After Monza, and barring completely unforseen circumstances (which you can never rule out), Jenson’s job was to make sure he didn’t lose more than 2 points a race to his team mate.
That would have brought him the Driver’s Championship with a 6 point margin.
Last night in Singapore he came from behind to beat Rubens and gain a point. Now Rubens has to get 5 more points than Jenson in each of the last 3 races.
Certainly not impossible – 2 DNF’s would turn things upside down, of course.
But Jenson has shown over this season that he can be remarkably cool when things aren’t going his way. At times I thought a little too cool.
But he hasn’t shown any of the impetuosity that characterised both Hamilton’s and Massa’s performances in recent seasons.
And that makes Rubens’ job a lot harder.
Last night’s race was a great one for Jenson. Starting 11th after a grim qualifying session he was on a one-stopper, but his fuel advantage was wiped out by the safety car.
Back on the same strategy as everyone else he had to drive the best race he could to get ahead of Barrichello and increase his overall lead in the championship.
Which he did.
The last few laps were a bit tense – it seems the combination of the heat and the circuit was tough on the brakes: Webber crashed out with brake failure and there were puffs of smoke coming from Jenson’s brakes a few laps from the end.
Jenson was 7 seconds ahead of Rubens 2 laps from the end and eventually beat him by 1.8 seconds – which shows just how much he had to slow down in order to get his car home.
Nice one Jenson – and carry on keeping your cool!
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