Rosberg and Kovalainen top practices on Friday – 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

Rosberg and Kovalainen topped Friday’s practices at the Turkish Grand Prix.

After a first session in which all drivers struggled for grip was briefly red flagged – due to the astro turf being ripped up – Rosberg pipped Hamilton to first place in the dying moments of the session. In the second practice, Kovalainen took first place. Many drivers span during both sessions. Hamilton said that the pace of the McLaren car was “better… than we anticipated”, and a second and a first seem to confirm that view. Meanwhile, championship leader Button was far from happy, complaining about oversteer, twitchiness, rear grip, front grip and hopping. Quite a lot to sort out then? Red Bull will be hoping that their car will do well, possibly in readiness to try to beat Brawn. Although they used the new double-decker diffuser at Monaco, it will be more effective here – meaning that, with Brawn struggling, Red Bull may get a chance to win.

This is the fifth race held in Turkey, and all four previous races have been run from pole position, and by Ferrari. The previous three races have been won by Felipe Massa, but I will be shocked if Ferrari win this race. Although they have made improvements, for roar pace they still seem to be behind both Brawn and Red Bull. We’ll have to see how much they have improved here.

Will it be another Brawn win – or can another team beat them? We’ll find out on Sunday.

Barrichello and Rosberg take practice sessions – 2009 Monaco Grand Prix

So, after today’s practice sessions at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, what can we tell from them?

Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello finished top in the first practice, while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was second. The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen finished third and fourth, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fifth, and Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg sixth and seventh. The championship leader, Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, finished eighth. Of the other teams who are going well, Red Bull only managed 10th and 14th, but the biggest shock was Toyota – managing to take the last two spots. Heavy fuel load, certainly, but 19th and 20th? They’ve got some thinking to do.

In the second practice, Rosberg finished yet another session as top driver, with Hamilton second. The two Brawn cars of Barrichello and Button were third and fourth, and Massa was fifth. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was sixth, Kovalainen seventh, and Raikkonen eighth. Of the other cars, the other Red Bull – driven by Mark Webber – finished 12th, while Toyota once again struggled, finishing 14th and 18th.

Although always dangerous to assign anything to practice sessions, here’s what I think we can glean from these two. Both McLaren and Ferrari seem to have taken steps forward, with their finishes respectively of: McLaren; third, fourth, second, seventh; and Ferrari; second, fifth, fifth, eighth. Toyota appear to have slipped, unless they were carrying extremely heavy fuel loads. Brawn, of course, have remained right up there.

Williams take 1-2 in second practice session – 2009 Spanish Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima gave Williams a 1-2 in the second practice session for the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix.

Rosberg “wins” yet another practice session – but, will he improve on his qualifying and race performances? I think not.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso finished third, which was an excellent result for the Renault car – have their improvements let them catch up a bit? The other Renault of Nelson Piquet finished eighth.

The two Brawn GPs of Rubens Barrichello finished fourth and sixth respectively, with Red Bull’s Mark Webber sandwiched in between them. The other Red Bull car of Sebastien Vettel finished seventh.

Ferrari finished 10th and 15th – lower than in the first session – while McLaren were 14th and 15th – hardly the big improvement they were hoping for. Toyota took this session as a test session, both cars running more than 50 laps, and finishing 18th and 19th.

So, after the first two practice sessions, it looks like both BMW Sauber and Renault have made slight advances up the field, while Brawn GP, Red Bull and Toyota remain the favourites. Surprisingly, it doesn’t appear that the Ferrari or McLaren cars have advanced up the field, which I was expecting them too. Hmm. Are they going to give up on this season, and concentrate on 2010 I wonder?

Button on top in first practice – 2009 Spanish Grand Prix

Jenson Button topped the timesheets at the first practice session for the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix, showing that the new improvements that Brawn GP have made to their cars has helped.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli was second – 0.355 seconds behind Button – and the BMW Sauber pair were third and fourth fastest. 

The practice session’s most important thing that it revealed was the huge difference between the two compounds of tyres. Stupidly called the “prime” and “option” types (I prefer to call them the “soft” and “hard” tyres, it’s so much easier!), the difference between the two on this track was staggering. Button’s teammate, Rubens Barrichello, was a full second behind him, despite running the same car. The difference? Barrichello ran the harder tyre, while Button ran the soft for some of the practice.

