Piczo

The best place to qualify well is monaco and Kimi so close to pole, unfortunately here the run down to the first corner is rather short so the kers will not really make any difference here.

Also worth a mention is Hamiltons mistake just shows that all drivers can make mistakes like Kimi last year. I found it quite surprising when he apologied to the team for 'wasting there time', i just smiled =).

A good race, having Kimi up there kept me more awake anyway. A mistake in the pits cost him any chance of getting back at barrichello for 2nd, a detail missed on BBC commentary. Good that Massa was behind giving ferrari a healthy 11 points.

Brawns dominance continues however and they are just looking stronger and stronger for the title. You have to give it to them, they have done a fantastic job over the time they had. Look at teams like BMW and Toyota(I think) who also spent along time developing there 2009 car and they have not found anything like what Brawn have. Brawn have just been so professional, not making stupid errors either which make there success even greater.

Why wasn't it better to risk going out later when the track was better, like BMW tried several times last year? With the grid being so close if i was team manager I would risk going out right at the latter end of the session.

The pace really not with Ferrari at the moment and now without KERS either they are struggling, it won't be until spain when they get the new diffuser onto the car.

Another challenging race, more positives to come from this weekend than others in that Kimi finished the race and although wasn't quick the car stayed on the track.

Times are as follows
* - Penalties 1:35.95

1	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:35.18
2	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:35.27
3	*Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:35.52
4	*Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:35.65
5	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:35.69
6	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:35.75
7	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:35.80
8	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:36.11
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:36.17
10	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:37.66
11	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:34.77
12	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:34.78
13	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.90
14	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.92
15	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:34.43
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.64
17	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:35.71
18	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	1:35.91
19	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes
20	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:36.11

The race was all about waiting for the rain and anticipating when it was going to fall, unfortunately for Kimi they gambled on it way too early. He ended up way out of contention for points and then went back to the garage for some ice-cream!

GP results:

1	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes
2	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+22.7
3	Timo Glock	Toyota	+23.5
4	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	+46.1
5	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	+47.3s
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+52.3
7	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+60.7
8	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+71.5
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+76.9
10	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+102.16
11	Fernando Alonso	Renault	+109.42
12	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+116.13
13	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	+116.71
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+142.84
15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	Spin
16	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	Spin
17	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	+1 Lap
18	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	Spin
19	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	Engine
20	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	Spin

Ferrari wasn't as strong as expected, the picture is quite clear that on this circuit over a single lap the Brawn GP cars are clearly much quicker, then there is a gap to the next bunch including Red Bull, Toyota, BMW, Williams and Ferrari and then Behind them are Renault, Mclaren, Toro Rosso and Force India. Weather this pattern will continue in the race will be interesting also next week at Malaysia.

As for Kimi and Ferrari they face a tough battle tomorrow but for the rest of the season it depends on what happens with this diffuser row. I expect it to be thrown out agian and for these results to be finalised. It's then just a matter of time before the rest of the teams follow. If it's worth almost half a second it could potentially put Ferrari back up to the fore-front but it depends if it will fit in with the rest of the F60 package only time will tell.

As of 2009 the fuel loads which the teams use in Q3 are revealed by the FIA in which Button and Barrichello had 22 and 23 laps in there cars compared to Ferraris 18 for Massa and 19 for Kimi which is not good. Realistically for tomorrow a podium is the maximum that Kimi will be aiming for, but then again this is F1 and anything can happen.

Post Race: Trulli initially given 25 second penalty which was later thorwn out due to Lewis hiding the truth to which he was disqualified. Trulli remains in 3rd place.

Times are as follows (Toyota disqualified for flexing rear wings!)

1	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:26.202
2	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:26.505
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:26.830
4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:26.914
5	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:26.973
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:27.033
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:27.163
8	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:27.246
9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:25.504
10	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:25.605
11	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:25.607
12	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.726
13	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:26.503
14	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:26.598
15	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.677
16	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.742
17	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:26.964
18	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	-
19	Timo Glock	Toyota	DSQ
20	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	DSQ

A good race in terms of action Barrichello's poor start causing some first corner chaos, which obviously with these bigger front wings it was too easy to lose it. It was an exciting start with the soft tyres and being easier to pass. The Ferrari's looked super agressive but as the soft tyres went out after only 10 to 12 laps it was a compromise.

The Ferrari was definitly up there with BMW, Red Bull and Toyota as in qualifying. The Accident between Vettel and Kubica was completely unnessercery in my opinion vettel slightly more in the wrong. In F1 you have to think so quickly in the heat of the moment and as we have seen so many times before the moment gets the better of the driver.

GP results:

1	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes
2	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	+0.8s
3	Timo Glock	Toyota	+4.4
4	Fernando Alonso	Renault	+4.8
5	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+5.7
6	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+6.0
7	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	+6.2
8	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	+6.3s
9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+7.0
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	+7.3s
11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	+26.6
12	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+1 Lap
13	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	+ 3 Laps
14	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	+3 Laps
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+3 Laps
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+13 Laps
17	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	+34 Laps
18	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+41 Laps
19	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	+58 Laps
20	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	DSQ

It's great to see that there will be 10 teams on the grid next year, I don't know how much this has set back as they will have missed a few tests so they are unlikely to be as competitive as they could have been. Honda always said that 2009 was going to be the year they focused on so thats why it was a surprise when they pulled out last year.

The Brawn GP will be powered by Mercedes engine and both Honda drivers have kept thier seats. The team had help from the FIA, FOM to keep them on the grid. Honda did have 700 employees in the Brackley factory but this number is expected to be cut.

http://corp.brp.com/en-CA/Media.Center/Whats.New/1/20090226.htm

The new Ferrari looks completely different due to the new rule changes, might take a little getting used to but still as ever with car launches I'm optimistic for the new season. Felipe was the first to run the new car while Kimi was watching from the sideline, which im sure he was thrilled to be doing! The new Ferrari certainly got the usual catalogue of Images, see more here.