Brawn GP’s Button dominates 2009 Monaco F1 GP

Newbie team Brawn GP continued their streak of wins, as Jenson Button dominated the Monaco F1 Grand Prix at Monte Carlo on Sunday, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello behind him. Jensen, the current points leader, grabbed the lead at the start, eased quickly away from Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello, and ran home to a comfortable victory.

There was not a single moment when he ever looked like losing this one, as he stretched his points score to 51, and his lead to 16 over Barrichello. His only error came following the chequered flag when, in his jubilation, he parked his car in the wrong area and had to jog all the way to the podium.

Barrichello kept his end up and reduced Buttons 12-second lead to 7.6 seconds in the closing stages, and he in turn was well clear of the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen which he had beaten off the start line and stayed ahead of apart from during the pit stops. Felipe Massa had a good day for Ferrari by keeping his race-car ahead of the hard-charging Mark Webber in the only surviving Red Bull car as they battled for fourth place a couple of seconds behind the Finn.

Nico Rosberg had a feisty run to sixth for Williams, ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso. Sebastien Bourdais took the final point for eighth place for Toro Rosso, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India after a race-long fight.

In Button’s wake it was not a classic race. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel held fourth place early on until getting outfoxed by Massa and Rosberg, and after an early pit stop the German crashed at Ste Devote on Lap 15.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi blotted his copybook by running into the rear of Nelson Piquet’s Renault there on Lap 11, both retiring. Heikki Kovalainen also crashed. It lost him seventh place on Lap 52. Late in the race Kazuki Nakajima lost tenth after crashing into tyres.

Timo Glock was thus tenth for Toyota, after a very long first stint which took him through to Lap 57 before he refuelled. He was followed by BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, who was hounded to the flag by an unhappy Lewis Hamilton, who had earlier damaged his McLaren in a brush with the German at Ste Devote on the tenth lap.

Behind the McLaren came Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, whom Hamilton passed on Lap 75, and Adrian Sutil’s Force India. BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica made a poor start, and was the first pit stopper before later retiring with mechanical problems.

RESULTS

1 J Button Brawn-Mercedes
2 R Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes
3 K Raikkonnen Ferrari
4 F Massa Ferrari
5 M Webber RBR-Renault
6 N Rosberg Williams-Toyota
7 F Alonso Renault
8 S Bourdais STR-Ferrari
9 G Fisichella Force India-Mercedes
10 T Glock Toyota
11 N Heidfeld BMW Sauber
12 L Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
13 J Trulli Toyota
14 A Sutil Force India-Mercedes
15 K Nakajima Williams-Toyota
Ret H Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes
Ret R Kubica BMW Sauber
Ret S Vettel RBR-Renault
Ret N Piquet Renault
Ret S Buemi STR-Ferrari

POINTS TO DATE

Button 51
Barrichello 35
Vettel 23
Webber 19.5
Trulli 14.5
Glock 12
Alonso 11
Raikkonen 9
Hamilton 9
Massa 8
Rosberg 7.5
Heidfeld 6
Kovalainen 4
Buemi 3
Bourdais 2
Kubica 0
Piquet 0
Nakajima 0
Sutil 0
Fisichella 0

CONSTRUCTOR POINTS TO DATE

Brawn GP 86
Red Bull Racing 42.5
Toyota 26.5
Ferrari 17
McLaren-Mercedes 13
Renault 11
Williams 7.5
BMW Sauber 6
Scuderia Toro Rosso 5
Force India 0