Toro Rosso Brazil

From China To Brazil

It’s been a long time coming, but for the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix, we are back in the points again, thanks to Sébastien Buemi’s seventh place finish.

Points are always good, but in all honesty, we were hoping for more today, given that the Swiss driver started from sixth on the grid and, given the pace of the cars on Friday, maybe even starting from twelfth, in what was a typically chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix, Jaime Alguersuari might have hoped to head towards the top eight.

But luck and speed were lacking today and while you can’t do anything about the former, we will now be investigating how that speed went missing inbetween Friday free practice and race day. We have closed the gap to Force India just a little bit, now trailing them by six points, so there’s an obvious target for us for the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight’s time. Jaime feels he is continuing to move up a steep learning curve, but once he found himself in traffic today, there was little he could do. But every kilometre covered is another tick in the experience box.

Mark Webber always looked the most likely winner, starting from second place and so it turned out, the key moment coming when he was able to run a longer first stint than pole man Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian has never had much luck at his home race and while he had at least looked likely to finish ahead of his Brawn team-mate, Jenson Button, a puncture requiring an additional stop in the closing stages of the 71 lap race saw him drop down to eighth. You could hear the collective moan from the crowd all the way in downtown Sao Paulo.

Mixed feelings at Brawn, because while a possible win slipped from their grasp, the rest of the race order meant that Jenson Button, who finished fifth from way down on the grid, is now the new Formula One Drivers’ World Champion and the fairytale continues with the new team, risen from the Honda ashes, securing the Constructors’ crown at its very first attempt. So well done to all of them.

Interlagos produced its usual fireworks, literally in the case of a botched pit stop for Heikki Kovalainen, who left the McLaren pit with the fuel hose still attached to the car. Fuel spraying out the broken end of the nozzle went all over the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who was following him out of the pits and the red car looked for a moment to have been engulfed in a ball of flame. Super cool Kimi, slowed momentarily before getting on with his race, eventually coming home sixth.

It was day for fists as well as flames, as Jarno Trulli took great exception to a collision that ended his and Adrian Sutil’s race and the cameras lingered as the Italian came very close to punching the Force India driver.