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Sports

Monday May 11, 2009

Button reigns in Spain

BARCELONA: Britain’s Jenson Button (pic) led a Brawn GP one-two triumph at the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday for the Formula One championship leader’s fourth victory in five races.

For the ninth year in a row, victory at the Circuit de Catalunya went to the driver starting from pole position with Button taking the chequered flag 13.0sec ahead of Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

“I crossed the line first and this is a race where I didn’t really think I was going to,” Button said. “It is a good feeling and gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.

“Even when times are tough, we’ve been able to get the wins. I feel on top of the world.”

Australian Mark Webber was third for Red Bull, his second podium finish of the season, ahead of German team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Spain’s Fernando Alonso had the home crowd roaring when he snatched fifth place on the final lap from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Brazilian Massa, who led for a lap after the first pitstops, had to slow in the closing laps to save fuel with the team warning him that he risked not making it to the finish.

Carnage in Catalunya: Toyota’s Jarno Trulli of Italy (top) crashing into the two Torro Rosso cars driven by Sebastien Bourdais (right) and Sebastien Buemi during the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday. — AP

The three points were still the first of the season for last year’s overall runner-up.

Germans Nick Heidfeld in a BMW-Sauber and Nico Rosberg for Williams were seventh and eighth respectively.

Button, now with five career wins to his credit, was overtaken at the start by Barrichello but forced himself back in front of the Brazilian with an astute strategy shift from three stops to two.

The Briton is now 14 points clear of his 36-year-old team-mate, who had been tantalisingly close to his first win since he was Michael Schumacher’s team-mate at Ferrari in 2004.

Barrichello’s extra pit stop allowed Button to make up the difference.

“I had the race in my hands and I was quite surprised when they told me they were switching Jenson to two (stops),” Barrichello said. “I would like to understand why they changed that.

“I had a great start and went to the lead. I was running a tiny bit quicker than Jenson to begin with,”

Ferrari’s 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, last year’s winner in Barcelona, retired after less than a third of the race while McLaren’s world champion Lewis Hamilton was ninth and lapped by his winning compatriot.

The safety car was deployed for four laps after a pile-up involving Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, both Toro Rosso drivers and Force India’s Adrian Sutil as the field powered through the second corner. — Agencies

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