Before I continue, is there anyone out there who thinks a 5pm start in Malaysia is a good thing? I thought so.
Once again Jenson Button in his Brawn GP was unstoppable leaving all the 1 step diffuser teams on their knees praying for April 14 to come. Not to take everything away from Button, he drove a top notch race both on land and in the river.

The race for BMW was for me bitter sweet. I am super happy the team raced to it’s second podium by way of Nick Heidfeld, but still hurting from the parade lap engine failure that took Robert Kubica out of the race on lap 1 with the engine cowling on fire.

It was on the parade lap that Kubica starting in a pretty good 6th position radioed back that he heard strange engine noises. Nevertheless he lined up on the grid and when the red lights went out so did his car. By the time he reached the end of the start grid he was in last place and shortly after parked the car and that was it. Over.

As for Nick Heidfeld, he had better luck. Starting with a very heavy fuel load because of his poorer grid position, the idea was to run longer than the front runners who were quite a bit lighter and longer than the other heavily fueled cars like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. When the lighter fueled cars began pitting, Heidfeld stayed out and gained one position after another until he was in 6th and by Lap 22 when he did finally pit he had full wet tires. Heavy rain hadn’t come but was expected, a gamble that almost didn’t pay off. The rain held off and his full wets were almost worn out by the rain finally did come. At that point all the other drivers on intermediates quickly pitted and even on worn wets Heidfeld stayed out and moved up into 2nd place.

The race was finally called on lap 32 after he was passed by Glock who had newer wet tires, but rules say that the official end is the lap before the race is called. This put Nick back into 2nd and on the podium.

Call it good pit and tire strategy or just plain luck, but it’s not the first time Nick has used his head in the rain to gain positions on the track. Remember back to Spa Belgium in 2008 and you’ll see what I mean if you forgot.

Considering they are up against the 2 step diffuser guys this was a pretty good result. Robert Kubica’s engine failure is only the first dnf due to the car since the begining of last season. Let’s hope they get hold of the problem quickly and get onto another streak like that.

photo bmw ag