Brawn Quietly Confident in Turkey Practice Two

Friday Practice, June 5, 2009

Practice Two: 14:00 p.m. - 15:30 p.m., local time (12 noon - 13:30 p.m., British time)

As the green light started the second practice session of the Turkish Grand Prix, I hoped for a little more excitement as the morning session had been rather quiet.  The man who finished practice one on top (Rosberg), was the first to set a time in the afternoon (1:30:615).

Seven minutes in, Jenson Button was out for the first time and put in a 1:30:476 (which put him sixth out of 13 times thus far). 

On his second attempt, the Championship leader raised himself to fourth, and then after another lap, he was third (which would be as high as he would reach today).

Rubens Barrichello’s first time was a 1:30:891 which put the Brazilian 18th out of 19.  On his second attempt, he went up three places to 15th, and then on a third try, the Brawn man got to seventh (1:29:773).

Meanwhile, Jens was up in eighth (1:29:853) having slipped down the rankings.  From here on it became clear that Brawn were going to show us quite how classy and disciplined they are. 

The team spent the rest of the session simply testing, there were no glory runs and it seemed as if every lap completed was for the purposes of data collection rather than giving me ammunition for an exciting title!

About half an hour in, Vettel stopped out on track with a terminal drive shift problem.  Whilst this was bad news for the unfortunate young German, it could only prove to be more good luck for Brawn as Red Bull would now struggle to analyse their car.

With 55 minutes left, Rubens was 13th and Jenson 16th.  Ten minutes passed and not a lot changed (Rubens had completed 18 laps and was P15, Jenson had done 19, and was in P16). 

With 30 minutes to go, Jens was in the garage making tweaks and analysing data, whilst Rubens was out on track and up to 12th.

Two minutes later, Jenson was out on soft tyres, but made no progress.  Was this a worry for the team?

No, the pit crew looked relaxed and happy and even though Ross Brawn was in the garage, (as opposed to his usual spot on the pit wall), when asked whether all was going to plan, a Brawn technician simply smiled and nodded.

With 10 minutes left, Rubens was in P14 and Jenson, P16.  Seven minutes later, Rubens elevated himself up to eighth (1:29:305) but Jenson finished the day down in 12th.

In conclusion, today was not particularly interesting as a fan watching the action.  All of the drivers struggled with the track temperatures and I’m not sure how reflective today was. 

However, I think that the long testing that Brawn carried out can only be a good thing.  Much like in Spain and Monaco, Rubens seemed to have the advantage over Jenson, but we have all seen how quickly that can change. 

I think it was simply a case of a productive day at the office.  Roll on Saturday!

1    Heikki Kovalainen                 McLaren-Mercedes                   1:28.841       
2    Fernando Alonso                  Renault                                 1:28.847
3    Robert Kubica                      BMW Sauber                          1:29.056   
4    Kazuki Nakajima                   Williams-Toyota                      1:29.091   
5    Sebastian Vettel                   RBR-Renault                          1:29.202   
6    Jarno Trulli                           Toyota                                 1:29.207   
7    Nico Rosberg                         Williams-Toyota                     1:29.257   
8    Rubens Barrichello                 Brawn-Mercedes                     1:29.305   
9    Mark Webber                         RBR-Renault                          1:29.383   
10    Nelsinho Piquet                   Renault                                  1:29.401   
11    Felipe Massa                      Ferrari                                    1:29.416   
12    Jenson Button                    Brawn-Mercedes                       1:29.430   
13    Lewis Hamilton                    McLaren-Mercedes                   1:29.435   
14    Timo Glock                          Toyota                                  1:29.518   
15    Kimi Räikkönen                     Ferrari                                   1:29.520   
16    Nick Heidfeld                       BMW Sauber                           1:29.550   
17    Adrian Sutil                        Force India-Mercedes                1:30.081   
18    Giancarlo Fisichella              Force India-Mercedes               1:30.091   
19    Sebastien Bourdais               STR-Ferrari                           1:30.295   
20    Sebastien Buemi                  STR-Ferrari                           1:30.629