in Maranello by one year. The years at Renault were fantastic: together we won four world titles (two drivers’ and as many constructors’ championships), and until this day, 21 Grands Prix.

"I wish the team all the best and let’s hope we gain some good results in the last races this year. After this season I will put all my effort in the next season: I’m sure that, together with Felipe, we’ll offer Ferrari and the fans from all over the world some great satisfaction. I can’t wait to start working with my new team.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali added: “We are very proud to welcome to our team another winning driver, who has demonstrated his amazing talent by winning two world championships in his career to date.”

Alonso made his Formula One debut in 2001 with Minardi, before becoming Renault’s official test driver the following season. In 2003 he was promoted to a race seat and became F1 racing’s youngest Grand Prix winner with victory. By the end of 2005 he was also its youngest champion.

He successfully defended his title in 2006, fending off a resurgent Michael Schumacher in the latter half of the season, before taking his number one with him to McLaren for 2007, where he endured a tempestuous year alongside Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso returned to Renault for 2008, scoring two race wins, despite a less than competitive car. This season the team have been off the pace once more, with Alonso taking just one podium to date, at the last round in Singapore.

He will become only the second Spanish driver to compete for Ferrari, following in the footsteps of Alfonso de Portago, who raced for the team in 1956 and 1957.

Raikkonen has yet to confirm his plans for 2010.

source: www.formula1.com

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h56m06.337s; 2nd Timo Glock (Toyota), 1h56m15.971s; 3rd Fernando Alonso (Renault), 1h56m22.961s.

Q: Lewis, winning from pole. What an evening for you.
Lewis Hamilton: It was a very, very tough race. I think I can speak for all of us. The conditions made it very tough, but generally the race was pretty straightforward for me. I got a good start and I just managed to bridge a big enough gap. I knew I was longer than the guys behind me, so I was never really under serious pressure. When (Sebastian) Vettel was behind me I knew that I was five laps longer than him, so all I had to do was keep him behind. I was looking after the tyres. I felt myself that I nicely controlled the race and have to say a big thank to all my team for as always doing a fantastic job and to my family for supporting me. I want to say hi to my brother and everyone back home. It was a great weekend.

Q: We heard on the radio early on that perhaps you had a bit of trouble with the KERS unit. Talk about that and that early phase of the race and Nico Rosberg putting a bit of pressure on you in that early phase.
LH: Yeah, well I don’t know what lap it was. I had no problems in the car with the KERS but the team came across the radio and said there was possibly a fault. It was still working at that point and I had to disable it and re-engage it and it worked after that. There were quite a few switch changes. I did have a little bit of pressure from Nico and the cars behind at the beginning. They just seemed to be very quick through the first sector but I was just looking after my tyres and I think it paid dividends in the end.

Q: As you said, a very demanding circuit. Did it feel like a long, physically exhausting race and talk about racing at night.
LH: It is a tough race. It is not easy, that’s for sure. It is just the temperatures. But also it is corner after corner after corner. There is never a real break and it is very bumpy. The focus you probably need here is as much as you can possibly get. But the track is fantastic. The fans here are amazing. There was a huge crowd here and they put on a great show here in Singapore again. I came here hoping to have a good result, hoping to kind of redeem myself after the last race and we did it and we are very, very happy.

Q: Timo, a great result for the team. The best result of the year so far. This time you could do it from the right end of the grid after a very strong qualifying performance.
Timo Glock: It was a really good race for me. The start was a bit of a mess up in the first corner. I had to attack quite a lot but then I had a good first stint. But I knew I could not go the pace of the first two or three guys, so I just settled down for me and concentrated on it and saw what I can do with my car, keep it on 100 per cent. Before I came to Singapore I knew that last year we were good here. The driver can make a difference here and I just pushed as hard as possible. I had a lot of ups and downs over the weekend. Friday’s first free practice I said ‘ok, we are not looking really strong’ and then suddenly we just picked up and really concentrated with my car crew and did everything right. In qualifying again I thought we would get easily into Q3 and then struggled in Q1, but suddenly we just got better and better in qualifying. A bit of a shame to not use the last set of tyres. But during the race it was really good. I lost a bit with the view where the other guys were, so after that I changed to the option tyres and I pushed quite a lot. My team did not say where I am and then suddenly they said you are safe for P2 and I was really surprised and just brought it home at the weekend.

Q: On that first lap Mark Webber ran wide, there was a bit of an incident with Fernando, but you managed to get inside him. Talk us through that and you should know that Mark was surprised that he had to let you pass again.
TG: Definitely. I saw that they were battling quite a lot and the chance could be there if they did a mistake. I just took it and I knew from the free practice than Fernando and Renault struggle a bit over the race distance and we were quite okay. I just saw that I have to get in front of him to make the strategy work. That worked out really well and at the end with the safety car coming out I just crossed the safety car line in front of Fernando and that was important. Just a perfect weekend and a podium at the right moment for us.

Q: Fernando, what a fantastic result for Renault after all that has happened in the build-up to this race. That first lap for you was an interesting one, for you with Mark. But let’s get your take on Timo coming down inside you. Was that related to the previous corner?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, it was fantastic obviously and the result is great for us to be in the first podium of the season. The first lap was a little bit stressful arriving to turn seven side-by-side with Mark. We both ran wide and over the kerb and then Timo took the benefit there and overtook me into turn eight. Because of the battle with Webber I think I lost the position with Timo and I think we finished the race behind him, but no real complaints. To be fair it is fantastic for us. We did not have the pace all weekend to be on the podium and we have the podium, so much better than we expected.

