Full Throttle

It took 2 entire events, plus four turns, but for some reason it was inevitable Honda’s Jenson Button would be involved in the years initial Safety Car period.

Jense and Scott Speed tangled in turn four with Adrian Sutil getting caught up and had to pit for a new nose cone.

Meanwhile the other Brit (and rookie, and heir apparent to all the Brit lovin’ Brolly Babes)…

… was in a duel for the lead with pole sitter Massa. Massa and Hamilton played tit-for-tat exchanging fastest laps until the first round of stops started with Hamilton the first of the leaders to pit on lap 20.

Alonso, Raikkonen and Massa followed suit two laps later. By lap 25 everybody had pitted (well, everyone that counts), with the race order at Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Davidson, Kubica and Fisichella.

By lap 30 the bloom went off the McLaren rose. Hamilton was losing half a second a lap to race leader Massa, who held an eight second lead at that point. Raikkonen in third was still closing on the Briton, but looked to take on less fuel during his first stop.

And how about DC’s Red Bull! He’s sliced through the field from 21^st and sits in seventh on lap 31!

And speaking of storming, Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber is all over the back of Alonso and takes fourth place at turn four.

But alas, DC’s Red Bull came up lame 6 laps later. Now it’s up to Mark Webber, currently in 7^th, to ride a Bull into the barn.

Massa comes in from the lead for his last pit stop on lap 41 and is followed by Kimi on the next go round leaving Hamilton in the lead.

If the kid is smart he will pull a patented “Schmi” and reel off a couple stormin’ laps in preps for his stop.

Massa comes out on hard rubber and promptly sets a new fastest lap (43) and Alonso makes his second stop. So much for riding any “Bulls,” Webber’s race ended on the side of the track.

Hamilton pits for the second time with hard compounds going on, and Massa retakes the lead. Hamilton rejoins ahead of Raikkonen, why do I sense the final few laps are going to be similar to those in Malaysia?

With 11 left Massa holds a 10 second lead over Hamilton with the Brit taking about six tenths of a second a lap out of the Brazilian. Hamilton has also stretched the gap over Raikkonen to 2.7 seconds, so it looks as though he won’t be hauled in as happened at Sepang.

With seven laps to go, barring any breakdowns, and with few tight battles on the track it’s all over but the shoutin’.

One lap to go and there’s still a little scrap left in Fisi. He tried to duck his Renault inside of Trulli’s Toyota on the straight but failed to make it stick.

Was that Renault boss Flavio urging Fisi on over the radio or did I overhear a call to Elisabetta?

Regardless Briatore should be happy to at least get one point and remain within shouting distance of the top three constructors.

With Massa’s win and the top six filled with two Ferrari’s, two Mclaren’s and two BMW’s the season’s pattern looks to be set.

Unless something drastic happens the rest of the field will be scraping for the last two points positions and realistically, only Renault seems able to compete for those two spots.

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