RETROSPECTIVE - 1989 Hungarian Grand Prix

1988 was totally dominated by the McLaren "dream team" with their drivers Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna winning 15 of the 16 races, only an unusual incident with a backmarker in Italy prevented Senna from giving McLaren the clean sweep. 1989 though proved to be far more open despite McLaren winning 10 of the 16 races on offer, this race though did not feature a McLaren win, infact it was one of the finest drives by one of Britain's best and bravest drivers, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest overtakers in the sport, Nigel Mansell.

Going into the weekend, the dropped scores had yet to take affect which as a result, Prost had a substantial 17 point lead over his teammate Senna (53 to 36) with Mansell in a Ferrari in a share of 3rd place with Williams's Riccardo Patrese on 25 points, and with Hungary being one race away from the final "gross score" race before drivers would have to begin dropping their worst points finishes, it was crucial for both McLaren drivers to win this race in order to attain a substantial lead going into the final 5 races.

One feature of the 1989 season was the huge entry list, the biggest entry in F1 history at 39 cars fielded by no less than 20 teams, this was when F1 was a very cheap formula and practically anybody could build an F1 car, for the smaller teams, simply qualifying for a race would be an achievement. And in qualifying Patrese suprised everyone by taking pole for Williams ahead of Senna, the big shock was Alex Caffi in his Dallara taking a superb 3rd place, Prost was only 5th while Mansell struggled and considering the nature of the Hungary track, his race looked shot after qualifying down in 12th.

STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Riccardo Patrese, 2. Ayrton Senna
ROW 2: 3. Alex Caffi, 4. Thierry Boutsen
ROW 3: 5. Alain Prost, 6. Gerhard Berger
ROW 4: 7. Alessandro Nannini, 8. Stefano Modena
ROW 5: 9. Derek Warwick, 10. Pierluigi Martini
ROW 6: 11. Jean Alesi, 12. Nigel Mansell
ROW 7: 13. Mauricio Gugelmin, 14. Ivan Capelli
ROW 8: 15. Martin Brundle, 16. Eddie Cheever
ROW 9: 17. Nelson Piquet, 18. Andrea De Cesaris
ROW 10: 19. Jonathan Palmer, 20. Satoru Nakajima
ROW 11: 21. Bertrand Gachot, 22. Piercarlo Ghinzani
ROW 12: 23. Luis Sala, 24. Stefan Johansson
ROW 13: 25. Emmanuele Pirro, 26. Michele Alboreto
DID NOT QUALIFY: Rene Arnoux, Olivier Grouillard, Christian Danner, Volker Weidler
DID NOT PRE-QUALIFY: Nicola Larini, Philippe Alliot, Gabriele Tarquini, Yannick Dalmas, Bernd Schneider, Roberto Moreno, Gregor Foitek, Aguri Suzuki, Pierre-Henri Raphanel

At the start, Patrese managed to hold off Senna while a hard charging Gerhard Berger stormed from 6th to pass Prost and nearly take Caffi. Berger managed to overtake Caffi later on in the lap as the Dallara's lack of pace began to show by holding up a train of cars including Prost, Nannini, Boutsen and Mansell who had gained 3 places from the start line. This was looking good for Patrese he was matching Senna's pace really well in the early stages and with overtaking opportunities on the Hungaroring numbering almost zero coupled with the ever improving pace and reliability of the Renault powerplant, it looked like Patrese would coast to his first race win in 6 years.

Prost and Mansell managed to break ahead of the Caffi train and join the 3 way battle for the lead, which would be reduce due to Berger taking a impromptu tyre stop on lap 29. Now it was a 4 way battle which was intensifying by the lap. and the first real move in this 180mph game of chess came courtesy of Mansell on lap 41, coming out of the fat exit of Turn 3, he got the sort of run out of the corner that resembled commitment seen on qualifying laps, he then used Prost's slpistream to close up at an alarming rate and then use his V12 engine to power past Prost's McLaren and up into 3rd place.