We already knew that Toyota are good, and Trulli’s good finishing position was proof of it. BMW Sauber’s cars being so high up the timesheet does at least suggest that the car is getting better – althoug they did run the soft tyre right at the end of the session, which will inevitably gain you places. Nakajima and Rosberg finished fifth and sixth, although so far their good practice results have not be turned into either good qualifying or race results.

Nelson Piquet said that Renault were running him low on fuel, to help him improve his qualifying performance. It seemed to pay off, as Piquet finished seventh, 10 places ahead of his teammate, Fernando Alonso.

Ferrari finished ninth and 11th, so little can be told there. Hamilton and Kovalainen finished 14th and 19th, respectively, although McLaren will be hoping that this is due to high fuel amounts. Red Bull only managed 12 and 13th, but I am confident that that, at least, is due to the amount of fuel on board.

Rosberg back in first in second practice – 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

Williams driver Nico Rosberg continued his tradition in 2009 of setting the fastest lap time in practice session by being first in the second practice at the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The German driver took the spot with only 20 minutes to go, overtaking the two Toyota cars, who had been battling it out for the top two spots for most of the session.

Both Toyota cars were running on the super-soft and obviously quicker tyres, as the pair had finished the first practice session 15th and 17th. Although Timo Glock’s time was overtaken by several cars at the end, Jarno Trulli finished third.

Fernando Alonso of Renault, recovering from his terrible 18th position in the first practice session, was second. Last weekend’s race winner, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, finished fourth, and his teammate Mark Webber finished fifth. Jenson Button could only manage sixth, while an impressive performance from Force India driver Adrian Sutil reaped him a seventh place. Glock was eighth, and the other Brawn of Rubens Barrichello finished ninth. Kazuki Nakajima of Williams rounded off the top 10.

Of last season’s good cars, Hamilton was highest in 11th. Ferrari’s best driver was Felipe Massa, who managed 16th, while Raikkonen was even worse, finishing 18th. Both BMW Sauber cars were in the bottom four, Kubica 17th and Heidfeld 20th and last. The other McLaren car of Heikki Kovalainen finished 19th.

An almost complete change of fortune, then, from first to second practice. I won’t attempt to predict anything then… well, maybe one thing: Force India will qualify last.

Hamilton tops first practice – 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton finished first in what proved to be a quite surprising first practice at the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix. Hamilton’s time, a 1:33.647, was set early on in the session, and although both BMW Sauber cars mounted a late challenge, it wasn’t good enough to overtake Hamilton, although they did finish in second and third.

A rare change, then for BMW, getting right up there – although the figures are almost certainly misleading, as only the BMW cars ran the super-soft tyres – all the other cars only ran the medium compound.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg finished fourth. Jenson Button in his Brawn car was fifth, with the other McLaren of Kovalainen in sixth. Rubens Barrichello finished seventh. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was eighth, Red Bull’s Mark Webber ninth, and the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was tenth.

Of the lower down drivers, the most surprising was Toyota. The team, currently lying third in the Constructors’ Championship, could only manage 15th and 17th. What happened there, I wonder?

It certainly looks like McLaren are gradually getting their car up to speed, and although it is a slow process, both cars are showing recognisable progress. Something that cannot be said for Ferrari.

Button and Hamilton dominate Friday practices in China

Two practices over in China – and a British driver at the top of both.

In the first session, Lewis Hamilton was first. His McLaren car now has a new front wing, and an interim diffuser, a sort of half-way point to the diffusers that Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota are using. McLaren’s engineers must have been working like crazy to get all these improvements going. Heikki Kovalainen’s car, although there isn’t a new front wing or new diffuser for him, also did well, going fourth. Between the two McLaren drivers were, predictably by now, the two Brawn GP, Jenson Button taking second just ahead of Rubens Barrichello. The rest of the drivers were the usual suspects – Webber, Trulli, Rosberg and Glock finished in the next four places, respectively driving for Red Bull, Toyota, Williams and Toyota.

Both Ferrari cars have now been stripped of their KERS system, after encountering reliability problems with it in Malaysia. It didn’t seem to help, Raikkonen finishing 11th and Felipe Massa all the way down in 15th. Ferrari have not yet even managed to score a point this season, and they don’t look set to do anything in China either.