Q: There was a lot of mechanical attrition but for Renault another aspect of this great weekend.
FA: The team have been fantastic. All season I think we have had a fantastic team. The mechanics, engineers, everybody in the factory, did their maximum. Sometimes we did get some good results, sometimes we have been a little bit unlucky. But finally this podium in this particular moment after what happened from Monza to here with the team. It has been a difficult time for the team. Now we put that behind us and we concentrate on the remaining races. I dedicate this podium to Flavio (Briatore) at home as he is part of the success we had today.

Q: Lewis, going to Suzuka now for the Japanese Grand Prix which a lot of the drivers say is their favourite circuit. You have never raced there but you do so with the team within three points of Ferrari for third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It is a weekend no doubt that you are very much looking forward to.
LH: Yeah, I am sure Martin (Whitmarsh) and the rest of the team will be happy to hear that. I am not sure where Heikki (Kovalainen) came but clearly he did a good job today, possibly. I have never been to Suzuka but I have heard that it is, apart from Monaco, the best circuit. Just growing up watching television with Ayrton (Senna) and Alain (Prost) and Fernando and Kimi (Räikkönen) racing there. I always wanted to go there. I am very excited to go. I am sure it will be a very tough weekend and undoubtedly it will be very tough to learn that circuit and master it in one weekend but I will do all I can. Going with the momentum we have from this race hopefully we will have a competitive car there.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, you said you wanted to win this but what a weekend it has been for you.
LH: It has been an incredible weekend in terms of the whole show, the build-up. It has been the busiest weekend probably of my life. I have had more appearances this week than I can remember. Obviously not a perfect Friday but Saturday was great. I have my Dad and my step-mum, Linda, here. I have my girlfriend here and I have got a friend of mine here. I got to meet Beyonce here, so it has been overall an incredible weekend. A great experience. I am very, very happy and I look forward to the celebration tonight.

Q: You never had a huge gap. Was that because you were managing tyres?
LH: Yeah, through our practice sessions our tyres never really lasted very long. I had to try and do all I could to look after them today. I also knew that the strategy I was on was very strong and I didn’t particularly need a huge gap to the people behind me. I kept a two-to-three second gap over Nico and it was good enough. Then with Vettel he was very competitive but he was again five laps shorter than me, so it had to be accepted that he was going to be on my tail, but it was never really a problem, so I just kept cruising and at the end there was a decent gap to Timo. He was putting in some good times but I was able to answer back, so I was able to keep the gap. I was very happy with it.

Q: There were quite a few drivers with brake problems here. How much attention did you pay to the brakes?
LH: I try to treat my car as good as I can. We don’t have any problems with the brakes. It has never been a problem for us, so fortunately we did a great job with the cooling and everything, so it was never an issue here.

Q: Timo, what made the difference in qualifying, because that’s been important in the races we’ve had so far?
TG: I think that for the first time since, I would say, Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, I could just set the car up more for my driving. The car has slightly changed a bit over the year, it’s a bit more aggressive and it didn’t suit my driving style a lot for one lap, especially in qualifying. I knew from last year that you can make a difference here as a driver and you can just fight a bit more with the car. We could set the car up much, much better and we did a really good job over the weekend, we just never lost the way. We struggled in first free practice and just made our way up and just went better and better. In Q2 I just got in a really good lap and got through to Q3 and the top ten. When you see the last races when we’ve had to start out of the top ten and we made it into the top ten, I was really looking forward to the race. I just knew that we couldn’t go at the same pace as the top two or three guys, so I just said ‘OK, just find your own way, just push as hard as possible with what you have and just get the best out of it’, and at the end, we pushed at the right moment, we got into P2. The first lap was really important, when I overtook Fernando as well as under the safety car when he came out of the pits and I just stayed in front of him. That was really important for our strategy and at the end, I lost where I was really and then suddenly my engineer said ‘you are safe in P2’ and that was really surprising. I was happy with that. I think it’s been a perfect weekend for me and for the team, really important for us, a really important podium at just the right moment for us.

Q: What is the significance of this podium; why is it just at the right moment?
TG: We had goals from the beginning of the year. We started really well and got two or three podiums into the season and just had the pace at the beginning and then we had a couple of difficult weekends where we struggled and the team came down a bit. We pushed as hard as possible and then recovered over the weekend quite quickly, because we knew we had the chance to be in the top five. When you start a season as we did this year and you fall down and you fight back again, it’s just really important for the team and for us.

Q: And what are your thoughts about next weekend in Japan?
TG: It’s good to go to Japan with a podium and P2. I don’t know how our car will be in Suzuka but I think the high speed corners suit our car, so I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we can be on the podium again in Suzuka. That would be great.

Q: Fernando, I’m sure it’s also important timing for you and your team.
FA: Yeah, no doubt. It was a very important podium for Renault and they deserve this podium after all the difficulties the team had over the last two weeks, plus they have had some unlucky moments in some races when we’ve lost the possibility of podiums. I think this weekend everything came to us and we took the benefit of some circumstances like yesterday in qualifying when I think the lap was good and fifth position was better than expected. Today, running fifth, with the two penalties for Rosberg and Vettel we recovered these two positions. We made no mistakes, we kept the concentration to one hundred per cent all through the race and we knew that we were not super fast here in Singapore this weekend but if we didn’t make any mistakes we could be on the podium and we did it.