From there on each driver held station until lap 52 when Patrese suddenly began to lose pace and on the start finish straight, Senna saw a chance on the inside of turn 1, Patrese tried to defend but his now sick sounding Williams could'nt cope with Senna's pace down the straight as the Brazilian finally took the elad of the race, Mansell also followed Senna's path and took Patrese down at the next corner, the unlucky Italian would park his car later on that lap into retirement due to a broken radiator. Now it was a straight fight between Senna and Mansell to win the race

5 laps later on lap 58 came the breakthrough Mansell was waiting for. Senna had defended releltlessly from Mansell who was clearly faster and then part of the way through lap 58 they came across the Onyx of Sweden's Stefan Johansson, he was busy trudging slowly back to the pits with gearbox issues but for Senna the slowing Onyx came too soon for his liking, way too soon infact, as they came out of turn 3, not knowing Johansson's troubles, Senna took his normal racing line expecting the Onyx to move out of the way but it didnt and Senna was slowed for a fraction of a second. Mansell had got a better run out of the exit of the corner and saw his chance with Senna stuck, he manouvered as far to the right of the track as he could muster to avoid Johansson and the manouvering Senna, Mansell took advantage with the early move to sweep past the pair of them into the lead, that pass would go down in F1 folklore as one of the greatest ever attempted.

From then on, Mansell simply drove away from the rest of the field as if they were standing still posing a succession of fastest laps to win by an astonishing 26 seconds from Senna and Boutsen in 3rd who passed a fading Prost late on. After this race, the Italian fans (Tifosi) took him to their hearts and dubbed him Il Leone (The Lion).

RACE RESULT - TOP 10
1. NIGEL MANSELL - Ferrari ................ 1h 49m 38.650
2. Ayrton Senna - McLaren Honda ................ + 25.960
3. Thierry Boutsen - Williams Renault ................ + 38.354
4. Alain Prost - McLaren Honda ................ + 44.177
5. Eddie Cheever - Arrows Ford ................ + 45.106
6. Nelson Piquet - Lotus Judd ................ + 1m 12.039
7. Alex Caffi - Dallara Ford ................ + 1m 24.255
8. Emanuele Pirro - Benetton Ford ................ + 1 Lap
9. Jean Alesi - Tyrrell Ford ................ + 1 Lap
10. Derek Warwick - Arrows Ford ................ + 1 Lap

BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX: Button delivers the triple whammy

For once, no rain and no safety cars needed. It would be dry and a true indicator of pace and form, or so it seemed. Instead we were treated with a stunning reminder of Ross Brawn's tactical nous as Jenson Button negated the pace advantage of both the Toyota's and the Red Bull of Vettel to take his 3rd win in 4 races giving him a commanding 12 point lead going into the European season of races.

It would be an excellent day for British drivers overall as Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren's improvement with a trouble free run to 4th place. As for Ferrari, they finally managed to get onto the scoreboard with Kimi Raikkonen finishing 6th, a good morale boost considering that Ferrari supremo Luca di Montezemolo had turned up for the race to discover for himself how badly Ferrari are struggling. But one team that struggled big time were pre-season title favourites BMW Sauber who both qualified on the 7th row but could only manage to finish as the remaining 2 cars running with both drivers complaining of a raft of problems with the car.

