Jenson Button celebrates his victory in style

The overall race was won by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, just ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, last year’s Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in fourth, just ahead of Button. Raikkonen had to make a few crucial changes to his car and strategy during the race but was still able to finish sixth, Sebastien Buemi finished seventh ahead of a dejected Barrichello in eighth, Heikki Kovalainen finished ninth, but this could change once the investigations are finished, while Kobayashi had a great first showing for Toyota with a tenth place finish.

The race from the start was a chaotic affair as heading into the first corner we had our first indication of what was to come as Kimi Raikkonen and Adrian Sutil touched wheels. Coming out of the bend in the track Sebastian Vettel collided with Heikki Kovalainen, which forced Kovalainen to spin into Giancarlo Fisichella way and force him onto the grass to avoid a full speed collision. A little further down the track Jarno Trulli lost control of his car in the straight stretch and took Adrian Sutil off his racing line with him. Sutil lost control of his car and as it came back onto the track after spinning off, he appeared in front of Fernando Alonzo, who had no where to go but into Sutil. The safety car had to be brought onto the track as the debris left on the track by the crash was removed. Jenson was able to make his way through all of this and the remainder of the chaos on this day and finish fifth, a remarkable achievement considering the facts.

Jenson’s fifth place finish is also notable for three other reasons. First, besides guaranteeing him the 2009 Formula One drivers crown and Brawn the constructors crown, his fifth place finish also makes him the tenth British Formula One champion. Second, it makes him in combination with Lewis Hamilton the first back to back British Formula One champions in history. Third, it makes Brawn a truly historical team by winning the Formula One constructors championship on their first try.

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Button clinches Formula One Championship

Robert Kubica contemplates a less than successful German Grand Prix

After receiving a drive-through penalty for a brush off the start line, Red Bull’s Webber stayed behind Brawn’s Reubens Barrichello and shadowed him until he made a fuel stop on Lap 14 and then he was in the lead again. He lost the lead again on Lap 19, but by Lap 33 he was back in front of the pack after all the front runners made stops and after that he was just the fastest on the track.

The day also belonged to Sebastian Vettel who made it a really good day for Red Bull despite being totally eclipsed by his teammate by beating the other racers to the line to grab Red Bull’s third one-two victory of the season with a second place finish. Felipe Massa drove fast and skillfully all day for Ferrari and beat Nico Rosberg to the line to take third. Nico Rosberg actually had a superb day and showed flashes of brilliance and deserved a strong fourth place finish.

Brawn’s drivers Jenson Button and Reubens Barrichello started strong before falling back over a long race and finished fifth and sixth. Fernando Alonso ran the fastest lap in his Renault and hounded Button and Barrichello all the way to the line to take seventh. If there had been a few more laps he might have been in front of the Brawn drivers as he was looking fast near the end. The final point in the championship drivers race went to Kovalainen as he managed to hang on to grab a point for McLaren with a host of drivers on his heels that included Toyota’s Timo Glock and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

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Mark Webber Wins German Grand Prix

German Grand Prix is this Sunday

The Nurburgring circuit has a reputation for being one of the best all around tests of the Formula One season for the cars and drivers. It has wide variety of corners, including high-speed areas, medium-speed chicanes, and a few very slow corners that demand the cars have good traction to navigate through them. To race and win at this track requires the best from both car and driver and tomorrow’s German Grand Prix will tell us a lot about the rest of the 2009 Formula One season.

Saturday’s qualifying round for the German Grand Prix was an up and down affair that saw the weather play a major part in determining the final grid standing for the Sunday’s race. Mark Webber grabbed his first pole position of the 2009 Formula One season amid changing weather that contributed to his time of 1:32:230 seconds. Reubens Barrichello waited to the final lap to post a 1:32:357 and take second position on the grid for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. Jenson Button ran a 1:32:473 to start third tomorrow, while Sebastian Vettel took fourth in a time of 1:32:480. Lewis Hamilton will start fifth, Heikki Kovalainen sixth, while Adrian Sutil had a surprising day for Force India by posting the seventh best qualifying time.

The German Grand Prix will start about 14:00 hour’s German time, so you have a little time to find a channel in your area that will be showing the race.

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German Grand Prix Tomorrow

Sebastian Vettel wins the British Grand Prix

What many industry proponents considered to be already written in stone became etched in the annals of Formula One history as Sebastian Vettel launched his Red Bull RB5 off the start line and into the front of the pack of the British Grand Prix and never look back. In a crushing display of driving excellence and technological dominance on fast tracks, Vettel showed just how much of a leap forward the Milton Keynes team has made on high-speed tracks. He was able to quickly pull away from a field that was lead by Rubens Barrichello, gaining a large-second on the field for each lap he completed, and was never really pushed from behind.

Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber had trouble getting through the pack at first, but once he was able to get in front after the first round of stops, he too was able to keep his car in front. He tried to catch up to Vettel after that, but was only able to get to within 15.1s of his team mate by the time the chequered flat fell.

Reubens Barrichello eventually finished third, 26 seconds behind Vettel, and just ahead of the reigning world champion, Jenson Button. Button was starting to make progress in the later part of the race, his tires finally reaching racing temperature, and by the end of the race he had only lost three points off of his 26 point lead in the running for the world championship.

Trulli had a pretty strong race and was able to finish seventh in his Toyota, while Raikkonen was able to stay ahead of his Italian team mate Timo Glock for eighth. Giancarlo Fisichella was able to get some fighting-points for Force India by taking tenth place, but they have along way to go to compete.

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Sebastian Vettel Wins British Grand Prix

Jenson kept the hammer down through out most of the race and managed to build up a lead of 20 seconds to his closest competitor but eased off in the later part of the race to protect the win and eventually finishing 6.7 seconds ahead of Red Bull racer Mark Webber. The smile on his race as he crossed the finish line could probably light a bulb and who could blame him after beating his competition on an afternoon where he was barely threatened.

Vettel managed to work his way back up to third and was just behind Webber at the end of the race and eventually to finish just 0.7 seconds behind Webber. In the end his three stop strategy didn’t work and was an error that allowed Webber to use his two stop strategy to take second place. Certainly a disappointing race in some ways for Vettel but he still managed to reach and podium and can hold his head high.

Jarno Trulli and Nico Rosberg battled through most of the Turkish Grand Prix for fourth place but in the end Trulli managed to get in front of Rosberg and beat him across the line. Felipe Massa probably came into the race with expectations of achieving his fourth straight victory in Turkey but it quickly became clear these expectations were beyond his cars reach and he had to settle for sixth place.

The Santander British Grand Prix is the next race on the Formula One calendar and we can expect to witness amazing feats of driving skill at this venue. The action begins with practice runs on Friday the 19^th of June, but all the times and days are listed below for you to make a note of the time.

F1 TIMETABLE

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Jenson Button Wins the Turkish Grand Prix