The
2009 Santander British Grand Prix was the
eighth race of the
2009 Formula
One season.
It was held on 21 June 2009 at Silverstone
Circuit
in Northamptonshire
, England
.
This is
scheduled to be the last British Grand Prix to be held at
Silverstone, before the event moves to Donington Park
for the 2010
season. The race was won by
Sebastian Vettel, who started on pole, with
championship leader
Jenson Button
finishing in sixth position.
Report
Background
Home
driver Jenson Button led the Drivers'
Championship by 26 points from Brawn
team-mate
Rubens Barrichello.
Barrichello was 8 points clear of
Red
Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who
lay 1.5 points ahead of team-mate
Mark
Webber.
Ross Brawn's team
led the
Constructors' Championship by 39.5 points from Red Bull Racing and a further 24 points
ahead of Japanese
manufacturer Toyota.
Home
favourite and eventual World Champion Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 British Grand Prix for McLaren
.
As well as
Hamilton, the British Grand
Prix
has a history of native success. Down the
years these include wins for
David
Coulthard,
Johnny Herbert,
Damon Hill,
Nigel Mansell,
John Watson,
James Hunt,
Jackie
Stewart,
Jim Clark and
Stirling Moss.
Britain
will be represented this year by Hamilton and
Jenson Button.
Due to the continuing political dispute between the Formula 1 Teams
Association (FOTA) and the FIA and Formula 1 Management (FOM),
there was talk that the teams against the proposed 2010 season
budget cap will not compete in the
2010 season.
Other
former British GP winners in the field were Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen, Renault's
Fernando Alonso and
Brawn
GP
driver Rubens
Barrichello.
Practice and qualifying
Sebastian Vettel was fastest in
both the first and second practice sessions, with
Mark Webber coming second in both. The last
session saw
Nico Rosberg top the time
charts.
Qualifying began in some of the coolest conditions experienced all
year, with an air temperature of just sixteen degrees Celsius. The
session was mostly dominated by the Red Bull drivers, until a late
flying lap by
Kazuki Nakajima saw
him fastest by a tenth of a second. The session ended prematurely
in the final minute when
Adrian Sutil
crashed heavily at Abbey, forcing reigning World Champion
Lewis Hamilton to abort his final lap and
leaving him nineteenth with
Giancarlo Fisichella,
Sébastien Bourdais, Sutil and
Sébastien Buemi also
eliminated. Sutil's accident was later found to have been a result
of brake failure.
The second session did not begin until the remains of Sutil's car
were removed from the circuit, with track conditions remaining
constant and Red Bull continuing their pace, with
Mark Webber remaining unchallenged for most of
the session with team-mate
Sebastian
Vettel only out-pacing him on his final run. Championship
leader
Jenson Button only narrowly
missed elimination, setting the eight-fastest time at the end of
the session when he had previously been sitting eleventh.
Felipe Massa,
Robert
Kubica,
Heikki Kovalainen,
Nelson Piquet, Jr. and
Nick Heidfeld were all eliminated.
The third and final session saw most of the cars switching to the
softer option tyre. Sebastian Vettel took pole from Rubens
Barrichello, with Webber third. Button qualified sixth - his worst
of the season - after Nakajima found some of his first-session pace
to steal fifth place out from under him, resulting in his
career-best qualifying position. When the weights of each car was
published post-qualifying, it emerged that Vettel was 9 kg
heavier than the Brawn of Barrichello and 7 kg heavier than
team-mate Webber. After qualifying, it was announced that
BMW Sauber would be abandoning their KERS program
for good.
Race
Vettel and Red Bull dominated the Grand Prix, with the young German
driving away from the field from Pole Position, often pulling away
from Barrichello at the rate of one second per lap.
It was a good day for the Red Bull drivers from the moment the
lights went out, with Championship rival Button dropping down to
ninth position at the end of the first lap after a poor start.
Fellow home driver Hamilton was having more success, albeit from
18th on the grid, gaining four positions in the first two laps. The
mixed-up race order was perhaps reflective of the season as a
whole, with the only World Champions in the field - Raikkonen,
Alonso and Hamilton - at one point battling for 13th, 14th and 15th
positions.
At the front of the race while Vettel was setting fastest laps,
team-mate Mark Webber was unable to pass Rubens Barrichello for
second position until the Brazilian pitted on lap 20. Webber pitted
a lap later but produced a good enough in-lap to emerge from the
pits ahead of Barrichello. Nico Rosberg also benefited from the pit
stops, emerging in fourth position, ahead of Felipe Massa.
Hamilton's eventful race at the back of the field continued,
running off track on several occasions. He was able to pass
team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen who
had just emerged from the pits on lap 34. The following
Sebastian Bourdais attempted a similar
manoeuver at the Abbey chicane, however the Torro Rosso driver was
less successful, colliding with the Finn and causing both cars to
retire.
At the second round of pit-stops, Button was able to take advantage
of a long middle stint to move ahead of Raikkonen and Trulli and up
to sixth position, behind Massa, who had in=turn leap-frogged
Rosberg for fourth. Button was on the faster tyre compound and
pressured both cars until the finish, but was unable to pass
Rosberg despite being just 0.3 seconds behind the German at the
start of the last lap. Rosberg was himself just 0.8 seconds behind
Massa.
As Vettel took the chequered flag, he was 15.1 seconds ahead of
team-mate Webber, who was a further 25.9 seconds ahead of
Barrichello . Jarno Trulli finished in 7th ahead of Raikkonen, who
had to endure late pressure from Trulli's teammate Timo Glock.
Hamilton finished a lowly 16th.
Post-race
The combination of the fast sweeping circuit suiting the updated
Red Bull RB5 and cold conditions hampering the Brawn produced what
was a disappointing result for pace-setting Brawn. Button's
Championship lead was reduced to a, still substantial championship,
lead of 23 points over Barrichello, who was now just 2 points ahead
of Vettel. Webber was a further 3.5 points behind, while Brawn's
Constructors Championship lead was also cut.
Red Bull's
Christian Horner
declared his team could mount a serious title challenge following
the successful showing of their updated car, claiming it should be
quick on the remaining circuits. Vettel declared his car to be
"fantastic" while Mark Webber praised the team but admitted a
mistake in Qualifying cost him any chance of winning. Button
dismissed talk of Red Bull now having a sizeable advantage, saying
Brawn looked wearer than they were because of the cool
conditions.
There were contrasting emotions for 2008 Title Contenders Felipe
Massa and Lewis Hamilton, Massa describing his race from 11th to
4th as good as winning the race while Hamilton said he was pushing
his hardest despite finishing 16th.
Away from the track action, the talk of the paddock was the threat
of a breakaway series, with FIA President
Max
Mosley confident of a solution to the dispute.
Commercial rights
holder Bernie Ecclestone admitted
for the first time the British Grand Prix would be returning to
Silverstone if Donnington
Park
was unable to host the 2010 event.
Classification
Cars that used KERS are
marked with "‡"
Qualifying
Race
Notes
- Lap Leaders: Sebastian Vettel 57 (1-44, 48-60), Mark Webber 3 (45-47)
- This race was Sebastian Vettel's first Formula One "hat trick"
(pole position, win and fastest lap).
Standings after the race
- Drivers' Championship standings
- Constructors' Championship standings
- Note: Only the top five positions are
included for both sets of standings.
References
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8110915.stm
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8111672.stm
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8111672.stm
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8111909.stm
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8111162.stm
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8110859.stm
External links