The Monaco Grand Prix, while interesting, went as expected after what we had seen in qualifying with Brawn GP and Ferrari at the front. Jenson Button got into the lead at the start, extended his lead and then was able to cruise home for another victory for himself and Brawn GP. There was a period when Jenson's teammate Rubens Barrichello was pushed hard by Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, but he had enough to finish second, ahead of Raikkonen and the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa.
The big story of the weekend I guess really was Ferrari's renaissance as both cars were quick, with Kimi particularly doing well. It may be too late realistically for them to mount a championship challenge, but it will be interesting to see in the next few races if they can continue this form and take on and beat Brawn and claim some race victories. The other big shock was just how bad the Toyotas were here. It was a genuine surprise as it was only two races ago they locked out the front row in Bahrain, yet here they were so slow they took the last two places on the grid. It was the equivalent of going from being hero to zero as Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock both struggled.
They have looked good every where else this season, so to see them going so badly and off the pace was astonishing. Toyota are also one of the big spenders in the series and I guess their miserable weekend shows that spending a lot of money is no guarantee of results on the track. Brawn once again were just too good for everyone else. They were quick and made no mistakes. Jenson was once again superb and it is getting to the stage now where it is almost his world championship to lose, such is the lead in the championship that he is building.
Rubens looks like the only one who can threaten him at the moment, but even that doesn't look particularly likely. Even if he has a failure in a race, Jenson still has a few points in hand and he is looking very good to be the champion right now. It was a bad weekend for Lewis Hamilton though after his crash in qualifying. Lewis's problem is that he is the world champion and he cannot afford to make those kind of mistakes.
I was really surprised when I heard him mention that he was under pressure, and I was shocked he would even use that word. It is not his fault that his car is slow this year so if anything there should be no pressure on him at all. Yes, he is world champion, but it is clear with the car he has that it was going to be very difficult for him to defend his crown, so that really should have taken all the pressure off him.
He shouldn't be making the kind of basic errors that he did. Instead of being pushing at the front, which the car was clearly capable of, he was at the back and while he was able to use the KERS button to pass a couple of driver he went nowhere and all because he made that mistake. The KERS button did add to the racing in Monaco. Normally overtaking in the dry is impossible, but the likes of Massa and Hamilton were able to overtake at the chicane coming out of the tunnel thanks to the speed boost that the device gave them.
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