It's Not the End of the World for Brawn GP in Hungary

As you will all probably know, Felipe Massa’s condition was far worse than expected immediately after qualifying. He had to undergo surgery, and although he is reportedly stable, he remains in intensive care. I don’t know much about his condition so I won’t even attempt to speculate, all I’ll say is, I hope Felipe gets well soon. He is a thoroughly lovely guy and if you ask me, deserved to be the 2008 World Champion.

Arguably Felipe’s 2008 title hopes were ruined in Hungary last year when his engine packed up just three laps from the end. Everyone has been building this weekend up as crucial for Brawn GP and Jenson Button but would the 2009 Hungary GP become a significant blow for the current leader of the Championship?

Jens would be starting on the dirty side of the track, but with a lot of fuel and behind the KERS runners. Rubens may have gained a place from Massa’s accident but he didn’t look likely to gain points in a race described as Monaco without the houses.

As the drivers lined up after the procession lap, I was of course worried about Brawn GP, but also as a huge Alonso fan, concerned for the man on pole.

The lights went out and Alonso got a great start and led into turn one. Both Brawns started poorly and dropped back. Jens fell down one place to P9 and Rubens went all the way back to P18!

Luckily for Brawn, Vettel also had a very poor start and took a knock to the front of his car. The Brawn drivers were certainly struggling, but Jenson did manage a very exciting pass to take P8 from Nakajima on the second lap.

Rubens too was improving when he took Fisichella and was now all over Heidfeld. Jenson initially caught up to Vettel and Kovalainen, but after just a few laps, began to fall back with tyre issues.

At the front, Alonso pulled away, whilst Brawn’s biggest threat, Webber, looked good too. However, the Australian’s day took a bad turn when a very speedy Hamilton with that stupid booster button left Webber defenceless and overtaken!

All this meant that by lap 5, neither Brawn nor Red Bull had got off to a good start. By lap 6, Jens was 11.958 seconds behind Alonso, and Rubens was 22.719 seconds adrift.

Jenson was struggling with his tyres, as was Alonso who now began to slow the whole pack up. Alonso pitted with only 11 laps gone and although his stop only took 6.4 seconds, his front right tyre was not fitted properly and actually left his car altogether as the Spaniard attempted to nurse his car back to the pits.

This meant that poor old Nando’s race was finished. Ever the great sportsman though, Alonso simply stated after the race ‘that’s motor sport’. The departure of Alonso basically gave Hamilton the lead (and in actual fact the win).

Both Webber and Raikkonen pitted which lifted Jens to P5, but Nakajima was now all over him and I felt my head drop into my hands. However, fortunately for Brawn, Red Bull had a rather shaky pitstop with Webber which released him into the path of Glock, who quickly dispatched the Australian.

Rosberg pitted which again took Jens up a place, and then after Kovalainen and Vettel entered the pits on lap 11, Jens was in the now unfamiliar place of P2! In case your wondering…..Rubens was P13.

This was now a crucial stage for Jenson. He had to push whilst maintaining his fragile tyres. Although he set personal bests initially, he quickly fell away and it looked as if he would be lucky to score even one point.

The championship leader took to the pit lane on lap 24 and took in 8.7 seconds of fuel and rejoined behind his team mate and right into the clutches of Fisichella. The Force India quickly passed Jens and was unfortunately heavier! I now thought that that was it….game over.

However,…..and this is a BIG however, on lap 26 Rubens overtook Vettel into turn one and the German then began to slide down the grid. Jenosn’s biggest title rival radioed his pits and reported a problem.

The young Red Bull man pitted straight away and took on a new nose and new tyres. His problem was front suspension failure after a first lap knock with Raikkonen.

Meanwhile, Trulli had pitted ahead of Jenson and rejoined ahead as well, but on the bright side, Fisichella pitted too and so released Jens who was now P9.

Vettel attempted one last lap, but was forced to retire on lap 30. This was the first bit of great news for Brawn GP as the current biggest threat was now out of the picture.

There was no time for celebrations though as Jenson suffered oversteer and his radio message took me back to the dark days of Honda 2008!

Unfortunately, I missed Rubens's pit stop as the cameras were concentrating on some highly interesting shots of Hamilton out front…unchallenged! All I can tell you is Rubens re-joined in P13.

So on the face of it, I suppose you could argue today was developing into a disaster for Brawn GP. However, Webber, who was now the biggest threat was struggling and had no chance of breaking higher than P3, and despite his troubles Jenson looked as if at least one point was possible.

With 27 laps left, Jenson’s tyres began to work for him and the Brawn man began to gather pace. Seven laps later, Jens was up to P8 and Rubens was up to P11.

With 15 laps to go, Jenson entered the pits for the last time and took on 5.7 seconds of fuel. He re-joined in P10 but with cars in front that still needed to pit.

In the crucial period of the race that followed, Jenson put in an excellent performance (which will no doubt go unreported), on the super softs and was able to pass Trulli to take a vital second point.

By this stage Jenson wasn’t going to get any higher, but he had done bloody well to get where he was! Rubens meanwhile was in P10 and for a while threatened Nakajima and Trulli for that last championship point.

In the end there wasn’t enough time and the Brawn man had to settle for P10.

So was this race as terrible as it could have been? That is easy….no. Vettel retired and Webber was blocked out of a top two finish. Yes the Red Bulls are eating away at the Brawn lead, but every point is crucial.

Remember the last two seasons have been won by just a point and as long as Jens keeps scoring, he’ll stay where he wants to be.

Hungary 2009 wasn’t a great race for Brawn GP, it wasn’t even a good one, but it certainly wasn’t a disaster. We go into this four week break now with Brawn and Jenson still leading, I don’t want to wish away the summer…….but bring on Valencia!