Button won this race on lap 2, due to two things, firstly Hamilton's botched move on Trulli at turn four (a start from Lewis which would have reminded the elder generation of a banzai Gilles Villeneuve start), as Lewis rejoined at turn four, Jensen was right behind, and going in to turn one at the start of lap 2, Button made his move, having got a much better drive out of the final corner than the world champion, Button was less than a tenth of a second behind as they crossed the line, when Lewis would have been given a new lot of KERS, whether he used it or not i'm not sure, but either way Button was so close behind it would only have dragged him along with it, going into turn one then, Button, always so calm and smooth when braking, stuck to the inside and took the place, it was a move worthy of race victory.
From then on Button was placed to take the lead, the Toyota's couldn't pull out a big enough lead to justify their low fuel loads, while Hamilton kept Vettel, probably the only man who could really race Button here this weekend, well back.
When they did pit, both Toyota men went for a long stint on the hard tyre, which turned out to be the poor tyre this weekend, this long stint cost them any chance of the race win, Glock even looked like he would slip out of the points for a while, such was his poor pace.
Come Button's stop, the Toyota's had been struggling for several laps on their new hard tyres, and when the Brawn re-joined, he was well ahead. Luckily for Button, Vettel had only re-joined behind Jarno Trulli,and would spend the next stint stuck behind that panasonic rear wing, without this, Vettel would have been right up with Jensen at the end. The only saving grace for Trulli, was that both Vettel and Button would have to run the hard tyre on the final stint.
Further back down the field, Mark Webber, starting 18, had his race really destroyed when he got stuck behind Nelson Piquet early on, Webber was destined to spend his race behind the renault man, while it was good to see Piquet putting in a much better performance than of late, he wasn't far behind his team-mate at the finish line, you did wish Webber could have got passed and seen how far up the order he could of got.
Also, it was easily BMW's worst ever formula one performance, both cars getting involved in minor first lap incidents which cost them a pit-stop for new front wings, and then spent the rest of the race trundling around at the back. This was the first team to release and frequently test their 09 car, and you wonder where its all gone wrong.
Meantime back at the front, Button had pulled out a large advantage over Trulli, Vettel and the impressive Hamilton, an advantage of 14 seconds or so, such was Trulli's problems on the hard tyre. Button rejoined with a healthy 12 second lead over Vettel, who had leap-frogged Trulli for second in the pits, Trulli was on the better tyre and pushed Vettel hard, but not enough to find a way through, both of them meanwhile, where rapidly disposing of Hamilton, struggling in the final stages in his Mclaren, and were catching up Button, struggling a small amount on the hard tyre, but with Button's smooth style,hes much easier on the tyres than most overs, and tyre management is one of his strengths.
So Button won by 6 seconds from Vettel, had Vettel not been held up by Hamilton and Trulli than we may well have seen an almighty scrap for the win. As it was, Button was un-troubled throughout, aside from the incredible heat which caused the Brawn Team to cut bodywork from the car to aid cooling, such was their worry about heat problems.
Vettel came through for his second podium in a row, and if it wern't for his late skirmish in Melbourne, would be right up their at the top of the drivers championship. But the Red Bull is looking strong and should be for a while yet.
Trulli was dissapointed with third, the Toyota slightly lacked the ultimate pace, and certainly put the hard tyres on at the wrong time, their first win still awaits, but 2009 is their best chance still to take it.
Other notable performances, Raikkonen got the maximum out of his Ferrari to get 6th place and stop them earning their worst ever start to a season. The two force india's ran well in the early stages, racing with Kovalainen,Webber and Piquet.
Sebastien Bourdais, easily his strongest race in the dry this season, although he started last, and the TV camera's barely found him all race, he came home 13th and right on the tail of Kovalainen who must have sustained damage in the first lap as he had no pace whatsoever.
Spain next, normally one of the dullest races of the season, but this isn't no ordinary season! Ferrari and Mclaren are promising quite significant updates, so will we see a return to the pecking order of recent years? or will the new order of 2009 reign supreme again?
Drivers Championship
1 J.Button, Brawn, 31points
2 R.Barrichello, Brawn, 19points
3 S.Vettel, Red Bull, 18points
4 J.Trulli, Toyota, 14.5points
5 T.Glock, Toyota, 12points
6 M.Webber, Red Bull, 9.5points
Starting Grid
1 J.Trulli, Toyota
2 T.Glock, Toyota
3 S.Vettel, Red Bull
4 J.Button, Brawn
5 L.Hamilton, Mclaren
6 R.Barrichello,Brawn
7 F.Alonso, Renault
8 F.Massa, Ferrari
9 N.Rosberg, Williams
10K.Raikkonen, Ferrari
11 H.Kovalainen, Mclaren
12 K.Nakajima, Williams
13 R.Kubica, BMW
14 N.Heidfeld, BMW
15 N.Piquet, Renault
16 S.Buemi, Torro Rosso
17 G.Fisichella, Force India
18 M.Webber, Red Bull
19 A.Sutil, Force India
20 S.Bourdais
Race Result
1- J.Button, Brawn GP 10points
2- S.Vettel, Red Bull 8points
3- J.Trulli, Toyota 6points
4- L.Hamilton, Mclaren 5points
5- R.Barrichello, Brawn GP, 4points
6- K.Raikkonen, Ferrari, 3points
7- T.GLock, Toyota, 2points
8- F.Alonso, Renault,1 point
9- N.Rosberg, Williams
10-N.Piquest, Renault
11-M.Webber, Red Bull
12-H.Kovalainen,Mclaren
13-S.Bourdais, Torro Rosso
14-F.Massa, Ferrari
15-G.Fisichella, Force India
16-A.Sutil, Force India
17-S.Buemi, Torro Rosso,
18-R.Kubica, BMW
19-N.Heidfeld, BMW
20-K.Nakajima, Williams- Retired
Fastest lap, J.Trulli 1.34.556
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