But the race (as uneventful as it was) was all about Button and Ross Brawn's ingenious calls from the pit wall. And with this being the first race where each team could be equally reviewed on pace, it was a hammerblow to the remainder of the field, and with improvements comng ahead of the other teams introducing their own versions of Brawn's controversial double-deck diffuser, Brawn and Button are threatening to run away with the major honours this year

DRIVERS TOP 10 AFTER ROUND 4: 1st Jenson Button 31 pts, 2nd Rubens Barrichello 19pts, 3rd Sebastian Vettel 18pts, 4th, Jarno Trulli 14.5pts, 5th Timo Glock 12pts, 6th Mark Webber 9.5pts, 7th Lewis Hamilton 9pts, 8th Fernando Alonso 5pts, =9th, Nick Heidfeld 4pts, =9th Heikki Kovalainen 4pts

CONSTRUCTORS AFTER ROUND 4: 1st Brawn 50pts, 2nd Red Bull 27.5pts, 3rd Toyota 26.5pts, 4th McLaren 13pts, 5th Renault 5pts, =6th BMW Sauber 4pts, =6th Toro Rosso 4pts, 8th Williams 3.5pts, 9th Ferrari 3pts

RETROSPECTIVE - 1982 Monaco Grand Prix

In my review of the 1982 F1 season, i missed this race out of my talking, very good reason for that as this race would go down in Grand Prix folklore as one of the most dramatic races ever in any form of motorsport in living memory, in the closing stages there were no less than FOUR leaders in the final 3 laps with as many as SEVEN drivers all in with a chance of winning. It was so hectic that when the eventual winner, Riccardo Patrese crossed the line, he never knew he won until he saw his competitors parked on the side of the road, it would be his first of 6 race wins in a career that spanned 16 years and 256 race starts, a record surpassed only recently by Rubens Barrichello.

The Monaco weekend though ran under a cloud, this was just 2 weeks since the tragic Belgian Grand Prix which saw the tragic death of the great Gilles Villeneuve, as a mark of respect, Ferrari entered only a single car for Didier Pironi before his replacement in the number 27 ferrari would take his place for the next race in Detroit.

STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Rene Arnoux (Renault), 2. Riccardo Patrese (Brabham)
ROW 2: 3. Bruno Giacomelli (Alfa Romeo), 4. Alain Prost (Renault)
ROW 3: 5. Didier Pironi (Ferrari), 6. Keke Rosberg (Williams)
ROW 4: 7. Andrea De Cesaris (Alfa Romeo), 8. Derek Daly (Williams)
ROW 5: 9. Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell), 10. John Watson (McLaren)
ROW 6: 11. Nigel Mansell (Lotus), 12. Niki Lauda (McLaren)
ROW 7: 13. Nelson Piquet (Brabham), 14. Manfred Winkelhock (ATS)
ROW 8: 15. Elio De Angelis (Lotus), 16. Eddie Cheever (Talbot Ligier)
ROW 9: 17. Brian Henton (Tyrrell), 18. Jacques Laffite (Talbot Ligier)
ROW 10: 19. Marc Surer (Arrows), 20. Eliseo Salazar (ATS)
DID NOT QUALIFY: Mauro Baldi (Arrows), Jan Lammers (Theodore), Jochen Mass (March), Derek Warwick (Toleman), Jean Pierre Jarier (Osella), Roberto Guerrero (Ensign)
DID NOT PRE QUALIFY: Teo Fabi (Toleman), Riccardo Paletti (Osella), Raul Boesel (March), Chico Serra (Fittipaldi), Emilio de Villota (March)

This was back in the day when Monaco starting grids were limited in size to just 20 entrants so 3 days and 3 sessions of qualifying were needed to weed out 11 drivers, one of the unlucky drivers was former race winner Jochen Mass and Mauro Baldi was desperately unlucky as less than 2 tenths of a second separated him from the last place of the grid taken by Chile's Eliseo Salazar.

As the race started Arnoux took the early initiative from pole position until on lap 14, he messed up his exit to the swimming pool complex and spun out, from there Alain Prost took up the lead and the race took on a precession with Prost under constant pressure from Patrese.

But the real action began with just 6 laps to go when there was reports of rain falling, the rain that was predicted to fall during the race. It was a small shower but enough to make the drivers feel very uncomfortable and make them take a cautious approach. Except in Prost's case, with 3 laps to go while trying to lap the Arrows of Marc Surer, he lost it on the exit of the chicane exiting the tunnel and crashed out injuring his feet in the process. Riccardo Patrese gleefully drove past and took the lead presumably now coasting to a first race win...