Q: All three of you were in the top four last year here; how important is it to have that experience here?
FA: It’s very important. I think it’s one of those circuits which you either like or don’t like. There’s no halfway. The people who don’t like it never find the right way, they lack confidence in some corners, it’s difficult to attack in qualifying and we know how important qualifying is on a street circuit where it’s difficult to overtake. I didn’t know that all of us were in the top four last year but I’m happy to repeat those positions.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Fernando, the hard times that you’ve had these last few weeks, did they give you extra motivation for this race and this weekend?
FA: Not really. I think we arrive very motivated to every race, so it was no different this time. Obviously now that we have this podium, I would like to dedicate it to Flavio, who watched the race at home, for sure. Part of the success this season is due to him, to the great job that the team did. I think the whole team deserved this podium because it has a been difficult for everybody, for the mechanics, the engineers, stressful weeks for them and now everything is clear, everything is behind us and we look forward with this initial podium.

Q: (Sudhir Chandran – Chequered Flag) Lewis, when my mother was in hospital some years ago, I spoke to the doctor and he said that you get just three chances to revive. This is 61 laps here, demanding clinical precision and you still come out strong, so whom do you give the credit to: your father for keeping a stoic face but then smiling at the end of it? To Nicole (Scherzinger) for being very subdued this year but smiling big time at the end? Or to the team for sweating it out and saying ‘hey man, we did this?’
LH: I always think it’s a job done by a lot of people. We wouldn’t have had the pace here if it wasn’t for the guys back at the factory who don’t always get the acknowledgement but they’re always there for me. But they are the guys that are working non-stop, really trying to get these components out, making sure that we compete for wins. But for me, the one person for me is God. He’s the one who has given me the opportunity to be here, he’s the one that keeps me healthy, has blessed me with a great family and great people around me. I think that answers it.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, is third place in the Constructors’ Championship your goal at the moment?
LH: Definitely, definitely. I think the team would be very happy with that. It doesn’t really have too much importance exactly where I finish in the championship. If you’re not first, then it doesn’t matter where you are really. First is where you want to be, but for the team, after the hard work they’ve put in, they’ve had a couple of tough years but they’ve done a great job this year and they deserve to first make a step forward and hopefully at least get third, that would be great for them.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Fernando, how do you rate this third place? Is it the maximum opportunity that you took? Or do you think you can get on the podium again before the end of the year?
FA: Obviously you never know, but I think here was the best chance for us to get a podium. Knowing that there are some very demanding circuits to come in terms of aerodynamics like Suzuka and we would not have improvements on the car and there are some other teams that keep producing new pieces, so we know that every race is going to be more and more difficult for us. So I think we were quite confident here in Singapore and we take this podium back home to all the guys back at the factory and from now on we will obviously try, starting from Suzuka next weekend but I think it will be more difficult, for sure, than it has been here.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, according to people who listen to television, you had some conversation with your team in the early stages of the race about KERS. Did you have to switch it off?
LH: No, no. It was working the whole time, as far as I was concerned, but they came across on the radio saying that there was possibly a problem with it, but I wasn’t seeing that. I just had to make some switch changes. I believe I had to disengage it and re-engage it or something like that, restart it, reboot it. Like I don’t have enough things to think about in the car, pressing all these buttons, but it was good fun!

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, looking at the championship today, Jenson (Button) got the most out of it, even if he started in the worst position. Do you think that at this point it’s almost finished for him? I mean, he has 17 points over Rubens with three races to go.
LH: I don’t know where he finished today, but if he’s done a good job, that’s good for him and his team. But let’s not forget, I was leading by 17 points with two races to go and I lost it. It’s very, very, very tough, right up until the last moment, so I just suggest that they all keep pushing and we will see over the next few races but he’s done a fantastic job up until now, so I wish him all the best.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Fernando, given that you seem to be the key to the drivers’ market for 2010, does this podium help you make the decision as to which team you might drive for next year, including it could possibly be Ferrari?
FA: No, this podium doesn’t change anything. I took the decision already, so soon we will know.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Are you going to tell us?
FA: If you pay a good amount.
LH: I’ll give you a tenner, ten euros.
FA: Not enough. At least twenty!

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Timo, you said you now have the car you had at the beginning of the season. Do you think you could win a race before the end of the year?
TG: It’s difficult to say. Singapore is a completely different race track. As I said, a driver can make a difference here. I think that as the teams are really, really close together, it becomes more and more difficult for us to win a race, but I would say that I will fight as long as possible and I will never give up. There will be a time when we have the chance to win a race and it will come and if we work as we have this weekend and really concentrate with little steps, little improvements on the car, then I think something is possible. When conditions are changing, maybe a wet race or whatever, there is another chance again, but at the moment I think we have to be realistic. The top two teams are still a step ahead of us, so it will be difficult.

source: www.formula1.com

Lewis Hamilton sorely wanted to win in Singapore after his slip up recently at Monza, and on Sunday evening he drove a pluperfect race for McLaren to deliver a richly deserved triumph.

The world champion took the lead at the start, and led throughout apart from a four lap period from 47 to 50 when Renault’s Fernando Alonso went ahead before making his own final pit stop.

After a safety car period between the 21st and 25th laps had reduced his advantage after Force India’s Adrian Sutil collided with Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and then collected BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld after spinning, Hamilton coped with massive pressure from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but it was an illusion.

The German refuelled for the second time on the 39th lap, whereas Hamilton had sufficient fuel to run through to the 46th, and thereafter all he had to do was conserve his brakes in a race that finished just before the two-hour time limit.

Behind him Jenson Button increased his world championship points lead by one point over Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello as they finished fifth and sixth, but the final podium places were far beyond them. They fell to Timo Glock, who drove superbly on a great pit stop strategy from Toyota, and Alonso, who was in feisty form all weekend for the beleaguered Renault squad.

Vettel should have beaten both, but had to take a drive through penalty after speeding in the pit lane during his second refuelling call.

