Seasons of Discontent

In what was easily the most exciting GP of the season, Mark Webber won easily for just his second career victory.  But that career mark was far overshadowed by Jenson Button and Brawn GP clinching both the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship, respectively.

Fairly self-explanatory.

It is no secret that I am a huge Mark Webber fan, so it is great to see him win, but I was really pulling for Reubens Barrichello of Brasil, the other Brawn GP driver.  Unfortunately, Barrichello just couldn’t quite get his Brawn car to cooperate and finished 8th.  Robert Kubica of BMW-Sauber came in 2nd and Lewis Hamilton came up from starting 17th to finish 3rd.  On a sidenote, I have decided that every F1 post of mine needs a Mark Webber picture, so here it is.  Enjoy.

Ahh...

Back to the race…it race started in spectacular fashion with Button jumping from 14th to 9th after various collisions in front of him, including one between Adrian Sutil and Jarno Trulli which ended in Trulli rushing out of his car in a NASCAR-esq style to confront Sutil.  The incident was investigated after the race and after viewing the race video and telemetry data obtained from the cars, the race stewards labeled the crash as “a racing incident.”  So, according to the stewards, Sutil didn’t do anything wrong and Trulli was the one who was actually punished for the incident.  It was determined that Trulli violated Article 151(c) of the FIA International Sporting Code by “failing to leave the track as required by the marshals immediately after the incident and aggressively confronting Sutil.”  Apparently Article 151(c) is the basic catchall provision that lets F1 head honcho Bernie Eckelston and FIA do whatever the hell they want and punish “any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.”  For his outburst, Trulli was formally reprimanded and fined $10,000.

Angry Italians point a lot.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen had to pit after the first lap due to damage he sustained during some contact at the start of the race.  Kovalainen pulled his car away from the pit in a hurry to get out ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, unfortunately the fuel hose was still attached to Kovalainen’s car and the hose was ripped from the pits and sprayed fuel all over the pit lane and Raikkonen.  The fuel ignited around Raikkonen’s Ferrari in spectacular form, but quickly burned out and luckily no one was hurt.  McLaren ended up being fined $50,000 for the mess and Kovalainen was given a 25 second penalty.

The break out driver of the day was rookie Kamui Kobayashi (not to be confused with the hot-dog eating Kobayashki – but might make for an interesting arm-wrestling matchup) who gave Button quite a hard time for a bit and proved to be a pretty ballsy driver finishing in 10th.  Depending on how well he does in Abu Dhabi we may see him driving next year.

Classy.

Overall, the race featured far more overtaking and vital pit crew timing than most of the races this year.  Hopefully, the upcoming rule changes will make this type of exciting racing the norm for next year.  One of the most exciting of these changes  is that drivers will be unable to refuel during races.  Should make for some interesting changes.

While the race didn’t turn out how I would have liked and it makes for an anticlimactic final race of the year, it was great to hear Button singing “We are the champions, my friends” over the radio once he secured the championship.  Button summed it up himself saying, “It’s great to be sat here as the world champion, and personally I feel that I deserve it. I was the best over 16 races and that’s what world champions are. I am it. I am a world champion! And I’m gonna keep saying it all night!”  (Yes, “great to be sat here.”  Maybe a British thing, maybe an adrenalin thing).

I think he's happy.

In typical fashion, Brazil was a great GP.  Abu Dhabi will be a new race, the first day-night F1 race ever, so it has that going for it, but all in all, I predict it will be somewhat “blah” ending as both championships have been decided.  On the other hand, teams will be trying out new “kit” (components) for next year’s cars.  Maybe his royal highness Bernie will realize that Brazil should always be the final GP of the year…here’s to wishful thinking.

Tags: F1, Sexy Euro Cars