...or so it seemed, on the very next lap (2 laps to go) while trying to lap the same car as Prost did (Surer) he lost it at the Loews hairpin and stalled the car, this allowed Didier Pironi to take the lead for the first time, Patrese would eventually be restarted by the marshals in 4th spot a lap down behind Pironi and De Cesaris but on the same lap as 3rd placed Daly but ahead of the 2 Lotuses of Mansell and De Angelis. Now it was Pironi seemingly on his way to record an emotional win 2 weeks after the death of his teammate.

Coasting through to begin his final lap he slowed down with his enging hardly revving at all, everyone seemed that he was just easing off the throttle and nursing his car home. But it was far serious than just that, his engine's electrical system had suffered a catastrophic failure and he had no drive, so as he drove out of the Loews hairpin and he downhill section was over, he coasted to a stop in the middle of the tunnel, he then pleaded with the marshals to give him a push start, but his engine was dead. This would mean De Cesaris in his Alfa Romeo would take the lead, could he give the famous Italian marque their first race win in nearly 31 years, no was the answer, he had stopped earlier on at the casino hairpin on the final lap with no fuel, when De Cesaris heard of Pironi's downfall, he was inconsolable.

That would mean Daly (despite a lap down) was the new leader of the cars still running, Could he become Ireland's first ever Grand Prix winner, again the answer was no as he coasted to a stop before he began his final lap with a seized gearbox, this occured because several laps earlier he had spun at Tabac which had knocked off his rear wing and split his gearbox casing, with oil trickling out of it the gearbox eventually seized up and he too was also out.

So this allowed an amazingly fortunate Riccardo Patrese to come through and take an unbelieveable win that nobody would have thought possible after his spin, his reaction crossing the line was plain normal as if he was releived to have got out of there at least as a finisher, but when he drove round, he saw De Cesaris's car being craned up and Pironi's car stationery in the tunnel, and then he was directed to the winners enclosure, he could hardly believe his luck.

Despite their woes, Pironi, de Cesaris and Daly were still classified in the points on distance covered, only 10 drivers were classified as finishers

RACE RESULT
1. Riccardo Patrese - Brabham ................ 1h 54m 11.259
2. Didier Pironi - Ferrari ................ + 1 Lap (Engine Electrics)
3. Andrea de Cesaris - Alfa Romeo ................ + 1 Lap (No Fuel)
4. Nigel Mansell - Lotus ................ + 1 Lap
5. Elio de Angelis - Lotus ................ + 1 Lap
6. Derek Daly - Williams ................ + 2 Laps (Gearbox Seizure)
7. Alain Prost - Renault ................ +3 Laps (Accident)
8. Brian Henton - Tyrrell ................ + 4 Laps
9. Marc Surer - Arrows ................ + 6 Laps
10. Michele Alboreto - Tyrrell ................ + 7 Laps (Front Suspension)

Credit goes to kezzaf1 for the Youtube video

CHINESE GRAND PRIX - Red Bull Gives Vettel Wings

In another monsoon race which this time went the full distance, it was polesitter Sebastian Vettel that emerged victorious after a dominant drive to earn Red Bull's first ever race win and the team's first win since they were known as Stewart back at the Nurburgring in 1999. To make it even better for the team, Mark Webber finished 2nd to give them a 1-2 finish and a maximum 18 point haul. Jenson Button drove well to finish best of the rest in 3rd increasing his championship lead in the process.

It was another day to forget for Ferrari who went on to record their worst start to a season since 1981 and with Force India's best race finish being a 9th place, it also means Ferrari are bottom of the constructors standings after 3 races for the first time ever since the inception of the constructors championship in 1958. It was a better day for McLaren though as their new double deck diffuser cars provided the teams best result of the year so far picking up a very useful 7 points.