The man who was kicking himself most afterwards was Williams’ Nico Rosberg, a lowly 11th in a race in which he shouldered up to second ahead of Vettel at the start, and might just have challenged Hamilton later on. The German was a comfortable second when he pitted on Lap 18, but unaccountably he crossed the white line exiting the pits and plummeted after the safety car period when he too had to serve a drive-through penalty.

Heikki Kovalainen drove an undistinguished race for seventh in the second McLaren, and Robert Kubica kept his BMW Sauber ahead of a duelling Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the closing laps to grab the final point.

Behind Rosberg, Jarno Trulli was an overshadowed 12th in the second Toyota ahead of a lacklustre Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Ferrari, and Vitantonio Liuzzi who gathered more experience of the only Force India to finish.

Both Toro Rossos retired in the pits after fuel rig problems, caused when Alguesuari ‘did a Massa’ and dragged his rig with him during his second stop after taking off before instructed by the team’s lollipop man. The Spaniard was classified 15th, after ultimately succumbing to brake problems, ahead of team mate Sebastien Buemi, who went out with transmission woes.

Mark Webber’s race was ruined when, having taken fourth place on the opening lap after a bold skirmish with Alonso and Glock, he was ordered to hand it back by the race stewards for running wide during the move. Later, after losing out in the pit stops, he crashed out after brake problems affected his Red Bull.

Sutil’s incident with Heidfeld came in Turn 14 on the 20th lap when he tagged the back of Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, which had been holding up a train of cars since the start. As the Force India spun it hit an innocent Heidfeld and both retired. Romain Grosjean was the other retirement, stopping early with suspected brake problems on his Renault.

The result leaves Button on 84 points to Barrichello’s 69 with three races to go, while Vettel remains third with 59 and Webber fourth on 51.5. In the constructors’ stakes, Brawn have 153 points to Red Bull’s 110.5, but McLaren are closing fast on Ferrari with 59 to 62.

source: www.formula1.com

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button took Brawn GP a significant step closer to both world championship titles at Monza on Sunday afternoon, in a race rendered dramatic by a last lap shunt for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, as he was pushing hard in third place after Button.

As expected, it was Hamilton who led from the start, using KERS in his lightly-fuelled McLaren to sprint ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Barrichello and Button crucially slipped into fourth and fifth places, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen’s fuel-heavy McLaren, which an aggressive Vitantonio Liuzzi also overtook for sixth place in the second Force India.

Hamilton stretched his lead after setting a series of fastest laps, until his first refuelling stop on the 15th lap. Sutil stopped on the 17th, Raikkonen the 19th, those three the only men on one-stop strategies. That left the Brawns one-two from Lap 20 until their much later pit stops, on the 28th lap for Button and the 29th for Barrichello.

That was where the race was won for the Brazilian and lost for the Englishman. Button was 2.1s adrift before his stop, 4.2s after it, and Barrichello proceeded to pull away as they set after Hamilton, Raikkonen and Sutil, who had repassed them while they refuelled. Each had another stop to make, however.

When Hamilton made his on Lap 34 and emerged behind the Brawns, the writing was on the wall, but the champion refused to give in. As Button responded they ate into Barrichello’s 5.4s lead, which dwindled steadily. Barrichello had things under full control, however, and so did Button.

Hamilton, however, did not. Going into the last lap Button was 3.3s behind Barrichello, with Hamilton a second further back. But going through the second Lesmo Hamilton lost control of his McLaren, spun and thumped the inner wall before spinning again and strewing the track with debris. Out went the safety car, as Barrichello crossed the line to score his second victory of the year and to reduce Button’s championship points advantage to 14 points, 80 to 66.

It was an emphatic victory for Ross Brawn’s team, on a day when Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull took a mere point, and one that was gifted to them courtesy of Hamilton’s shunt. To make matters worse for Red Bull, Mark Webber had been shunted out of the race by BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica at the second chicane, on the opening lap.

Brawn thus have 146 points to Red Bull’s 105.5.

Raikkonen hung on to the final podium place, but Sutil was only four-tenths adrift at the finish as he scored his first points of the season. Liuzzi might have had a shot at the podium with his single-stop strategy, but retired after 22 laps with mechanical problems.

Fernando Alonso thus brought his Renault home fifth ahead of Kovalainen, while BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld held off Vettel for seventh.

Giancarlo Fisichella had a quiet race to ninth for Ferrari, ahead of Williams' Kazuki Nakajima who held off the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock and, close to the end, triggered an incident in which Trulli nearly collected Glock after having to avoid Nakajima in the middle of the road going into the first chicane. The German chased the Japanese driver home, but the Italian fell back to 14th behind Hamilton and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi.

Romain Grosjean was an undistinguished 15th in the second Renault ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg, whose chances were ruined by an early pit stop. Liuzzi was classified 17th ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who both retired with technical problems, and an angry Webber was 20th.

While Red Bull will bounce back, the title chase is now beginning to look more and more like an in-house Brawn duel, with Button 27 points ahead of Vettel, and Barrichello 13.

source: www.formula1.com

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP), 1h16m21.706s; 2nd Jenson Button (Brawn GP), 1h16m24.572s; 3rd Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 1h16m52.370s.

Q: Rubens, you have won here for Ferrari and now you have won here for Brawn. What a feeling for you.
Rubens Barrichello: It feels great. Like I said on the lap after I got the chequered flag I have no words. I mean I had a tough night. We did not know the gearbox. This or that. We did have an overtorque in Spa and there are some concerns but the gearbox is great. I think it is going to do the whole four races. I really hope. It was great to have a great start. Obviously (Heikki) Kovalainen was coming quite fast with that power button and I had to defend myself and I went wide, so it was a bit tough. But it was a great first lap and it made my race. My pace was there. My brakes were. It was pretty much like Valencia. The car was there all the time. It felt great and I have no big words for that. I just feel really good to see all this public. Obviously they are more in red than white but it still feels great.

