Button battles the blaze and wins again
When a driver complains about having burned his arse, you know something is not right. On his way to his third win of the season so far, Jenson Button found that the intense heat of the Sakhir circuit was doing more than cause him to perspire. His buttocks were being slowly cooked inside the cockpit of his Brawn car! I now understand the reason why Arab men wear long dresses. The temperatures experienced in that part of the world are literally bollock burning! It is so hot in Bahrain at this time of the year that people are driven to extremes of behaviour. We were told that a Hungarian chap called Merlini had been dipped into a water tank where he held his breath for half an hour before the start of the race. When he emerged, instead of scream “Alhamdulillah!” he kissed Bernie Ecclestone on the forehead. So you see my point: racing in Bahrain is a bad idea.
It is such a bad idea that even drivers outdo themselves in madness. When was the last time you saw team-mates crashing into other? It is perhaps permissible if the team in question is Force India and the drivers have to pay for the privilege of driving the crappy cars. But you do not expect it from any of the top teams with professional drivers who are paid millions just to get out of bed. Still less do you expect it from a team on the brink of a Mafia red alert for shaming the Italian nation. But it happened in Bahrain yesterday. On the first lap Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa had a coming together which forced Massa into the pits for emergency repairs and killed his prospects of earning any points in Bahrain. Ferrari seem to have forgotten the old adage: if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!
The race yesterday was all about the first lap. Button knew that his failure to clinch pole position on Saturday meant that to win the race he was going to have to perform some kamikaze overtaking manoeuvres. And so he did in thrilling style, taking on and beating world champion Lewis Hamilton and Chinese race winner Sebastian Vettel. When Button got onto the podium to receive his trophy from a sheikh in a dress you could see every single one of his teeth – he was that happy. Three wins out of four and non-stop podium places this season, the question “Jenson who?” will never again be asked. When he got to his motor home for a much needed shower yesterday he was presented with a very long list of women who wished to have his babies. Why don’t things like that happen to me I wonder?
Jenson Button is now where everyone expected him to be when he first came into Formula One nine years ago. His father, John Button, must scratch his head in disbelief every day. He used to assist Lewis Hamilton’s father with helpful advice and tyres during Lewis’s early carting days and must have felt bittersweet emotions when Hamilton achieved the world championship last year ahead of Jenson whose own racing career then seemed gravely in danger. Now, the boy he named after an old (now dead) English car company, Jensen, is at the top of the tables and looking very good. It must feel rather special to be John Button now
I think it is reasonable to say that the diffuser issue is behind us now. The advantage enjoyed by Brawn Williams and Toyota is negated by the fact that Red Bull – one of the teams which did the most complaining about the “illegal” diffuser employed by the three teams – has enjoyed solid success in two consecutive races. First place in China and second place in Bahrain for Sebastian Vettel say a lot about the team’s performance notwithstanding the handicap of a less than clever diffuser. It also says a lot about the talent of the young German driver who is vastly looking like being a contender in this years drivers’ championship.
Speaking of the championship I hesitate about making predictions this early but it is not looking terribly good for any of the three world champions we have in the F1 paddock this year. Lewis Hamilton managed to get himself up to fourth place but it was a struggle. Fernando Alonso has never looked happy in his Renault since leaving McLaren and was only able to salvage one point from the Bahraini desert by fighting his way up to eighth place. Kimi Raikkonen managed to recover from his first lap incident and squeezed into sixth place (I suspect he was informed that some Sicilian chaps had been instructed to sharpen their weapons and make their way to Maranello if things did not begin to look better for the blood red racing cars). So we could well be swelling the list of past champions by a new name at the end of this year. Let us see. At least will have a great deal of fun along the way.
For everybody – Mafioso included – a return to Europe in a fortnight should bring welcome relief. By then Buttons buttocks should have healed.
Gitau
27 April 2009
It is such a bad idea that even drivers outdo themselves in madness. When was the last time you saw team-mates crashing into other? It is perhaps permissible if the team in question is Force India and the drivers have to pay for the privilege of driving the crappy cars. But you do not expect it from any of the top teams with professional drivers who are paid millions just to get out of bed. Still less do you expect it from a team on the brink of a Mafia red alert for shaming the Italian nation. But it happened in Bahrain yesterday. On the first lap Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa had a coming together which forced Massa into the pits for emergency repairs and killed his prospects of earning any points in Bahrain. Ferrari seem to have forgotten the old adage: if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!
The race yesterday was all about the first lap. Button knew that his failure to clinch pole position on Saturday meant that to win the race he was going to have to perform some kamikaze overtaking manoeuvres. And so he did in thrilling style, taking on and beating world champion Lewis Hamilton and Chinese race winner Sebastian Vettel. When Button got onto the podium to receive his trophy from a sheikh in a dress you could see every single one of his teeth – he was that happy. Three wins out of four and non-stop podium places this season, the question “Jenson who?” will never again be asked. When he got to his motor home for a much needed shower yesterday he was presented with a very long list of women who wished to have his babies. Why don’t things like that happen to me I wonder?
Jenson Button is now where everyone expected him to be when he first came into Formula One nine years ago. His father, John Button, must scratch his head in disbelief every day. He used to assist Lewis Hamilton’s father with helpful advice and tyres during Lewis’s early carting days and must have felt bittersweet emotions when Hamilton achieved the world championship last year ahead of Jenson whose own racing career then seemed gravely in danger. Now, the boy he named after an old (now dead) English car company, Jensen, is at the top of the tables and looking very good. It must feel rather special to be John Button now
I think it is reasonable to say that the diffuser issue is behind us now. The advantage enjoyed by Brawn Williams and Toyota is negated by the fact that Red Bull – one of the teams which did the most complaining about the “illegal” diffuser employed by the three teams – has enjoyed solid success in two consecutive races. First place in China and second place in Bahrain for Sebastian Vettel say a lot about the team’s performance notwithstanding the handicap of a less than clever diffuser. It also says a lot about the talent of the young German driver who is vastly looking like being a contender in this years drivers’ championship.
Speaking of the championship I hesitate about making predictions this early but it is not looking terribly good for any of the three world champions we have in the F1 paddock this year. Lewis Hamilton managed to get himself up to fourth place but it was a struggle. Fernando Alonso has never looked happy in his Renault since leaving McLaren and was only able to salvage one point from the Bahraini desert by fighting his way up to eighth place. Kimi Raikkonen managed to recover from his first lap incident and squeezed into sixth place (I suspect he was informed that some Sicilian chaps had been instructed to sharpen their weapons and make their way to Maranello if things did not begin to look better for the blood red racing cars). So we could well be swelling the list of past champions by a new name at the end of this year. Let us see. At least will have a great deal of fun along the way.
For everybody – Mafioso included – a return to Europe in a fortnight should bring welcome relief. By then Buttons buttocks should have healed.
Gitau
27 April 2009
posted by Gitau at 4:28 pm
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