8/04/2009
With diffusers rumbling in the background and liar ruminating their lies, Formula One did what it did best in Malaysia… racing (and complaining about the weather).
As in many a recent year the race was dominated with startlingly accurate rain forecasts that never quite got it right as Rosberg got away to first from the grid. Could the Williams finally show its potential this year? no.
Button was soon flipping around near the front after (it has to be said) some majestic driving as the first pit stops came.
Kovi managed to retain his crown as DC of 2009 by shunting off the first corner and Kubicas car was on fire before the race even began. Is that part of the grand BMW plan?
As the rain barely started to threaten to spittle down, Raikkonen came in for tyres – rumour has it that Schumacher, sitting on the pit wall, thought it was time he justified his post race salary and made him put on wet tyres.
Kimi lost 20sec per lap. Bad call Michael, think Ross used to do them whilst you just zipped around quick.
Then eventually the rain did come, and my did it piss down. The wooden plank on the cars was aquaplaning them like pedallos, and soon enough the race was stopped.
After a lot of argy bargy and Bernie not wanting the race to stay stopped as his media machine wanted to say the drove majestically through the rain it was decdied to stay stopped and everyone got half points.
button has yet to win a race not in safety car conditions.
But with this car, he’ll prob do that in China
4/04/2009
Hamilton and Massa must be properly good friends, alway looking out for each other. Whenever Hamilton is having a bad time in the press Massa does his best to shield his mate. He did so today by not getting his seeminlgy strong Ferrari past Q1 and ending up 16th on the grid.
Button went on to prove that BrawnGP didn’t just fluke Australia (unless the diffuser is deemed illegal, but that’s another story)
A couple of grid penalties affect the final grid, Vettel down ten places from his third position thanks to hugging Kubica in Australia, and Barricello down five from 4th due to a new gearbox.
The McLaren team never made it past Q2, as expected and Beumi let his frustration known to the world as he went out despite on the way to posting a Q1 busting time.
No rain happened as feared and the Toyota’s continued their good-looking pace finishing a net 2nd/3rd.
The three world champions on the grid didn’t bother the top six, with kimi 8th, Alonso 9th and Hamilton down in 12th
GRID POSITIONS
Pos Driver Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Button
(Brawn-GP) 1:35.058 1:33.784 1:35.181
2. Trulli
(Toyota) 1:34.745 1:33.990 1:35.273
3. Glock
(Toyota) 1:34.907 1:34.258 1:35.690
4. Rosberg
(Williams) 1:35.083 1:34.547 1:35.750
5. Webber
(Red Bull) 1:35.027 1:34.222 1:35.797
6. Barrichello*
(Brawn-GP) 1:34.681 1:34.387 1:35.651
7. Kubica
(BMW-Sauber) 1:35.166 1:34.562 1:36.106
8. Raikkonen
(Ferrari) 1:35.476 1:34.456 1:36.170
9. Alonso
(Renault) 1:35.260 1:34.706 1:37.659
10. Heidfeld
(BMW-Sauber) 1:35.110 1:34.769
11. Nakajima
(Williams) 1:35.341 1:34.788
12. Hamilton
(McLaren) 1:35.280 1:34.905
13. Vettel**
(Red Bull) 1:34.935 1:34.276 1:35.518
14. Kovalainen
(McLaren) 1:35.023 1:34.924
15. Bourdais
(Toro Rosso) 1:35.507 1:35.431
16. Massa
(Ferrari) 1:35.642
17. Piquet
(Renault) 1:35.708
18. Fisichella
(Force India) 1:35.908
19. Sutil
(Force India) 1:35.951
20. Buemi
(Toro Rosso) 1:36.107
* demoted 5 places for gearbox change
** demoted 10 places for thwacking Kubica in Australia
3/04/2009
I must confess to not watching this session live thanks to going to do a gig in a titty bar but it seems as though a pattern might be forming as the Williams team took a 1-2 in practice again.
With the BrawnGP team taking 3rd and 4th, the new world order looks set to remain for now.
The talk of the dry session (aside from radiogate) was that something went awry in Kimi’s KERS (pronounced KERS) system, causing him to race back to the pits and then jump out of the car as it billowed with a scary smelly noxious smoke that then went on to linger in the pits for ages.
Maybe Bert and Ernie could use this smoe as a new rule, like a wacky races style smokescreen?