Q: Jock Clear, your race engineer, was saying on your in-lap that great decisions were taken this weekend. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen were on the two-stop strategy, but you two Brawn drivers were on the one-stop strategy.
RB: Yeah, it was a great decision yesterday. The guys with the KERS they had 20 metres on us at the start and we had to have that in mind. There will be times when we don’t have to think that, but the straight line after the start here was so big that we had to think of that. Luckily we had a good start and I could run my pace. The pace was good enough to be in front of them by the last pit stop.

Q: Jenson, leading the championship by 14 points. But a hectic first lap as it always is. Talk us through that.
Jenson Button: It was a messy lap but I made up a position which was fantastic. You are always wary at the start here because of the KERS cars. (Fernando) Alonso didn’t get the jump which was quite good. Rubens and myself were pretty good down into turn one and Kovalainen was struggling a little bit. He braked late. Then I was sat behind Kovalainen through the second chicane and then through Lesmo One I just put a nose up the inside and he ran a touch wide. I was able to get him through Lesmo Two. It was a much needed move. If I hadn’t made that move I probably would have finished third or fourth. I had to make it stick and I did and it is nice to be back up here back in second position. Obviously I would rather be where Rubens is sat but he did a better job this weekend, so congratulations to you, man. But second is good. I lost two points to Rubens, but gained seven points on (Sebastian) Vettel. This guy here is my closest rival. And it is good. I think we have got a good relationship. But we are very competitive people, so I am sure we are going to take down to the wire.

Q: It was a close race with Lewis Hamilton towards the end as well. He started to put some pressure on you. What was going through your mind?
JB: My lap times were reasonably good. I was doing 25‘s and I was happy with the pace. Towards the end of the stint I had better pace compared to Rubens but Lewis started pushing on the last three laps. My team was getting a bit excited, saying ‘you have got to use mix two, you need the extra boost.’ But I think I had him pretty much covered anyway. I think it is difficult to pass here even with KERS. I don't know what happened, if he made a mistake or ran a bit wide or if he had a failure or something, but obviously a big shunt for him. But for me a great result.

Q: Kimi, it was a bit of a repeat for you of the Belgian Grand Prix in many ways with the Force India in your mirrors just about throughout the whole race.
Kimi Raikkonen: I got a very good start but them something happened with Lewis. He slowed down but I had nowhere to go and I had to go around the left half on the grass, but I needed to back off before then. If I had had some space to go around him I would have got him at the start. Anyhow, it didn't really change the end of the race. In the end he went off. We got third place a little bit on a gift but it doesn’t matter. It all counts. Good points for us. It is a bit disappointing to drive as well as you can every lap, not really making any mistakes, and still finish quite far away from the first two. It is not the perfect position for me or for the team, but at least we scored some points which we needed. I think we got the most out of the car this weekend. It is good for the fans to be on the podium. It is much better than finishing fourth. We are going to keep pushing as hard as we can. We know that there are cars quicker than us, but maybe some races we can still challenge them for the win and that is what we try to do. It was a great thing for the team and everything worked well for us and the guys put in good hard work.

Q: It looked like a small glitch at the second pit stop and you just caught the leg of the refuelling guy. Then you had to brake before you left the pit lane.
KR: I was in a hurry to get out as I knew it was going to be very close. The lollipop guy just moved a little bit and I was ready to go and he put it back down and I stopped. But luckily enough the fuel rig was out and I could go. We lost a little bit of time but not too much. It would not have been enough anyhow for beating McLaren at the pit stops, but we could keep the Force India behind and in the end it did not make much difference.

Q: Rubens, you are the oldest man in Formula One, 37 years of age. What a rebirth of your career. What an amazing achievement.
RB: It feels great. I think it is a winning year whatever happens. We have got to remember that it is not long ago we had no jobs. We did not know what is going to happen, so we are finally driving a fantastic car with a fantastic engine. The team are doing a fantastic job. I must thank them for all of their efforts. The strategy was great. It was really good. The work that we put in on Friday was fantastic to achieve this car. You can see that we both had different tyres, different strategies on tyres. But at the end of the day the car was good on both of them. So it just feels great, I am going to give my very best. It is going to be a good and a healthy fight and I am looking forward to that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Rubens, two wins in three races. That is pretty good going, isn’t it?
RB: It is very good going. It is not as good as the six races that Jenson had, but it is good enough. I am really happy with all the achievement since the beginning of the year. I struggled a little bit at the beginning with the brakes but since we have changed it at Silverstone I am a lot happier with it. We had developments on the car since then and the car has become better and better. I need to put it down to the braking that my performance has become a little bit better. I am feeling good. Monza is a great track for me. We knew since before coming here that I had a good chance. It feels great. I finish the race and I have now words as I had a tough night. You are thinking all through. I didn’t know about the gearbox and this and that. I am not even thinking we are going to have to change it for the future. It is doing very well. I had no troubles whatsoever and it is just a great feeling.

Q: What was the worry about the gearbox?
RB: In Spa. It has nothing to do with the fire. It is the fact that I hit anti-stall the next time when it got going and it had a little bit of an overtorque. An overtorque might mean something for the long term but I think the will to win was bigger than the problem really. It felt good all the way through. I had a great first lap. That’s what made my day and my weekend.

