We were always confident, or as confident as you can be in Formula 1, that Mark Webber looked favourite to win this penultimate race of the season, as the RB5 was quick, very quick and fuelled longer than its closest rivals. And so it turned out.
A great win at the end of a faultless drive to add another winner’s trophy to the Australian’s collection, alongside the one he got in Germany. The victor was joined on the podium by his Race Engineer, Ciaron Pilbeam, who collected the team trophy. Starting way down the back end of the grid, after Saturday’s qualifyathon, Sebastian Vettel produced a masterful and aggressive drive to work his way up to fourth, absolutely the best he could have done.
Therefore, plenty to be happy about, but today was all about another driver who didn’t actually get to stand on the podium at all. By bringing his Brawn home in fifth place, Jenson Button finally clinched the Drivers’ title that had been his to lose for several races now. He was helped by the fact that team-mate and pole sitter, Rubens Barrichello, had his usual Interlagos gremlins sitting on his engine cover.
It soon became clear that he would not be winning at home, but further bad luck struck in the form of a late race puncture, that dropped him down to eighth. It meant that Button was now unbeatable and that Brawn had clinched the Constructors’ title too. Well done to them, it’s been a great season long fight between the two of us: at the moment if you look at what really counts, which means winning races, they are beating us 8 to 5 and we have every intention of closing that gap down to two, when we tackle the final round, on the brand new Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight’s time.
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 a day for fists as well as flames, as Jarno Trulli took great exception to an opening lap 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, before hostilities resumed in the paddock after the race. That’s what we like – a bit of emotion!
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