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Live - Singapore Grand Prix

Formula One

by Sam Lyon - BBC Sport (U7305341) 27 September 2009

Let's kick off with a fun little game. We'll call it "Choose the Adjective". Which of the following applies to Jenson Button...

Stage fright: A state of nervousness about performing some action in front of a group of people, on or off of a stage; nerves; uncertainty; a lack of self-assurance before an audience.
Tension: mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.
Blip: A temporary or insignificant phenomenon, a brief departure from the normal; a temporary irregularity in the performance of something.

Yes, 14 races into a season that he once looked like dominating to the point of embarrassment and our drivers' championship leader Jenson Button is looking about as calm and assured as a koala on a hit tin roof.

Yesterday's qualifying session saw the Briton, armed with a car that showed few signs of the struggles that were to follow, fail to reach the third and final session and secure a grid position way down in 12th. Button had promised us this weekend would mark a return to form, a return to winning ways that would once and for all kill off his title rivals. Except now his championship charge has rarely looked more under threat.

However, all is not lost for our intrepid hero.

Brawn GP team-mate and main title rival Rubens Barrichello will only be two places ahead on the grid after he was demoted a mandatory five places for a change of gearbox during Saturday qualifying. The Brazilian is also relying on his team of mechanics to rebuild a car that he tried to mould into a Rubix Cube in crashing out of Q3 yesterday - more on that later.

The Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, the other two drivers in Button's rear-view mirror in the title race, meanwhile, may be second and fourth on the grid respectively but are both on an early pit-stop strategy that may or may not leave them under threat from the rest of the pack.

And then there is pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. On a track that demands precision, nerve and confidence - the exact traits that make Hamilton the champion he is (thanks to Mark Hughes in The Times for that one) - the McLaren driver might just prove Button's greatest ally since Matt Damon turned to Ben Affleck and said: "Fancy writing a film about maths, then?"

As always, it's all to play for, so where's ya money?

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comment by Lepus_Madidus (U14127781)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Good point EJ - underbraked F1 cars sound very safe eh Max!

Safety, Safety, Safety..

Just another handy excuse to meddle and rewrite results eh?

Nice to know it's not only me that puts my foot firmly in my mouth EJ!

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comment by Lepus_Madidus (U14127781)

posted Sep 27, 2009

It's Kimi then?

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comment by Lepus_Madidus (U14127781)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Heidfeld's German accent is better than Mosley's.

Sutil was out of it before he took out Quick Nick.

The mistake happened before Quick Nick arrived there....

Sutil is culpable.

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comment by alterego2 (U2832721)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Who cares about the drivers. These days the only thing of importance about Formula 1 is the constructor's championship since that, hopefully by the end of each year, tells you who's made the best job of the technology. Drivers are pretty well interchangeable at this level, as evidenced by the surfeit of drivers over seats now and the apparent jumps and drops in performance.

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comment by finolait (U13934921)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Why does the pit lane reporter Lee keeps repeating that there were two safety car periods? I counted only one. When Webber spun, everyone thought there would be a sfety car, but there wasn't.
Can anyone comment on this??

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comment by George_The_Second (U13669119)

posted Sep 27, 2009

buttonic,

His KERS wasn't working for the first 2 laps only, hardly the biggest disadvantage in the world. He doesn't get the initial boost off the line, but he was already in pole!

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comment by George_The_Second (U13669119)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Hmm, actually it was working at the beginning, but it definitely said it was working by lap 2!

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comment by aattaacckk (U14066693)

posted Sep 27, 2009

Hamilton was supreme today. totally in control.

Vettel was poor. Too many mistakes and would have been overtaken by glock in the pits even without a drive through, so it only cost him a place.

Rosberg really blew it too, I feel sorry for him - had the safety car not happened when it did he still would have been on for 4th/5th.

Button found some pace in the race, but then again the brawn has long race pace. 12th to 5th sounds impressive but he actually started 11th. He did get lucky on the first safety car - it put Rosberg behind him.

As for the webber incident - that gave him a place and by gambling on there not being a SC gained him two more places. Not sure what happened to Kubica maybe he got unlucky at the SC.

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comment by Macheda Stole My Hair Gel - English Champions - 07/08/09 (U13969085)

posted Oct 2, 2009

Why is the Olympic thing connected to this?

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