Q: Looking at the races coming up, do you think the Brawns are going to be competitive at those as well?
RB: I think so. I think Singapore can be quite good. It is warm weather and part of the race is at eight o’clock. It was eight pm last year, I think. It was still quite hot. The sun is not there, I think we can expect to perform quite well there. We have Suzuka that might be cold and Abu Dhabi, strangely enough, they told us it could be cold. I cannot imagine going to Abu Dhabi with the cold weather but it might happen. I think Brazil can be quite good for us as well. I think the package is good. We have been the team winning the most, but the most consistent team as well. Where we didn’t do very well we still did okay, so thanks to everyone at the factory and everyone here that we have a great car.

Q: Looking back when you saw the weights, was the feeling then that we are looking good?
RB: I think I can say for myself and for Jenson that we both did a very good lap yesterday. With the amount of fuel that we had in the car I think it was a great achievement. When you talk about the hundredths or thousands it is down to a little bit of luck. There is nothing between us. I was just lucky that I had a touch more and I could stop a lap later. Even Friday, some people come and say they have problems and this and that but Friday was different to the beginning of the year. Some people are taking some fuel out and putting some good laps in while we have been conservative and good and looking after everything as we have to. Saturday we were fast and I think we could have achieved pole position if we had the same load as the other people but we had the best strategy and the 10 points is at the end of the race. That is when it counts.

Q: Jenson, is it a bit of a relief to be on the podium again?
JB: All weekend the car has been working well for me. It is a competitive car around here with this downforce level. It is good to know that the car works on all sorts of different downforce levels which bodes well for the next four races. But as Rubens said, you get asked lots of questions on a Friday, where is the performance. I was 19th on Friday because we were doing work. We did race work. As you can see from our race performance we did it very well. Every stage of the weekend we have planned very well. I am happy with my performance. I am happy with the team’s performance and this guy just went one better, so well done to Rubens. But all weekend, as I said, we have been very close together and it is great to get eight points on the board. Rubens has closed me down by two, but I have pulled my lead on the Red Bulls which is positive.

Q: You were on soft tyres in the first stint; was there much difference between the two types of tyre?
JB: Well, I didn’t have any new primes, so I basically had to go for the option, because off the startline I was worried that I would get jumped by Alonso if I was on a four- or five- lap old prime. So we went for the option and on Friday the balance felt pretty good on the option. So for me, it was neither here nor there. It’s difficult to know which was the better tyre, but the balance of the car was good throughout the race, a little bit snappy towards the end when I had Lewis behind me, but around here, it sounds silly but it is very difficult to overtake, even though they’ve got KERS. If I didn’t make a mistake, I don’t think he was going to get past me, but my engineer was getting quite excited on the radio, but I was pretty much in control. He obviously ended his race half a lap early.

Q: Well, the gap came down to about 1.6s and then it went up again and then down again right at the end.
JB: Well, 1.2s/1.5s is the gap. You get to that point and it’s very difficult to get any closer and I don’t think their KERS is that good, and we’ve obviously got the same motor in the back. As a team, we’ve done a great job this weekend and the strategy that we chose for the race was a perfect strategy for us. If we had KERS maybe we would go for another strategy, but knowing that the KERS runners were going to go light, or thinking they were going to go light for a two-stop, a one-stop was the best option for us. Our main competitor, we felt, was Kovalainen but he had a very tough first lap and we both got past him which was very, very important.

Q: Kimi, how much pressure was Adrian (Sutil) putting on you, or were you just able to push the button and get yourself a safety margin?
KR: I think it was very similar to the last race with (Giancarlo) Fisichella. OK, sometimes it looks as if it gets very close in the middle of a chicane, but then once you get to the corner exit and you start accelerating and he’s still in the chicane it opens up again, so it never really got very close, so that I would need to defend or anything like that. They seem to be fast in a straight line, fast through the corners, so for sure I needed to make sure that I didn’t make a mistake and I got a good run in the few places on the circuit where I knew that his only chance was going to be. So as long as I didn’t make a mistake in those two places it was OK.

Q: Do you regret the strategy that you chose, the two-stop?
KR: No. I think we still did the right thing. We got the best out of the car. We know that we’re where the top cars are, we’re not as fast. The car feels more or less OK, we’re just missing grip, we’re sliding more than the others and that’s the penalty that we have to pay. We’re not going to have any more new parts for the car, so it is what it is right now. Third place for us is very good, we’re still keeping position in the championship which is what we’re aiming for. I think we got the maximum out of the car.

Q: Much difference between the tyres?
KR: I think the soft one was easier for us. It is normally. It’s hard to get the hard one working. Probably we don’t have as much downforce as the others, so you cannot put load on the tyres, you cannot get them working. In the end they started to work a little bit better again and it helped but for sure, the soft one is the better one.