THE GRID
ROW 1: 1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 2. Fernando Alonso (Renault)
ROW 2: 3. Mark Webber (Red Bull), 4. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn)
ROW 3: 5. Jenson Button (Brawn), 6. Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
ROW 4: 7. Nico Rosberg (Williams), 8. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
ROW 5: 9. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 10. Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso)
ROW 6: 11. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber), 12. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren)
ROW 7: 13. Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 14. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams)
ROW 8: 15. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso), 16. Nelson Piquet Jr (Renault)
ROW 9: 17. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), 18. Adrian Sutil (Force India)
ROW 10: 19. Timo Glock (Toyota), 20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India)

The torrential downpour meant that Charlie Whiting took the decision to start the race behind the safety car which was bad news for Alonso who had qualified with a light fuel load, he pitted along with Nico Rosberg hoping to benefit from a long safety car period, but it never happened, the safety car pulled in after 9 laps and the race properly began. Vettel took advantage of a clear track in front of him (meaning no spray) by racing away from his teammate Webber.

That stayed the same until lap 18 when the first real incident occured, a slowing Jarno Trulli, struggling in the conditions was spectacularly clobbered by Robert Kubica's BMW, amazingly Kubica was unscathed (apart from needing a new nosecone) but Trulli's day was over, his rear wing gone and his rear suspension shot to pieces. Meanwhile, quietly Lewis Hamilton had made good progress and got up to as high as 5th before spinning away everything he had built up, he did rejoin though. But the safety car was brought out for the 2nd time after the Kubica/Trulli incident, but just before the pitstops, an unsighted Sebastien Buemi accidentally hit the rear of Vettel's car, fortunately for the race leader, Vettel did not suffer any damage but Buemi had to pit for a new nose.

After the pitstops were made, Ferrari's nightmare start to the season got worse as Massa stopped on the entrance to the long back straight after suffering the predictable electrical failure, a common breakdown in wet conditions.

Lap 23 and the safety car comes in and the race resumed and thus began a see-saw fight for 2nd place between Button and Webber, Webber eventually won out after both drivers had overtaken each other by taking advantage of the other's misdemeanours. The next 18 laps saw nearly every driver struggle with the intensifying rain and also this was when the 2nd round of pitstops occured. One driver decided to gamble on the rain dying down by taking intermediate tyres, that man was Nico Rosberg and it would be a gamble that would spectacularly fail as he would finish the race a lap down.

Overall, Red Bull maintained the status quo right to the line as Vettel won ahead of Webber, Button and Barrichello. McLaren scored some solid points for 5th and 6th (Kovalainen ahead of Hamilton) while the points positions were completed by Glock and Buemi, there was heartbreak though for Adrian Sutil who lost his chance to score Force India's first points after aquaplaining off the track with 5 laps to go while running in an impressive 6th.

RACE RESULT - TOP 10
1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull ................ 1h 57m 43.485
2. Mark Webber - Red Bull ................ + 10.970
3. Jenson Button - Brawn ................ + 44.975
4. Rubens Barrichello - Brawn ................ + 1m 03.704
5. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren ................ + 1m 05.102
6. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren ................ + 1m 11.866
7. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 1m 14.476
8. Sebasien Buemi - Toro Rosso ................ + 1m 16.439
9. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 1m 24.309
10. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari ................ + 1m 31.750

DRIVERS TOP 10 AFTER CHINA: 1. Jenson Button 21pts, 2. Rubens Barrichello 15pts, =3. Sebastian Vettel 10pts, =3. Timo Glock 10pts, 5. Mark Webber 9.5pts, 6. Jarno Trulli 8.5pts, =7. Nick Heidfeld 4pts, =7. Fernando Alonso 4pts, =7. Heikki Kovalainen 4pts, =7. Lewis Hamilton 4pts

