Quite interestingly, the top 3 drivers were all driving their first races for their teams.
It was good to see Jean Todt at the race.. He is, of course, the company CEO, but maybe he thought with Brawn and Stepney and Schumacher gone, it would be nice to have at least one familiar face around in the pits. But where was Michelle Yeoh?
Hamilton’s first corner maneuver to go from 5th to 3rd in a flash was positively the most creative driving I have seen since Renault’s amazing jump starts a few years ago.
Fellow debutant, Kovalainen, did no such thing on the starting grid, but he did execute a perfect 36o in his Renault! It cost him a position, but I say it was totally worth it!!
And talking about Renault.. they looked a completely different team from last year, and Fisichella needed all his experience to keep Massa away and bring home those 4 points. Just goes to show how much the team misses Alonso, despite whatever Briatore might have to say. Alonso may have a shot at completing his hattrick, but it definitely doesn’t look like Renault will come anywhere close to theirs.
Williams will have a few things to cheer about.. Rosberg equalled his best F1 finish. He’s a much better driver than that, though, and surely one to watch out for in the years to come. But the biggest news from the team’s point of view would definitely be that he finished ahead of both the Toyotas. Remember the Williams are running the same Toyota engine and they will be itching to prove that they can make a Toyota engine in a Williams car perform better than the Toyota engine in the Toyota car. What that would mean for Team Toyota, who are still searching for their 1st win in their 6th season? Only time will tell..
Another guy who should be quite happy with his performance is Sato.. Driving a car he had never seen before the weekend, he still managed a fairly respectable 12th. He didn’t get any points for his efforts, and in fact it was 2 spots down from his starting grid position, but at least he finished ahead of his former teammate, Button.
Barichello, in the other Honda, finished 11th just ahead of Sato, which basically means Honda won’t be making any big waves this season either.. Keep in mind that Honda had probably the best car on the grid in the second half of last season, with Button scoring more points than anyone else in the last 6 races. And Super Aguri is basically using that same car (some rules can indeed be bent!!). So, much like Williams, they are in a very interesting position to upstage the “real” Honda team.. now that would be fun to watch!
Oh, and Honda should get an award for the most creative paint job on an F1 car, ever! Almost no sponsor logos and a beautiful blue and green Earth.
As for other teams with customer engines weren’t that lucky.. Both Redbull cars finished below the Renaults.. and neither Spyker nor STR could come anywhere close to Ferrari. Except when they were being lapped, of course.
Albers had possibly the worst excuse ever for wrecking a car.. apparently he was distracted by his ear plug and forgot to brake. Hmmmm.
India 191 (49.3 ov)
