Formula One: Teammate Comparisons After Malaysia (Round Two)

Continuing my regular article where I compare team mates against each other.

I will compare qualifying performance and judge them after the weight of the cars has been known.

I will then give my opinion of who had the better race, which is not necessarily the driver with the best result.

Drivers will be awarded one point for qualifying and one point for the race, come the end of the season we will see who did the better job.

Feel free to challenge my opinion.

Brawn GP

Qualifying: Button

Like in Australia Button took pole, although he had 4.5kg fuel less then Rubens he was about half a second quicker so did a better job.

Race: Button

Button had a poor start but he battled his way back to the front, and made a great move past Alonso on the way.

Ross Brawn made some good tactical calls on the pit wall and this saw Button take his second win in a row, albeit with half points.

Although Rubens again showed that he is one of the best drivers in the wet, he wasn't as good as Button.

Season: Jenson Button 4 – 0 Rubens Barrichello

McLaren

Qualifying: Hamilton

Both set roughly the same lap times with Hamilton ahead of Kovalainen.

Race: Hamilton

Kovalainen is yet to complete a lap of a race in 2009 and made an error by running wide on the marbles that sent his McLaren off into the gravel.

Meanwhile Hamilton was again dragging his McLaren through the field and had a good battle with Mark Webber in the Red Bull.

In the confusion at the end of the race Lewis thought he was fifth, but found out he was seventh, still he earned his first legal world championship point of 2009.

Season: Lewis Hamilton 3 – 1 Hekki Kovalainen

Ferrari

Qualifying: Raikkonen

Massa made a huge mistake by thinking his time was good enough to get through into Q2, it wasn't and he surprisingly went out in the first part of qualifying. Raikkonen meanwhile made it to the final part of qualifying and will be starting ninth.

Race: Raikkonen

Raikkonen had a good start and was looking good for some serious points until those pesky Italian mechanics decided to put full wet tyres on his Ferrari when the track was bone dry.

That effectively ruined his race, that was until he had yet another problem with KERS on his car which did end his race. Luckily it meant he could grab an ice cream (I'll speculate it was a Magnum) and a can of Coke whilst the other drivers were getting soaked.

Massa was having a reasonable race in the wet, but that crazy decision in qualifying pretty much ruined his weekend.

Raikkonen just edges the point as it was the Ferrari strategists that put him on the wrong tyres, and he was looking good up till then.

Season: Felipe Massa 2 – 2 Kimi Raikkonen

Red Bull

Qualifying: Webber

Vettel was nearly 10kg lighter than Webber, but in lap time Webber was only a quarter of a second slower.

Race: Webber

Webber was having an epic battle with Alonso for sixth which he eventually gets, after battling a former world champion, he has a scrap with the current champ Hamilton and comes out the victor.

Not only was Webber great on the track, but he did a good job as head of the GPDA in getting driver opinion and putting safety ahead of racing.

Vettel who normally excels in the wet (his win in Monza is proof) seemed to be having a tough time, he ended up spinning out and failed to get going again.

Season: Sebastian Vettel 2 – 2 Mark Webber

Toyota

Qualifying: Trulli

Same fuel load but Trulli was four tenths of a second quicker than Glock.

Race: Glock

(I awarded Glock the race point last time due to the original stewards decision, now we know what really happened behind the safety car in Australia I have to give the point to Trulli.)

Glock was flying on the intermediate tyres, as Martin Brundle would say he was on the right tyres at the right time. He made good use of his advantage though and carved his was through the field, and was unlucky not to be qualified as second due to the count back.

Trulli started second and lead briefly when Nico Rosberg pitted, but he then slowly fell back through the field and looked overly cautious when it rained compared with everyone else.

Season: Jarno Trulli 3 – 1 Timo Glock

Renault

Qualifying: Alonso

Need I bother with this? Alonso made it into final qualifying when Piquet didn't even get out of the first.

Race:Alonso

Alonso had an amazing start considering his heavy fuel load going from ninth to third!

He couldn't keep it though and was losing out because of his heavy fuel load, Button and Barrichello went past easily, but Alonso then made a mistake allowing Raikkonen through.

Alonso was able to put up a fight when Mark Webber tried to get past, and it took Webber a few goes before making the move stick. Alonso then threw his Renault off the road when the rain came, but still finished in front of Piquet.

Piquet though did at least make it to the end of the race in tricky conditions and seeing as he struggles when it's dry he did a good job, he also managed to keep the quicker Williams of Kazuki Nakajima behind him for a long time, but it wasn't enough of a performance to get the point over Alonso

Season: Fernando Alonso 4 – 0 Nelson Piquet Jr.

Williams

Qualifying: Rosberg

Rosberg again made it into the final part of qualifying, while Nakajima struggled to get into it.

Race: Rosberg

Rosberg had a fantastic start going from fourth to first, if it had stayed dry he was on for a podium, it didn't but he did get half a point.

Nakajima did the opposite to his team mate and lost ground at the started and then struggled to get past the slower Renault of Nelson Piquet Jr.

Season: Nico Rosberg 4 – 0 Kazuki Nakajima

BMW

Qualifying: Kubica

Kubica again made final qualifying when Heidfeld didn't and Heidfeld can't claim it was the extra weight of KERS disadvantaging him, as according to all the experts this is one of the best circuits to use it.

Race: Heidfeld

Kubica had an engine making 'strange noises' that broke after only a couple of laps, Heidfeld had all of the luck and a late call not to pit saw him take second.

Season: Robert Kubica 3 – 1 Nick Heidfeld

Force India

Qualifying: Fisichella

Fisichella was marginally quicker than Sutil in qualifying, but you would expect that with all of his experience.

Race: Sutil

Fisichella was falling off at every corner as his tyres were destroyed, and though Sutil was doing a better job it's races like that where they should score points. Neither put in a particularly good performance, but Sutil made a better job of the wet conditions compared to Fisichella.

Season: Giancarlo Fisichella 2 – 2 Adrian Sutil

Torro Rosso

Qualifying: Bourdais

Bourdais made it through to Q2, whilst Buemi will be starting dead last. Buemi even managed to throw his car off the track on his final run, which probably cost him the chance of progressing to Q2.

Race: Bourdais

While Buemi was busy taking his front wing off and ploughing the gravel trap, Bourdais was having a solid a race and therefore takes full honours in Malaysia.

Season: Sebastian Buemi 2 – 2 Sebastian Bourdais