CONSTRUCTORS TOP 10 AFTER CHINA: 1. Brawn 36pts, 2. Red Bull 19.5pts, 3. Toyota 18.5pts, 4. McLaren 8pts, =5. BMW Sauber 4pts, =5. Renault 4pts, =5. Toro Rosso 4pts, 8. Williams 3.5pts, =9. Force India 0pts, =9. Ferrari 0pts

A1GP - THE ALGARVE: Irish eyes smile in Dutch and Swiss delight

In a race weekend worthy of the fantastic new racing facilities on the holiday resort of the Algarve in Portugal, Robert Doornbos managed to take his first ever A1GP win in the sprint while Neel Jani managed to put to bed a disastrous sprint race qualifying session to win the feature race. But the big winners of the weekend were Ireland and their driver Adam Carroll, they ended up as the weekend's top scorers with 22 points after 2 second place finishes coupled with fastest laps in both races, this has allowed Ireland to retake the lead in the world cup of motorsport by 4 points from the Swiss and 12 ahead of the Portugese, despite the resurgence of the Dutch in winning 3 races so far, it looks like being a 3 horse race for this year's championship. It was yet another disappointing weekend though for Great Britain despite the inexperienced Dan Clarke (replacing the ineligible Danny Watts) taking his first points finish of the season giving the team 4 points that keeps them in the top 10, not the morale boost that was needed after the team were put into administration recently putting their future in the series into serious doubt.

SPRINT RACE
GRID
ROW 1: 1. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy), 2. Robert Doornbos (Netherlands0
ROW 2: 3. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 4. Daniel Morad (Lebanon)
ROW 3: 5. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 6. Earl Bamber (New Zealand)
ROW 4: 7. Andre Lotterer (Germany), 8. Adrian Zaugg (South Africa)
ROW 5: 9. Narain Karthikeyan (India), 10. Cilvio Piccione (Monaco)
ROW 6: 11. Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia), 12. Marco Andretti (USA)
ROW 7: 13. Dan Clarke (Great Britain0, 14. Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil)
ROW 8: 15. Zahir Ali (Indonesia), 16. Salvador Duran (Mexico)
ROW 9: 17. John Martin (Australia), 18. Nicolas Prost (France)
ROW 10: 19. Ho-Pin Tung (China), 20. Neel Jani (Switzerland)

Debutant Vitantonio Liuzzi (test driver for the Force India F1 squad) shocked everyone by taking pole position for the sprint race while championship leaders Switzerland suffered badly after an electrical failure forced them to end their session early and with no time set, they were stone dead last on the grid.

At the start, Luizzi made a mess of it as he was jumped at the start by Doornbos and then passed by both Carroll and Albuquerque at the mandatory pitstop. Doornbos was never headed in a dominant performance. The race however was ended early on lap 11 out of 14 after a crash involving Zaugg and Guimaraes, the Brazilian in the end was classified 7th behind Karthikeyan and Piccione and ahead of Jani who drove superbly through the field to claim a point for 8th place, but he was given a stop-go penalty and as it was too late to take the penalty, Jani was given a half minute penalty added to his time dropping him to 15th, this handed the final point to Fairuz Fauzy. With Carroll taking 2nd spot and the fastest lap, this meant that Ireland would take the lead in the standings by 6 points.

FEATURE RACE
GRID
ROW 1: 1. Adam Carroll (Ireland), 2. Neel Jani (Switzerland)
ROW 2: 3. Adrian Zaugg (South Africa), 4. Fairuz Fauzy (Malaysia)
ROW 3: 5. Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), 6. Marco Andretti (USA)
ROW 4: 7. Cilvio Piccione (Monaco), 8. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
ROW 5: 9. Earl Bamber (New Zealand), 10. John Martin (Australia)
ROW 6: 11. Salvador Duran (Mexico), 12. Andre Lotterer (Germany)
ROW 7: 13. Daniel Morad (Lebanon), 14. Dan Clarke (Great Britain)
ROW 8: 15. Narain Karthikeyan (India), 16. Zahir Ali (Indonesia)
ROW 9: 17. Nicolas Prost (France), 18. Ho-Pin Tung (China)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
DID NOT START: Robert Doornbos (Netherlands), Felipe Guimaraes (Brazil)