In the second practice, Jenson Button was first, while team-mate Barrichello was third. Sandwiched in between was Nico Rosberg (it must feel strange for him finishing two practice sessions without finishing first!). Webber, Vettel, Trulli, Nakijima and Glock were fourth to eighth. In ninth was Heikki Kovalainen, outstripping his team-mate Hamilton, even if Hamilton’s car has got a half-diffuser and so on. Ferrari, again, really struggled, with Massa finishing 12th and Raikkonen down in 14th. It looks like Ferrari are out of the running. They have, in recent years been very good in China; the last two season both drivers have finished on the podium. Not this time, it seems.

So, what about my prediction? Well, looking at the stats, I am going to write Ferrari off. Brawn GP look the best (again!), with Red Bull, Toyota, Williams, and maybe McLaren looking for point scoring positions.

But my prediction is obvious. Jenson Button is a man on form, and it looks unlikely that he is going to stop doing that. Short of a crash, I can’t see much getting in his way.

Prediction: Jenson Button to qualify in pole position and win the race.

Third practice – 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix

Williams’ Nico Rosberg, for the fifth time in just six practices so far this season, topped the third practice at Sepang. Red Bull’s Mark Webber had an excellent session, finishing second. Felipe Massa was third in his Ferrari, and in fourth and fifth were the two Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock. The other Red Bull, Sebastien Vettel, finished sixth, with the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen finishing seventh. Rosberg’s team-mate, Kazuki Nakijima, was eighth. The Brawn GPs were rather slow, finishing ninth and tenth. Robert Kubica was 11th and Lewis Hamilton was 12th. Again, both Renaults were some way down the field.

So, it looks like Williams, Red Bull, Ferrari, Toyota and Brawn GP will be battling it out for those top spots in qualification in a couple of hours. I acutally think that Red Bull’s drivers, Webber and Vettel, may stand a good chance of getting right up there. We’ll have to see.

Second practice – 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix

In the second practice, the two Ferraris were well ahead of the rest of the pack. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa closed out the top two spots, and both look good ahead of this year’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Behind the, Sebastien Vettel did well, finishing third, while Nico Rosberg finished fourth. This is the first time in the 2009 Formula One season that Rosberg has not finished top! Behind him, Mark Webber, in the other Red Bull, finished ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, who finished sixth and seventh respectively.

However, I am quitely confident that Brawn GP were running more fuel than the other teams, so they will still be the best team come tomorrow. So my prediction will come good!

Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton finished seventh and 11th respectively, and that looks to be about their level. Surprisingly, BMW Sauber really struggled again, Robert Kubica finishing 17th, and Heidfeld absolute last, 20th. Quite why Kubica is struggling so much is a mystery to me, as he did very well in the Australian Grand Prix. Have you got any ideas? Heidfeld has struggled so far this season, the KERS sytem that he is running (which Kubica is not) not helping whatsoever.

Renault also did badly, Piquet 10th and Alonso 15th. That Renault car is just not doing well.

Toyota, one of the teams with the rear diffuser problem, also struggled.

Quite a lot of surprises then, but basically it looks the same: Brawn GP, Ferrari and Red Bull are the best teams out there.

First practice – 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix

Just as they did in the first practice at the Australian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakijima stole the top two spots in the dying seconds of the session. Surprisingly, we have had four practice sessions in the 2009 Formula One season, and all four times now Nico Rosberg has finished top.

The second-best team was Brawn GP, with Jenson Button just beating his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello. In fifth and sixth were Ferrari, with Massa ahead of Raikkonen. Raikkonen seemed to have a problem with his KERS system, as he jumped out of his car at top speed, with smoke pouring out the back.

Lewis Hamilton was, surprisingly, seventh, while his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen was 20th. Hamilton was ahead of both Red Bull and Toyota, who were 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th, with the drivers being Webber, Vettel, Glock and Trulli.

Both BMW and Renault struggled, with Kubica 13th, Piquet 14th, Alonso 16th and Heidfeld 18th.

So, it looks like the same cars from the Australian Grand Prix are again looking good: Williams, Brawn GP, Ferrari, Red Bull and Toyota.

However, Williams did not seem to have an awful lot of pace in the last race, so I think that it will be Brawn GP, Ferrari and Red Bull battling it out for pole position tomorrow.