Q: Will Singapore suit you better?
KR: It should be a bit more than Valencia, Monaco. Hopefully there we will have a bit more of a chance to challenge for first place but I don’t know. We will wait and see. Hopefully we can be stronger there.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Jenson and Rubens, it looks like it’s between you two now, the Red Bulls are so far back. Is it possible to continue to be friends and close team-mates, exchanging information when you’ve got four races to go and you need every point possible?
JB: I don’t know. I’ve put on a brave face lately but I absolutely hate this guy! He doesn’t know his a*** from his elbow when it comes to racing cars! Is this more fun or…? No, we’ve got a good relationship and we’ve been team-mates for many years now. We’re working together, we’ve had to pull our car to the front, we will see how it goes from here, but I think we’re still going to be sharing information because there’s always the possibility that the Red Bulls will be strong, you never know, and we might have some bad luck. But when we go on the circuit we’re obviously fierce rivals. We’re not going to give up until the end. I’ve obviously got the advantage of 14 points; it’s got smaller at the last couple of races but Rubens is going to be a very tough rival for sure. He’s skilled behind the wheel, as we’ve seen for many years and he’s been able to show his talent. Yeah, it’s going to be a tough few races, but it’s an exciting challenge and as I said, it’s nice to get this result today. I think we’ve shown that the Brawn car is good. A few people were questioning us a couple of races ago, but we’ve put a lot of effort into improving this car and it works at this downforce level which is great and I think when we go to Singapore we should have a strong car there as well. I would say that it’s more than likely between us two but you can never count the Red Bulls out.
RB: If it is between us two, there’s that old saying that you can only win in Formula One if you’re tough. We’re both nice guys, so this is the end of it! I think the best thing in life is respect. Obviously, when we’re finding that the softer spring or the harder spring is the better thing for the car, you go to the other side of the garage and tell them that’s what you have found. But it’s an open book there. We have our meetings and we both go through the check list at the same time, live, so we both can hear. At the end of the day, the cars get very similar but that’s fine, that’s how it is.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Jenson, Rubens, you’ve both been on the one-stop strategy today; can we put that down to the tactical genius that is Ross Brawn?
JB: You can’t put a race win down to one individual, I don’t think. It’s down to a group of individuals. We’ve got a lot of very talented people within our team that come up with the strategies. Ross Brawn is not the strategist in our team. We have certain people within the team that go through all the different scenarios throughout a race. They came up with the idea. A two-stop was still a possibility but we went for a one-stop because we just thought we had to get off the line first and lead into turn one otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. The strategists talk to the engineers and talk to Ross and talk to the drivers and we decide whatever strategy to go for. Some of us disagree sometimes but we normally come up with the right option. Ross is a great individual, but he would say it’s not down to one person, any race victory and one-two.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Rubens, after all the frustrating years at Ferrari when you couldn’t race your team-mate and we know what happened to you there, how much do you relish this opportunity to go head-to-head with your team-mate with the championship fully within your grasp and four races to go? What does that mean to you?
RB: It means a lot. It means that I can show my true me. For many years people may ask why didn’t he leave Ferrari before, because the car was the best available and I had to overcome all the problems and I had to overcome some World Champion called Michael (Schumacher) and he was great, he was great behind the wheel. Like I said before, I think that Michael might have had more skill than I had, but if you threw both of us into a goal with a tiger I might get out alive and I’m not so sure about him. That’s life. You learn, you learn by your mistakes, you learn by everything. I didn’t say this to criticise because I had fun, I really had fun at Ferrari. It made me a better driver as well, so everything that’s happening now is because of all the times that I had in Formula One. The only thing that is more important than anything else is that you have to believe in yourself and that’s the main thing, the whole thing in life itself. It’s you waking up, thanking for the chance that you have and going for it. It’s as good as that and as I said before, for me it’s already a winning year. I went through the first of January, I went through the first of February, not knowing if I was going to be racing. I remember like it was yesterday. Jenson did the first four laps in the car and I went to ask him (about the car) and he said ‘it’s a great car.’ And I will never forget that. And I said ‘get the hell out of there, I want to drive!’ It was a great feeling and it’s a winning year already. It feels good to be challenging and fighting your team-mate.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, what do you have to do to try to catch him: it’s four races, fourteen points which is quite a lot? What do you have to do and what kind of pressure do you think you can put on him?
RB: Nothing more than I’m doing right now: pushing to the limit, taking everything you can, feeling good, feeling happy with the challenge and just going for it. Experience does help with all those years but as I’ve already said, if you have experience and no speed it means nothing. If you have speed, experience comes and it feels good. I don’t think I have to do anything else. We are very competitive, both of us, and we just have to go for it.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And you Jenson, looking at the results from today, is it a big relief for you, just that you have to concentrate more on Rubens?
JB: For sure – I don’t know if easier is the right word, but concentrating on one person is… it has to be a little bit easier than three. You never know where the Red Bulls are going to be quick and where they are going to be uncompetitive. I thought they would be a lot more competitive here. But with Rubens we’re driving the same car and today he was a little bit quicker, he won the race by about three seconds. I’ve got to stay as close to Rubens as possible, that’s the way you should look at it but also I want to win races. I don’t want to come here and just try and finish behind Rubens. So I will go to the next race hoping for a great result. I think that we have got some more improvements with the car and it should help us in Singapore. It’s a circuit that I really enjoy driving. I had a good race there last year and I look for the same result as Rubens had this race.

Q: (Heikki Kulta –Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have had four successive podiums. Are you surprised by this consistent record?
KR: A little bit, yes. But we’ve been chasing the car a bit since the last five races and it’s been working well for us, we’ve been getting the best out of it and other people have got the most out of their cars and their package, so it has worked out very well for us. It’s a big surprise to finish on the podium, but OK, here we were a bit lucky to finish on the podium. No matter how it comes you need to finish the race, so we will try again in the next races and try to keep third place in the Constructors’ championship.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Rubens, I guess you started the race on the harder tyre. Normally the Brawn was not the best car warming up the tyres, but you were the only one on the first lap who really did a good lap on the hard, all the others really suffered, so what is different now?
RB: Well, I think the team made a great effort on the set-up to find where the problem was in that couple of races including Hungary where we struggled. It was a great effort from the mechanical and aerodynamic side and the car is better. Secondly, it was a good (tyre) choice because I had a great feeling with the tyres yesterday. I was surprised that we could qualify so well on the harder tyre. We were quite heavy at the start and I wanted the more consistent tyre. Having said that, I opened up a gap… it looked like I had the soft and Jenson had the hard because I opened up a gap and then he started to catch me up slightly. I lost a little bit of rear stability on the harder tyre towards the end of the run which was not something I was expecting. When I put on the softer tyre, the car felt good, felt really good, a bit of movement into Parabolica but the tyre felt very good, so I was keeping good pace and the car felt good.