Only 19 cars lined up for the 43 lap Feature race after damage to the Brazil car was too much to allow Emerson Fittipaldi's team to continue, the field was then reduced further to just 18 after the polesitter and race 1 winner Robert Doornbos suffered electrical failure on the warm up lap. This meant that when the race started, the 2 championship leaders would share the front row. Carroll led away but unfairly as he was adjudged to ahve jumped the start for which he was given a drive through penalty, from that Neel Jani took the lead.

He held the lead after the first round of pitstops where Carroll after his drive through penalty was last, Jani led from Zaugg, Bamber, and Albuquerque, and thats how the top 4 stayed until lap 15 when an increasingly impatient Bamber attempted to overtake the slow Zaugg and ended up crashing into the back of the South African driver eliminating both men and bringing out the safety car, promoting Albuquerque to 2nd, Liuzzi to 3rd, Andretti up to 4th and the impressive Salvador Duran up to 5th, Carroll at this point had managed to fight his way up to 10th spot.

From the restart, the home fans were sent into raptures as Albuquerque timed his restart to perfection to overtake Jani and go into the lead but then the Safety car was brought out again just 4 laps later after a 3 car pileup involving Liuzzi, Andretti and Piccione after the Italian attempted to take advantage of Andretti spinning resulting to both cars colliding and going into the path of the innocent Piccione.

Albuquerque managed to hold off Jani at the restart in a field that now looked rather depleted with just 12 cars ahead of the race's biggest suprise Salvador Duran looking for Mexico's first points finish of the campaign, the situation though would change at the 2nd round of pitstops as Albuquerque pitted first, Jani put the hammer down on his in-lap, that and great pitwork was rewarded with a net race lead, Carroll pitted just after Albuquerque and after a lightnign stop emerged in a net 3rd spot, jumping up 3 places. But there was controversy to follow, Ireland were put under investigation for overtaking Australia's John Martin under the safety car, they were allowed to race on though.

Carroll managed to dispatch Albuquerque to take 2nd and then set about trying to eat away the 5 second lead that Jani had built up, after a series of fastest laps, Carroll had whittled it down to barely nothing in the space of 7 laps, Jani managed to defend valiantly though to take an important win. Albuquerque had a quiet end to the race to take 3rd ahead of Fauzy and a relieved Duran who took Mexico's 1st points of the season, Prost took a career best 6th spot ahead of Dan Clarke giving him his first points finish, Tung took 8th for China ahead of Lotterer who give Germany their first points, with 10th place and the final point going to Indonesia's Zahir Ali

The result may change though if Ireland are further penalised.

WORLD CUP OF MOTORSPORT TOP 12 AFTER ROUND 6: 1. Ireland 92pts, 2. Switzerland 88pts, 3. Portugal 80pts, 4. Netherlands 66pts, 5. France 46pts, 6. Malaysia 41pts, 7. New Zealand 36pts, 8. Australia 30pts, 9. Monaco 27pts, 10. Great Britain 24pts, =11. South Africa 19pts, =11. USA 19pts

DRIVERS TOP 12: 1. Adam Carroll 92pts, 2. Neel Jani 88pts, 3. Filipe Albuquerque 80pts, 4. Fairuz Fauzy 41pts, 5. Loic Duval 40pts, 6. Jeroen Bleekemolen 35pts, 7. Robert Doornbos 31pts, =8. John Martin 30pts, =8. Earl Bamber 30pts, 10. Cilvio Piccione 27pts, 11. Danny Watts 20pts, 12. Adrian Zaugg 19pts

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX - 2 out of 2 for Button in Malaysian monsoon

The predicted electrical storms and monsoon rain conditions eventually managed to bring an early halt to proceedings in Kuala Lumpur with 23 laps still to run, meaning that Jenson Button would keep up Brawn's incredible 100% record this season but with only half points awarded for the shortened race distance. Ferrari's woes continued after a raft of calamitous strategic decisions affected Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen throughout the weekend meaning that they have gone pointless from the first 2 races for the first time since 1992. It was a better day though for Lewis Hamilton who scored his first points finish of the season, and this time unlike last weekends fuore, it looks like it will stand.

