Behind the top three, it was a three-way fight for the remaining points positions between
Renault duo
Giancarlo Fisichella and
Heikki Kovalainen, Toyota’s
Jarno Trulli and Williams’
Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg, of course, didn’t finish and retired while running sixth, but the fact that Alex Wurz was ninth in the sister car, despite starting 19th courtesy of gearbox issues, suggests that the Grove team definitely has the pace. The FW29 just needs to be a bit more reliable and, once that is done, things should fall in to place a bit more.
Why Renault is down here though must be tough for the team to accept. They have lost a lot of ground over the winter and it would be interesting to see what Alonso could do with that car. We will never know, of course, but it won’t stop people from speculating. All I would point out is that
F1 is a team sport and, while one person can be important, there is a lot more to it than that. It is often said that package is what is important and, clearly, Renault need to do some work here.
One thing that was good for them was that Kovalainen scored his first points and, after a difficult debut in Australia, that has to be positive for him and the team. Fisichella was solid too and, considering they only lined up eleventh and twelfth, to finish sixth and eighth in the race wasn’t too bad at all.
There’s really not much to say about the rest, although
Mark Webber was solid for
Red Bull. Tenth in qualifying and tenth in the race gives them something to build on, but I think it is already pretty safe to say don’t expect any miracles from them this season.
The
Honda F1 team were still pretty tragic – and talk of them building a new car for mid-season shows just how bad the RA107 is. They were reliable, which was something, but I can’t think they will take much consolation from finishing eleventh and twelfth, especially as
Jenson Button was battling with ‘B’ team member,
Takuma Sato. Dark days.