Q: (Tom Cary – The Daily Telegraph) Jenson, you came into the weekend bombarded with questions about your mental strength and under a lot of pressure. Do you feel that your performance here shows that you can cope with it and you’ve put those stories to bed now?
JB: That’s between you guys. The talk of pressure never came out of my mouth. I know I’m in a very good situation, I’ve driving the best car on the grid at the moment, and I’ve probably got one of the most competitive team-mates on the grid at the moment. So there are lots of positives and a couple of negatives there but why shouldn’t I be positive? I’ve got a fourteen-point lead with four races to go. That’s it really. I’m sure you’re right that I have controlled the pressure that I’ve had for the last two or three races but those are your words, not mine.

Q: (Adam Hay-Nicholls – Metro) Rubens, when you were up on the podium, it looked like you were firing arrows into the crowd. What was that about?
RB: I invent all the time.
JB: He’s got two kids and watches a lot of weird films.
RB: That’s very much like it. Fernando was four yesterday, so that was for him.

source: www.formula1.com

Ferrari are expected to wait until later this week before announcing any decision on whether Luca Badoer will race again for the world champions at next month’s Italian Grand Prix.

Test driver Badoer stood in for the injured Felipe Massa at the last two rounds at Valencia and Spa, but failed to shine at either venue, finishing 17th and 14th, prompting speculation that he will be replaced for the team’s home race at Monza.

Massa, whose skull was fractured in a qualifying accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix, is currently in the United States where he will undergo more medical tests on Monday. According to team principal Stefano Domenicali, who saw Kimi Raikkonen score Ferrari’s first 2009 victory on Sunday, the results of those tests could have a bearing on their line-up for Italy.

“Luca did the best he could and this win also reflects his contribution within the team,” said Domenicali at Spa. “Now we will take a few days to evaluate his immediate future, also based on what Felipe’s recovery time might be.”

After qualifying 20th in Belgium, Badoer came home last on Sunday, over a minute and a half behind victor Raikkonen, and the 38-year-old Italian’s best race lap was over two seconds slower than the Finn’s.

source: www.formula1.com

Kimi Raikkonen became the sixth different victor in six races after putting Ferrari back in the winners’ circle for the first time in 2009, with a finely judged success in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, in which his KERS system played a crucial role in the opening stages.

But he was dogged all the way to the flag by a gallant Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India, who kept him honest throughout on the first medium downforce circuit of the season. Behind them, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove strongly for third, closing on them both by the finish. Raikkonen crossed the finish line 0.9s ahead, with Vettel 2.9s behind Fisichella.

Jenson Button’s hopes of adding to his points tally in the Brawn GP ended at Les Combes on the first lap when he was spun out by Romain Grosjean’s Renault, while in a separate incident Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren tagged Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso while trying to avoid the melee. Stewards looked at both collisions, but deemed no action necessary.

After a safety car intervention, Raikkonen, who had sped up to second behind Fisichella on the opening lap, lost no time using his KERS to slingshot by the Italian on the run up Raidillon to Les Combes on the fifth lap, but Fisichella pushed him all the way.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber looked strong initially until an unsafe release from his first pit stop nearly put rival BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in the pit-lane wall. A drive-through penalty subsequently dropped him to ninth.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso also seemed on course for a healthy helping of points after running the longest opening stint, but a brush with Force India’s Adrian Sutil in La Source on the opening lap had damaged the left front wheel, and after a disastrously long pit stop on Lap 24 he had to come in again to retire a lap later when the left front wheel could not be secured satisfactorily.

Vettel was able to vault past a fast-starting Robert Kubica after his second stop on the 35th lap and said his Red Bull was perfect thereafter, but the Pole brought his BMW Sauber home fourth ahead of closing team mate Heidfeld. The German has passed Toyota’s Jarno Trulli for second at the start but ran wide and lost ground, allowing Kubica to nip down the inside to run third initially.

Heikki Kovalainen did a one-stop strategy in his McLaren to stay ahead of Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello for sixth place. The Brazilian, who bogged down off the grid, was saved to an extent by the intervention of the safety car which enabled Brawn to refuel him for a longer opening stint in a fast first-lap pit stop, but had to back off at the end when his Mercedes engine showed signs of failing. He just made it to the flag ahead of a closing Nico Rosberg, who drove yet another strong race for Williams to score the final point, while Webber just missed out with ninth after a frustrating race.

Toyota’s Timo Glock had a fuel rig problem in his first stop which delayed him, and could not better 10th, under pressure at the end from Force India’s Sutil. Behind them Sebastien Buemi brought his Toro Rosso home 12th ahead of Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and an unimpressive Luca Badoer, who was the last finisher for Ferrari.

Besides Alonso and the first lap crashers, the other retirement was Trulli, whose front wing was damaged when he made contact with Heidfeld's BMW Sauber on the opening lap. That ruined the Italian’s race, as did a later refuelling problem, similar to Glock’s. He ultimately retired with a brake problem.

In the title stakes, Barrichello took two more points off Button, who still has 74 to the Brazilian’s 56. Vettel moves back ahead of Webber with 53 to the Australian’s 51.5.In the constructors’ championship Brawn have 128 points, Red Bull 104.5, Ferrari 56 and McLaren 44.

source: www.formula.com