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:36.260 27
2. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:36.305 + 0.045 25
3. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:36.430 + 0.170 20
4. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes 1:36.487 + 0.227 22
5. Massa Ferrari 1:36.561 + 0.301 21
6. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.646 + 0.386 18
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.699 + 0.439 16
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:36.703 + 0.443 23
9. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:36.747 + 0.487 25
10. Glock Toyota 1:36.980 + 0.720 27
11. Trulli Toyota 1:36.982 + 0.722 26
12. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 1:37.025 + 0.765 20
13. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:37.039 + 0.779 18
14. Piquet Renault 1:37.199 + 0.939 20
15. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:37.241 + 0.981 18
16. Alonso Renault 1:37.395 + 1.135 12
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:37.634 + 1.374 22
18. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:37.640 + 1.380 17
19. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.022 + 1.762 19
20. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.483 + 2.223 7
1/04/2009
2009 Australian Grand Prix
The season has finally begun. Kevin and Terry travelled at silly o-clock in the morning to watch the race in a certain pub in Guildford, with slightly less glory anticipated than the last time they were there.
Jenson Button has now officially ruined one of Terry’s jokes, the Brawn team have officially made a joke of the rest of the paddock and Barrichello comes second despite fucking up everything at every available opportunity.
We discuss how Massa is falling foul of the new ‘open radio’ rules and how Piquet Jr needs to learn how to lie better as anotherf1podcast.com discusses, dissects and devalues the Australian Grand Prix…
30/03/2009
With Jenson Button winning his second race then his arch-rival and nemesis (me), only three days his senior has to reluctantly retire a joke.
I first used it in my 2006 Edinburgh show “Pulp Boy” when talking about my jealousy of Jenson Button, being three days younger than me but being an F1 driver (my childhood dream) and being pretty successful (at the time). I was originally just slagging him off saying he hadn’t won any races.
Then in that very month of August when I was in Edinburgh he went and bloody won the hungarian grand prix.
the joke was born.
Last year I got to do some funny bits on the BBC Radio 5live coverage of the races – and for my debut I used the following joke:
Hello, my name is Terry Saunders. I’m a standup comedian, I’m three days older than Jenson Button and have won one less race than him.
I went on to use a similar joke in my Radio 4 comedy thing “Dad Designs” and have used it many times in gigs.
But now button has gone and ruined my life again. Yes I could just change it to two races instead of one. But it’s not as funny. And by the looks of it, by midseason I’ll have to say “significantly less races than him”.
So, as BrawnGP announce a lot of job cuts thanks to the credit crunch, I am hereby announcing that thanks to the BrawnGP team’s success I am having to make this joke redundant.
A minutes silence would be nice (after all, that’s what I got from audiences sometimes when telling it – Boom!)
30/03/2009
 Button only went and bloody won the season opener, thereby making most of the pisstaking that this website/podcast has ever done utterly defunct, nay even foolish. Not that that will stop us. Read on for full race report and results
Read the rest of this article »
28/03/2009
Crikey. Jenson Button is on Pole for the Australian Grand Prix, in a 1-2 for the resurrected Honda team in what would be unbelievable only weeks ago is still barely believable now.
Tearing Richard Branson’s newly paid for hymen right off and magically playing swapsies Button had kept the back end of the grid warm for Hamilton who barely made it out of Q1.
The Williams did well, but not blisteringly so…
Read the rest of this article »
28/03/2009
Williams? Will they?
They’ve won the championship many-a-time, but the last few years have been a touch old slog for Sir Frank and his team.
Anyone over nine years old with a love of formula one wants them to do well, and every season one can’t help begin hoping that they’re going to be back.
And after topping all three practice sessions one can’t help but wonder, will they?
Showboating seems more and more unlikely as the form book is getting properly torn up.
Only one of the top 6 wasn’t one of the iffy-diffuser teams and McLaren carried on looking very ordinary in 11th and 12th. BMW-Sauber are still underwhelming
There is one bit of consistency to relax us older hearts… Red Bull are still disappointing.
Read the rest of this article »
27/03/2009
Not just content with being in the F1 testing times stratosphere, but maybe the BrawnGP team is about to get even more futuristic.
There’s a lot of rumours that Richard Branson is in Melbourne tomorrow to announce Virgin being principle sponsor of BrawnGP.
But Branson is also in the news announcing his Virgin Galactic space flight stuff.
maybe Brawn is going Galactic?
27/03/2009
Bless the BBC, they’ve not yet played The Chain but they’re doing well already, showing the practice on the red button and using the five live sports extra commentary.
And as the cars tentatively peeled out of the pits for the first time proper this year, we at anotherf1podcast can confirm they look daft.
Read the rest of this article »
|