THE RACE

Button qualified on pole for the 2nd race running but unlike in Australia he did not get the best start, it was good but nowhere near Nico Rosberg's Williams who shot up from 4th on the grid to take the lead going into the 1st corner, Rosberg then hung Button out to dry meaning he dropped behind Trulli and Fernando Alonso into 3rd spot, Heikki Kovalainen became the race's 1st retirement spinning off on the entry to turn 5, Button managed to retake 3rd place from Alonso before the end of lap 1

The race calmed down afte rthe 1st lap as Rosberg began to assert a decent pace and open out a good lead over Trulli, with the main action being a fantastic dogfight between Alonso and Mark Webber for 6th spot. And after the 1st pitstops, Button assumed the lead from Rosberg after setting a stunning pace after Rosberg and Trulli had pitted, but it was then that the most important members of eac team were their weather forecasters.

On lap 19, Ferrari made a bizarre move, gambling on heavy rain falling soon they brought Kimi Raikkonen in for extrememwet tyres, on a bone dry track, the rain didn't come Raikkonen was 20 seconds a lap off the pace and the Ferrari strategists were made to look like idiots. The rain eventually came 5 laps later but it was too late for Raikkonen who by this point was so far behind, he had lost interest and just began to cruise even after he had changed to the correct rubber.

It took a few laps for everyone to cycle round and change to the wet tyres, only one did not, and that was Timo Glock and he then proceeded to drive his way through the field as his gamble paid off handsomely up into a net 2nd place before the rain fell so heavily that nobody was able to continue, after a long period of waiting for the rain ro receed (which it didnt) the race was declared on 31 laps giving Button a half-points win (the first since Alain Prost in Monaco 1984) ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock. Jarno Trulli was classified 4th with Rubens Barrichello in 5th Mark Webber 6th, Lewis Hamilton in 7th scoring his 1st legitimate points finish with the final half a point for 8th going to Rosberg after his fuel strategy compromise dhis iming for tyre stops.

RACE RESULT AFTER 31 LAPS (TOP 10)

1. Jenson Button - Brawn Mercedes ................ 55m 30.622
2. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber ................ +22.722
3. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ +23.513
4. Jarno Trulli - Toyota ................ +46.173
5. Rubens Barrichello - Brawn Mercedes ................ +47.360
6. Mark Webber - Red Bull Renault ................ +52.333
7. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes ................ +1m 00.733
8. Nico Rosberg - Williams Toyota ................ + 1m 11.576
9. Felipe Massa - Ferrari ................ + 1m 16.932
10. Sebastien Bourdais - Toro Rosson Ferrari + 1m 42.164

DRIVERS AFTER ROUND 2: 1. Jenson Button 15pts, 2. Rubens Barrichello 10pts, 3. Jarno Trulli 8.5pts, 4. Timo Glock 8pts, 5. Nick Heidfeld 4pts, 6. Fernando Alonso 4pts, 7. Nico Rosberg 3.5pts, 8. Sebastien Buemi 2pts, 9. Mark Webber 1.5pts, 10. Lewis Hamilton 1pt

CONSTRUCTORS: 1. Brawn Mercedes 25pts, 2. Toyota 16.5pts, 3. BMW Sauber 4pts, 4. Renault 4pts, 5. Williams Toyota 3.5pts, 6. Toro Rosso Ferrari 3pts, 7. Red Bull Renault 1.5pts, 8. McLaren Mercedes 1pt