McLaren - Suspended 3 Race Ban

After their meeting with the World Motor Sport Council, the McLaren team have recieved a suspended 3 race ban in return for their behaviour in the "Liar-Gate" scandal from the opening grand prix of the season at Australia.

For those of you that dont know, the "Liar-Gate" affair stems from the final safety car period of the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was running in 3rd place ahead of the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. Under the teams orders, Hamilton pulled to the edge of the track and began to slow down, this let Trulli gain 3rd place. The Toyota team then got a penalty for overtaking under the safety car, McLaren didn't let the FIA know of the fact they let them past, and therefore withheld information allowing another team to lose points.

Once this was found out, Hamilton was disqualified from the race and Trulli was allowed to retain his 3rd place. The "suspended" 3 race ban means that they are allowed to continue to race unless more information relating to the incident is found, or if they infringe on the rules again during the season.

Bahrain GP Review

The Bahrain GP proved to be another race full of surprises, but unlike the previous three races, there was no sign of rain in this desert nation and there is rarely a safety car due to the long run-off areas.

Qualifying brought us another pole position holder in 2009. The first session proved to us how quickly the field are improving their cars. The Torro Rosso drivers were both knocked out in the first session having scored regular points in the previous races thanks mainly to the rookie Sebastien Buemi, they were also accompanied by the usual front runner Mark Webber who was held up by the Force India of Adrian Sutil at the final corner on his flying lap, and he didnt have time to do another. Sutil later got a 3 grid place penalty for this behaviour promoting Webber to 18th.

The Second Session delivered another hammer blow as Robert Kubica, who was fighting with Vettel for second place in Australia, only achieved 13th place closely followed by team mate Nick Heidfeld, other drivers knocked out included Nelson Piquet, who is being put under pressure by the team to perform, aswell as Kazuki Nakajima for Williams alongside the under-performing McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.

The Final Session proved unpredictable as the Brawns were not dominating as expected, the Ferraris seemed to have improved their car, managing to get 10th and 8th places, surrounding the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Hamilton made a breakthrough for McLaren getting 5th, the best qualifying place for the team so far this season. The Toyotas of Trulli and Glock locked out the front row, ahead for Vettel and the Brawn of Jenson Button. They were shown to be running light however once the pre-race weights had been released to the public.

The Race was action-packed from the very beginning, the KERS enabled car of Lewis Hamilton shot off the grid, as did that of Jenson Button, Hamilton got 3rd going into the first corner which pushed Vettel off line, allowing Jenson Button to gain 4th, and quickly 3rd after passing the McLaren. The grid quickly split into two seperate races as the back eight looked like they were driving bumper cars, instead of delicate F1 cars, this allowed Webber to gain some places after his disastrous qualifying. The two BMW also suffered aero damage from this which compromised their race.

The Toyotas looked in control until their first pit stops where they put on the harder tyres for a long middle stint, which proved significantly slower than the option tyre. This gave Button a couple of laps to make up some time and rejoin ahead of them after his stop. Glock dropped out of contention then and it was up to Vettel, Trulli and Hamilton to fight for the final podium positions. Ferrari scored their first points of the season after Raikkonen scored 3 points for 6th place, Massa had problems with his KERS system and finished in 14th. Alonso gained the finla points scoring position for 8th place.

The final points scoring drivers are as follows:

1. Jenson Button
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Jarno Trulli
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Rubens Barrichello
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Timo Glock
8. Fernando Alonso

This extends button lead to 12 points over team mate Barrichello, ahead of Vettel in third a further point behind

Australian GP Review.

The first race of the season is the first time the teams are able to really size each other up as each of the teams may not be driving to their full potential during pre-season testing.

Australia proved to us that the Brawn GP team was really a force to be reckoned with, having only been in existence for a couple of weeks prior to the maiden race of the season due to the liquidation of the Honda Racing team, they wowed onlookers in testing with fastest times in almost every session.

The main title contenders from 2008 however had a more difficult time getting to grips with things. I believe this is because they were busy trying to win the 2008 championships as opposed to developing their car for 2009 which many of the mid-field and back-marker teams had the time to do as they didnt need to worry about any championship battles.
With their impressive pace, the Brawns put both their cars on the front row of the grid, Sebastian Vettel and a surprisingly quick Robert Kubica were the closest to them, although they were a full 0.6 seconds off the pace of Jenson Button.

The start of the race proved an easy getaway for Button, which is more than can be said for his team mate, Rubens Barrichello suffered an apparent clutch problem at his initial getaway and fell far down the grid. He then managed to out-brake himself into turn 1 and hit the Red Bull of Mark Webber, who then continued into the side of Heikki Kovalainen along with other collisions further down the pack.

Button continued to pull away from the field without much difficulty, with Vettel having a secure second position, the rest of the field was left to fight it out for the remaining points positions. The crash of Kazuki Nakajima saw the field close back up again, and Nelson Piquet Jr. careered off the track after the restart having suffered a break failure. Lewis Hamilton proved impressive in an under-performing car and managed to climb into the points. A second safety car was required only a couple of laps from the end when the cars of Vettel and Kubica, in 2nd and 3rd places respectively, collided at turn 3, and then went on to hit the wall on the exit of turn 5. Vettel tried to continue the race and get points with his severely damaged car, but this earned him a fine for contravening the rules.

Controversy then followed after the race as the McLaren team allowed Trulli to pass for 3rd place while under the safety car, and claimed they were overtaken unfairly, they have now been requested to appear in front of the FIA to attempt to defend their actions. Hamilton was then disqualified and Trulli was allowed to claim his 3rd place.

The final points scorers were as follows:

1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello
3. Jarno Trulli
4. Timo Glock
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Sebastien Buemi
8. Sebastien Bourdais