Jenson Button: Officially F1's Luckiest Man in Spa!

Well I suppose as a Brawn fan that was a very strange race! It was appalling for Jenson who only completed four corners, but on the other hand despite a terrible start from Rubens, the Brazilian excitingly fought his was back up to grid for a well earned P7.

A great win from Raikkonen and a phenomenal P2 for Fisichella meant that Vettel could only manage P3, whilst his Red Bull team mate stayed P9. So at a track that Red Bull were meant to obliterate the opposition, to finish with only one car in the points was actually terrible news for the title challengers. Jenson Button at this moment in time seems to be the luckiest man in F1!

There were issues for Jens before the race even started when a late radio change led to the Brit having to join the grid late. Jenson was clearly flustered and locked his tyres in a very strange part of the track on his way to the start.

On to the start itself then, and I was worried about Kovalainen’s KERS behind Jens. Both Brawns had to make great starts to finish well, but the pressure was probably more on Rubens who had a little sniff (admittedly a very unlikely sniff) of P1 if all went well!

As the lights went off Rubens went nowhere! Oh no! his anti stall had kicked in and the Brazilian had to simply watch as his competitors glided past. Jenson on the other hand had a fantastic start and although he went wide into turn one, made up at least four places!

It all came apart for Jens though when after making a move on Kovalainen into turn four the Championship leader was knocked by a late breaking Grosjean. The Brawn and Renault were out, Unfortunately Hamilton and Alguersari also joined the early finishers when they got caught up in the crash fall out.

The safety car was out and Rubens was down in P15 (having stopped for more fuel and fresh tyres) with both Red Bulls up in the points. The remaining Brawn man was told to hurry up on lap three and put pressure on Badoer on the re-start.

When the race began again Raikkonen (who had had a fantastic start and was now second), used his magic button to full affect and passed Fisichella to take the lead. Rubens quickly passed both Trulli and Badoer after a great re-start and things began to look up for the Brawn team. The Brazilian put a great manoeuvre over on Badoer at the end of lap five to take P13, however by lap 6 he was now 15.496 seconds off the lead.

Undeterred by this fact Rubens pushed on and quickly dispatched Nakajima for P12. By lap 16 Rubens was P12, Webber was in P5 and Vettel was in P7. One lap later Raikkonen, Fisichella, Webber and Heidfeld all pitted. Raikkonen won the mini pit race with Fisi but the real action came from the Red Bull pit box.

Webber was released right into the path of Heidfeld and although the German quickly re-took Webber out on track the stewards were straight on the case and issued Webber with a drive through penalty.

Meanwhile, amongst all this drama, Vettel had gained P1 through the pit stops. Rubens managed to get passed Webber on lap 15 and all this must have been music to the ears of Jenson. The only downside was Vettel’s excellent performance. The German pitted on lap 15 and re-joined in a very encouraging P8 (Rubens was P10).

It was around this stage in the race that we learnt that Jenson, along with the other three early finishers were going to be investigated by the stewards after the race. It was a strange decision as really the only people who could be penalised are the two rookies, but neither of them were particularly in the wrong...it was simply a racing incident.

By lap 18, Webber had done his drive through and was pretty much out of the race in P13 and under extreme pressure from Nakajima. Webber only escaped being overtaken by his Japanese opponents lack of confidence in his overtaking ability.

Rubens had worked his way up to P9 and Fisi was very much keeping Raikkonen honest! Vettel meanwhile was being held up by Buemi, but when the Swiss driver pitted with 23 laps left, Vettel was released to show Red Bulls' raw speed. P3 was looking more and more likely for the young German now.

At the half way point Rubens was into the points in P8 thanks to some pit stops, Vettel was P6 and Webber was in P12. Alonso pitted from P3 on lap 24 but was held up for 35 seconds when a problem caused at the very first corner at the start of the race meant that the front left spinner couldn’t be fitted properly. The Spaniard retired soon after which gave Vettel another place!

Rubens pitted from P7 with 18 laps to go for his second and final stop. He took on 7.7 seconds of fuel and re-joined in P11. Webber had gained P8 with all the pit stops that were happening but the Australian still had to stop again so that point he was clinging onto looked unlikely to stay his.

Kubica, who was in P3 stopped with 14 laps remaining which basically gave Vettel P3; (though the young German still had to do some great in laps). Vettel’s pace showed the true potential that Red Bull had this weekend, which I believe only reinforces just how poor a P3 and P9 result actually is for their title hopes. Rubens was P10 at this stage but after stops in front of him, he got up to P7 where he would remain for the rest of the race.

Vettel stopped and re-joined in P3 and despite a hard push from Webber, he could only hold P9. Rubens looked as if he might take an extra point from Kovalainen right at the end until an oil leak, (which led to a lot of smoke coming from the back of car 23) meant that the Brazilian had to back off. Rubes nursed his car to a well fought P7.

Raikkonen won a pretty exciting race but my driver of the day has to be Fisichella. As for the Championship? Well actually I think it is hard to think how much better this race could have gone for Jens. Starting from P14, he was unlikely to finish much higher than P7, if he’s going to fail to score points anywhere it might as well be at a track he was going to be weak on, and his main challengers all failed to capitalise on his misfortune.

If you ask me the big losers of this race were Red Bull and to an extent Rubens. Vettel and Webber were on paper meant to destroy the pack today and to finish where they did was awful. Rubens did well to fight back up the pack but starting from P4 and finishing P7 wasn’t that great.

As I said yesterday, I think Jenson truly is a lucky bugger! Still, he’ll need to really change his approach if he wants to win this season. Fingers crossed Monza will produce a better Brawn result!

Driver’s title

Jenson: 72

Rubens: 56

Vettel: 53

Constructors Championship

Brawn GP: 128

Red Bull: 104.5

Ferrari: 56