It's that man again! Jensen Button stormed to win his 4th grand prix in 5 races, not getting boring is it?!
Button really is looking like a world champion and now has a 14 points advantage over his team-mate Barrichello, and is 18points ahead of Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull.
What's more impressive is the Brawn teams' constructors points advantage! 29.5 points. The car is fast, and incredibly reliable, its a fantastic achievement alround and the team will have been delighted this week to have stayed ahead of the chasing pack who have brought enormous amounts of updates and new parts.
Brawn have said all season "Lets see where were at in Spain" and well, theyre at the front!
The spanish grand prix always promised to be dull, and it held up to its word. Aside from a first lap smash caused by a wayward Jarno Trulli which took out Sutil and caused the Torro Rosso's to collide. It was perhaps the most dull of event of the year so far, not that Brawn and Button would care.
Barrichello took the lead at the start from Button, while Massa held up Vettel and Webber. Behind them Alonso had shot up to 6 ahead of Rosberg and Glock who would go on to struggle in the Toyota.
Barrichello pulled out a slight advantage of his team-mate while Button pulled away from Massa. Little happened before the first round of stops, aside from Kovalainen and Raikkonen pulling up with gearbox and hydraulics problems respectively.
The first round of stops would effectively decide the outcome of the race. Button would decide to swap from an original 3 stop strategy to a 2 stop. Barrichello would stay on the 3 stop, thearetically faster than a 2 stop plan.
Button was first to stop, and with a longer stop and a heavier car, this is where Barrichello had to make his advantage after his stop a lap later.
Massa managed to emerge from his first stop ahead of Vettel and Webber, but Webber was fuelled for a long middle stint which would help him no end at the second and third stops. Vettel was destined to spend almost the entire race behind the Ferrari.
In the second stint Rubens only managed to pull out 13s on his team mate, but at least 20s was required and this pretty much meant Button just had to keep his pace up for his 4th win of the year, Barrichello requiring an extra stop of course.
After Barrichello's 2nd stop, Button simply controlled the race. The Brawns were too far ahead of Webber and Vettel for them to challenge. Webber had managed to leap-frog his team-mate and Felipe Massa into 3rd. While Massa remained in 4th untill ordered to conserve fuel late on after his pit crew had fuelled him short by a lap. Ferrari have to stop making mistakes.
This cost Massa 2 places and 2 points, and he has pretty much conceded that the championship is out of reach.
The rest of the points went to Alonso in 5th, Massa 6th, Heidfeld picked up 2 points in a stronger BMW for 7th, and Rosberg picked up a somewhat dissapointing solitary point.
Further down the field,(Button had lapped everybody up to Rosberg). Hamilton struggled to 9th, and is making no bones about the fact that his Mclaren is still a very poor car. Glock struggled like wise in 10th, Toyota have to bounce back quick to stop them falling from Red Bull and Brawn in the title race.
Kubica, Piquet and Nakijama had very quiet races to 11th,12th and 13th, while Fisichella came home last in 14th, despite setting the 8th fastest lap of the race. Fisi had fastest lap here in 1997 and 2005 so hes obviously quite an expert.
So Brawn continue to reign supreme. They have been slightly lucky in the last two grand prix that Red Bull have not had a clear run at them, but the start of the race is an important part and one the Red Bull men have to master.
Barrichello will be wondering how he can beat his unstoppable team-mate, perhaps Monaco will give him a chance?
1. BUTTON Brawn
2. BARRICHELLO Brawn +13.0s
3. WEBBER Red Bull +13.9s
4. VETTEL Red Bull +18.9s
5. ALONSO Renault +43.1s
6. MASSA Ferrari +50.8s
7. HEIDFELD BMW +52.3s
8. ROSBERG Williams +65.2s
9. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
10. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap
11. KUBICA BMW +1 lap
12. PIQUET Renault +1 lap
13. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap
14. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +49 laps
R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +59 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +66 laps
R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +66 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +66 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +66 laps
Fastest lap: BARRICHELLO 1m22.762s (lap 28)
Drivers Championship
1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 41
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 27
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 23
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 15.5
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 14.5
6. Timo Glock Toyota 12
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 9
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 9
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