http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5510624,00.html Whitmarsh explains reason for Lewis pit blunder Monday 24th August 2009 Although he insists that they wouldn't have been able to stop Rubens Barrichello from winning in Valencia, Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that their decision to change strategy halfway through the race backfired. Lewis Hamilton was leading the European GP by more than four seconds when disaster struck during his second pit stop. The McLaren pit crew were not ready for him and he was stuck in the pit lane for 13.4 seconds. The extended stop allowed Barrichello to leapfrog him and the Brawn GP driver went on to win the race. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh concedes that they decided to swap Hamilton's pit stop with Heikki Kovalainen at the last second and it backfired. "Following our all-front-row qualifying result, naturally enough we had very high expectations for today's race," Whitmarsh said after the race. "In the event, though, our race pace wasn't good enough to beat Rubens's car. We'd adopted a different tyre strategy from many of the front-runners - maybe that was right, maybe that was wrong - but the reality is that we weren't quick enough to win today. "So, coming in to the final pit stops, in our efforts to convert a safe second for Lewis into a possible first for him, we took a calculated risk in attempting to reverse the sequence of Lewis's and Heikki's pit stops at the last second. "That last-second decision caused a bit of pit lane confusion, which probably cost Lewis a couple of seconds overall - but Rubens's race pace was such that that couple of seconds didn't make a difference to the outcome of the race." Go Brawn GP!
The team lost Lewis the race.... The End. Whether Lewis would have still come out in front of Rubens is but hard to say, but it would of been mightly close either way and Lewis being Lewis would have probably tried something if he did come out behind him. Rather than ending up 6-7 seconds behind. He only closed up near the end because Rubens lifted off a bit in the last couple of laps.
I doubt it, Rubens was clearly quicker that day and seemed to have some pace in hand towards the end. Rubens would have won either way.
That's racing. Ferrari cost Massa the WDC in 2008 with several letdowns, among them the fuel rig debacle.
I think that pit stop cost him the race. Rubens may have been quicker, particularly in the last stint when he was on the option tires, but catching the leader and passing the leader are two different things.
some people don't undersand. RB had 4 or 5 more laps of fuel than LH before the second stop. While RB would have been blistering fast with light fuel for those few laps, LH would have come out on the harder tyre with a tank full of fuel, and going much slower, so that when RB came in, he would have come out in front of LH. no overtaking necessary, as usual.
I dont think LH would have been slow at all full tank or not. IMO LH would have won as RB would have been on softs and LH was on primes which suited the Mclaren. In the end Brawn had a better set up for both tires whereas Mclarens soft tire set up was off. The pit screw up was 6 seconds longer and margin of victory was 2 or 3. Both Rubens and LH said they were flat out. I'll take LH's flat out over RB's any day.
