Sunday, March 29, 2009

Jenson Button wins Australian Grand Prix after perfect drive

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello secured a dream debut victory for Brawn GP with a memorable one-two in today's Australian Grand Prix.
Button led from start to finish ahead of his team-mate Barrichello, who recovered after being slow off the line at the start line, and Lewis Hamilton, with the race finishing under safety car conditions following a late accident.
Hamilton, who started 18th after a catastrophic gearbox failure in qualifying, was promoted from fourth to third place after Italian Jarno Trulli was given a 25-second penalty for overtaking while the safety car was on the track.
No Formula One team had won on their debut since Wolf in 1977 while the last to secure the top two places first time out was Mercedes in 1954.
"This is a fairytale ending for the first race," Button, who secured only his second win in his 10th year of racing, said. "Some people may say its a pity the race finished under the safety car but I don't care, I won the race and that's all I care about."
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and BMW's Robert Kubica collided while running second and third with only four laps to go, ending their races and bringing out the safety car. Vettel will drop ten grid places in the next race in Malaysia next weekend for causing the collision.
Toyota's Timo Glock finished fifth ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg of Williams and Red Bull's Sebastien Buemi, who got one point in his first grand prix.
For the second year running, Ferrari finished without a point in the season opener. Felipe Massa was running in third place before sustaining a reliability failure on lap 45, three laps after Kimi Raikkonen spun out.
There was a crash at the first corner that ended the race for McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, and forced BMW's Nick Heidfeld, Red Bull's Mark Webber and Force India's Adrian Sutil to immediately pit, effectively ending their chances.
Leading Final Positions after Race (58 Laps): 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 1hr 34mins 15.784secs, 2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:34:16.591, 3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:34:18.698, 4 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:34:42.388, 5 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:34:20.219, 6 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:34:20.663, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:34:21.506, 8 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34:21.788, 9 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:34:22.082, 10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:34:22.119, 11 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:34:22.869, 12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:34:23.158, 13 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull at 1 lap, 14 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull at 2 laps, 15 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber at 3 laps, 16 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari at 3 laps
Not Classified: 17 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 45 laps completed, 18 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Bra) Renault 24 laps completed, 19 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 17 laps completed, 20 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 0 laps completed
Leading World Championship Standings After Australian Grand Prix:
Drivers: 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 10pts, 2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 8, 3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 6, 4 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota5, 5 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 4, 6 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 3, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 2, 8 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1
Manufacturers: 1 Brawn GP 18pts, 2 Toyota 9, 3 McLaren 6, 4 Renault 3, 5 Williams 2, 6 Scuderia Toro Rosso 1

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