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Another Brawn 1-2

World Championship leader Jenson Button has once again proven he and his Brawn team are the class of the field with a flag to flag win at the historic Monaco Grand Prix. Brawn had yet another one-two finish with Rubens Barrichello finishing well down on his team mate, but the story of the day was Button who drove superbly all race to record his fifth win of the season and take a huge lead in the title race.

The two Brawn cars shot off the line at the start to give themselves the best advantage possible as they beat the Ferrari of Raikkonen into the first corner, followed by the Red Bull of Vettel. For once there were no accidents into turn one as everyone was looking to impress at the crown jewel of the Formula One calendar. However it wasn’t long until the race was turned slightly on its head as the teams on super soft tyres saw their pace disappear rapidly. Vettel and Barrichello went from times of 1:16s to all of the sudden drop to 1:19s. Button, who was also on the super soft tyres, managed to conserve them better and thanks to Barrichello blocking Raikkonen, was able to pull out the race winning margin before taking an early pit stop.

As it became evident that the super soft tyres would not last long the teams started to make extra long middle stints to limit time spent on the super soft. Unusually for Monaco it took 12 laps for an accident to occur as Buemi lost concentration and slammed into the back of Piquet as they both braked for turn one, sending both drivers out the race. Not long after an inexperienced Sebastian Vettel slammed into the turn one wall as he looked to make up the huge time he had lost to Massa, Rosberg and Kovalainen.

After the first round of pit stops Webber and Massa both managed to jump Rosberg, while Webber also got ahead of Kovalainen, setting himself up well for the rest of the race. BMW’s day went from bad to worse when Robert Kubica retired with mechanical problems just 28 laps into the race. Meanwhile at the front of the race Button began to stretch away from both Barrichello and Raikkonen, as Massa and Webber set about catching the former World Champion. All five drivers traded the fastest lap time around prior to the second stop. A driver who would not make it to the second stop was Heikki Kovalainen. He span out in the swimming pool and ended the hopes of McLaren gaining a point from a dismal weekend.

From then on Button was never headed as he cruised to the line to take a well earned victory with Barrichello just managing to fight off Raikkonen, who also had to fight off his team mate and the flying Mark Webber. Nico Rosberg gained a decent haul of points for Williams in sixth, while Fernando Alonso flew home to take seventh after almost catching Rosberg in the final laps. Sebastien Bourdais in the sole remaining Toro Rosso held off a charge from Giancarlo Fisichella to take the final points paying position as BMW and Toyota once again finished without points, as did Lewis Hamilton.

Written: Sun, 24 May 2009 14:16:10