2009 F1 : Button masters Monaco for fifth win in six

2009 Grand Prix de Monaco Winner : Jenson Button - Brawn-Mercedes

MONACO : May 24, 2009 - Formula One championship leader Jenson Button mastered Monaco's treacherous streets on Sunday to chalk up his fifth victory in six races and lead another Brawn GP one-two finish.


Button opened up his lead in the championship even further over his team mate, who was followed across the line by Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

It was Ferrari's best result of the season as team mate Felipe Massa finished fourth ahead of Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault and Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota). The final points went to Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Sébastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso).

Button made the most of pole position to take the lead at the start of the race. Team mate Rubens Barrichello made an excellent start, beating second-placed Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) into the first corner to ride shotgun for his championship-leading partner.

Unusually for this tight and twisty street circuit, there were no incidents on the opening lap, and Button crossed the line ahead of Barrichello, followed by Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes).

By lap 5, Massa was right up behind Vettel, but could not find a way past, despite drawing alongside in the braking zone at the end of the tunnel. On the next lap, Massa repeated the move, but out-braked himself and had to go straight across the chicane, emerging in the lead. He was obliged to hand back the place gained or face a penalty, but he mis-timed the manoeuvre and an opportunistic Rosberg stayed right behind Vettel's gearbox and got past Massa too.

The leading group of Button, Barrichello and Räikkönen opened up a 20-second gap over Vettel, who was holding up a train of cars.

On lap 11, Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) missed his brake marker and rammed into the back of Nelson Piquet (Renault), putting them both out of the race.

Barrichello was slower on lap 12 as his tyres wore out, allowing Räikkönen to close right up on him as Button opened up a 7-sec lead.

Massa got past Vettel and immediately set the fastest lap of the race - 1'16.383 - on lap 13 as he made the most of the empty track ahead of him. Fourth-placed Rosberg, 9 sec behind Räikkönen, replied with a 1'16.373.

Räikkönen pitted on lap 15, taking a set of the harder compound tyres.

Vettel understeered into the apex at St Devote and smacked the barriers, breaking his suspension and putting himself out of the race.

Button pitted on lap 16, allowing Rosberg through into the lead. Rosberg pitted on the next lap, reinstalling Button as the race leader.

On lap 28, Barrichello set a new fastest lap time of 1'16.152 as he started to chip away at Button's 15-sec lead.

Last year at about this time, Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) was leading the world championship, but on lap 29 of this race he returned to the pits where his car was wheeled into the garage.

Massa banged in a 1'15.908 as he took aim at third-placed Räikkönen's car three seconds ahead. The Finn was an equal distance behind Barrichello. Barrichello then set the fastest lap as he responded, but Massa was even quicker with a 1'15.759, a 1'15.757 and then a 1'15.609 on lap 38. Although Massa was the fastest man on the track, he was cutting the chicane at the exit of the Swimming Pool complex. Drivers are to keep at least one tyre on the track, but Massa's Ferrari had all four tyres across the kerbing, resulting in a second warning from the race stewards. Massa duly complied and his next lap time dropped to 1'16.503, nearly a second slower.

Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) had been lurking in the top ten for the first half of the race. On lap 42 he was in fifth, 4.1 sec behind Massa and he set the new fastest lap - 1'15.567. He capped that with a 1'15.321 as he moved the gap down to 3.9 sec.

Second-placed Barrichello pitted on lap 50 followed by race leader Button on the next lap.

Seventh-placed Kovalainen, chasing Rosberg, ran slightly wide at the Swimming Pool chicane and lost the back end of his McLaren, which darted across the track and destroyed the front wing and nose cone in the barriers. The Finn was unhurt but retired.

On lap 57, Massa and Webber pitted together. The Ferrari pit crew took 7.5 sec as opposed to the Red Bull team's 8.0 sec, allowing Massa to emerge ahead of Rosberg, with the Australian trapped behind.

After the leading cars had made their second stops, Button was leading from Barrichello (+12.8), Räikkönen (+18.2) and Massa (+20.2).

Räikkönen's harder compound tyres were about a second a lap slower than the softs, and he had Massa 1.6 sec behind him, with Webber a further 3.6 sec adrift.

On lap 67, Fernando Alonso (Renault) made his second stop and took the softer compound tyres. He rejoined in seventh, 49.0 sec behind race leader Button.

World champion Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) started at the back of the grid after being penalised for an unscheduled gearbox change - the result of his qualifying accident. He had a side-swipe with Nakajima's Williams which damaged his front wing, and he stayed at the back of the pack. At his second pit stop, the front wing was swopped and his lap times immediately improved, but he was still down in 14th place with ten laps remaining.

Fifth-placed Webber was pushing hard as he could see the Ferraris of Räikkönen and Massa just three seconds ahead.

The best action in the dying laps came from Hamilton's duel with Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) for 12th place.

Nakajima crashed at Mirabeau on the final lap.

Race Result : Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2009

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:40:44.282	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	+7.6 secs	8
3	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+13.4 secs	6
4	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+15.1 secs	5
5	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	+15.7 secs	4
6	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+33.5 secs	3
7	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	+37.8 secs	2
8	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	+63.1 secs	1
9	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	+65.0 secs	-
10	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	+1 Lap	-
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+1 Lap	-
12	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 Lap	-
13	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	+1 Lap	-
14	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	+1 Lap	-
15	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+2 Laps	-
Ret	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	Accident	-
Ret	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	Brakes	-
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	Accident	-
Ret	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	Accident damage	-
Ret	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	Accident	-

Driver Championship Standings :

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Jenson Button	British	Brawn-Mercedes	51
2	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Brawn-Mercedes	35
3	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	23
4	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	19.5
5	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Toyota	14.5
6	Timo Glock	German	Toyota	12
7	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Renault	11
8	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	9
9	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	9
10	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	8
11	Nico Rosberg	German	Williams-Toyota	7.5
12	Nick Heidfeld	German	BMW Sauber	6
13	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	McLaren-Mercedes	4
14	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	3
15	Sebastien Bourdais	French	STR-Ferrari	2
16	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	0
17	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	0
18	Nelsinho Piquet	Brazilian	Renault	0
19	Robert Kubica	Polish	BMW Sauber	0
20	Kazuki Nakajima	Japanese	Williams-Toyota	0

Constructor Championship Standings :

Pos	Team	Points
1	Brawn-Mercedes	86
2	RBR-Renault	42.5
3	Toyota	26.5
4	Ferrari	17
5	McLaren-Mercedes	13
6	Renault	11
7	Williams-Toyota	7.5
8	BMW Sauber	6
9	STR-Ferrari	5
10	Force India-Mercedes	0

[Source : Super Wheels , BRAWN GP]