2009 F1 : Button makes it six wins from seven

2009 Turkish Grand Prix Winner : Jenson Button - Brawn-Mercedes

ISTANBUL, Turkey : June 7, 2009 - Jenson Button (Brawn-Mercedes) scored his sixth win from seven races in the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul on Sunday as the Brawn-Mercedes domination of the season continued.


Button described his car as "outrageous and immense" and it was clearly in a class of its own. The only other team to mount a challenge was Red Bull whose Sebastian Vettel challenged strongly early in the race before slipping behind team mate Mark Webber who finished the race second with Vettel also on the podium.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) and Timo Glock took the remaining championship points.

Vettel made the running off the line and down to the first corner, followed by Button, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault), while third-placed Rubens Barrichello (Brawn-Mercedes) had a shocking start, moving off slowly from his grid position while cars streamed past him on both sides. He was 17th into the first corner.

Pole man Vettel had qualified with the lightest fuel load, with Alonso also fuelled light and expected to make one of the first pit stops for fuel and tyres. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) who qualified 16th, was carrying the heaviest fuel load on the grid. The whole field of cars started on the hard compound slick tyres. Only 50,000 spectators showed up for the race after near-empty stands for Saturday's qualifying.

On the opening lap, Trulli got past Webber while Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) passed Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) got past Fernando Alonso (Renault). Vettel ran wide and off the track on the exit of Turn 9 and Button powered past and into the lead.

At the end of the first lap, the order was Button; Vettel; Webber; Trulli; Rosberg; Massa; Alonso and Kubica.

In every race at Istanbul, the pole man has won the race, but with a clear track ahead of him, championship leader Button started disappearing into the distance and looked likely to upset the form book

Alonso got back past Räikkönen again and the Finn then ran into the back of the Spaniard, damaging his front wing and radioing back to his pits to report understeer from his Ferrari.

Barrichello was fighting his way back up the field and was having a big dice with Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes) for 11th place while Button set the fastest lap of the race - 1'29.155.

On lap 4, Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Mercedes) went into the pits with hydraulic and brake problems and retired.

The five-lap dice between Barrichello and Kovalainen was the highlight of the first part of the race. Barrichello could find no way past the McLaren despite charging up the inside under braking. The Brazilian finally got past, but the Finn fought straight back to get ahead again two corners later. Some great racing lap after lap between the two.

On the next lap, Barrichello forced his Brawn up the inside at Turn 9 but Kovalainen closed the door and Barrichello hit the side of the McLaren, coming off second best with a half spin and rejoining down in 17th place. Meanwhile his team mate had a healthy race lead and set a new fastest lap of 1'28.128.

On lap 11, Barrichello reported over the radio that he had no seventh gear, which was causing his Mercedes engine to run on the rev limiter down Istanbul's long, high-speed straights. Two laps later, Barrichello tried to get past Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes), but there was contact between the two, and Barrichello's front wing was damaged. On the next lap he pitted for fuel, new tyres and a new front wing, dropping to the back of the field.

Most of the front runners then streamed into the pits over the next five laps for the first round of refuelling.

On lap 22, Hamilton managed to get past Räikkönen's Ferrari, the reigning and former world champions battling for just 13th place. On the same lap, Button set a new fastest lap of 1'27.778.

Race leader Button had just a one-second gap over Vettel and he made a mistake at the end of the 25th lap, running wide in the final corner and allowing the Red Bull driver to get right under the wing of the Brawn. Vettel stayed in touch over the next few laps, the gap staying at around half a second. Button appeared to be on a one-stop strategy whereas Vettel definitely still had one more stop to make.

Hamilton was closing up on 12th-placed Nelson Piquet (Renault) as Vettel made his second stop on lap 29, rejoining in third behind team mate Mark Webber who was 16 sec behind the leader.

On lap 31, reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton set the fastest third sector time of the race as his heavy fuel load burned off, the McLaren driver the last to make his first pit stop which he did on lap 32. He was stopped for 9.8 sec and took on the soft compound tyres. Hamilton emerged just ahead of Piquet who attacked aggressively. Piquet, who spun off twice during qualifying, made a few leery lunges before making an untidy but effective pass on Hamilton who was battling his cold tyres and soft compounds which had to last for the rest of the race.

Lap 35, and back at the front, Button had extended his lead to a comfortable 18 sec over Webber. Vettel was 8.5 sec further back and had a 5.9 sec gap over Rosberg.

Räikkönen, down in 11th place, set a fastest third sector time of 24.1 sec on lap 37 as he tried to reduce the 2.4 sec gap to Timo Glock (Toyota) ahead.

14th-placed Barrichello pitted for his second and last time on lap 39, taking on soft compound tyres which would have to last for another 19 laps to the end of the race. Team mate and race leader Button set a new fastest lap of 1'27.579.

With a 19-sec cushion over Webber, race leader Button pitted on lap 43 and was followed in by second-placed Webber and fourth-placed Trulli. Button emerged 7 sec ahead of Vettel, who had already stopped, with Webber in third. But Vettel had a third stop still to make and he did that on lap 48, taking on soft tyres and reinstalling Webber into second place. On the same lap, Barrichello gave the Brawn GP team its first retirement ever when he parked his car in the garage, probably with further gearbox damage.

With eight laps remaining, Vettel began to chip away at Webber's 2.5-sec advantage, lapping half a second a lap quicker. Glock and Kubica were also having a good battle for seventh place, separated by just 0.7 seconds.

On lap 53 Vettel's pit crew radioed to him: "Sebastian, save your car - Mark is faster." This was untrue, as the lap charts showed the German gaining on the Australian in all sectors of each lap. Team instructions are banned in Formula One, but this was probably an instruction anyway, just issued in plain language. Just to make his point, Vettel set the fastest sector time of the race on lap 56 as the gap came down to 1.2 sec.

Button reeled off the final laps with his Brawn-Mercedes running on rails and finished with a 10-sec lead over Webber with Vettel 1.2 sec behind.

It was Button's sixth win out of seven races, and further extended his championship lead with a total of 61 points. .

Race Result : Formula 1 - 2009 Turkish Grand Prix

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:26:24.848	10
2	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	+6.7 secs	8
3	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	+7.4 secs	6
4	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	+27.8 secs	5
5	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+31.5 secs	4
6	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+39.9 secs	3
7	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	+46.2 secs	2
8	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	+46.9 secs	1
9	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	+50.2 secs	-
10	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	+62.4 secs	-
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+64.3 secs	-
12	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+66.3 secs	-
13	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+80.4 secs	-
14	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	+1 Lap	-
15	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	+1 Lap	-
16	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	+1 Lap	-
17	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	+1 Lap	-
18	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	+1 Lap	-
Ret	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	Gearbox	-
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	Brakes	-

Driver Championship Standings :

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Jenson Button	British	Brawn-Mercedes	61
2	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Brawn-Mercedes	35
3	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	29
4	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	27.5
5	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Toyota	19.5
6	Timo Glock	German	Toyota	13
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Williams-Toyota	11.5
8	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	11
9	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Renault	11
10	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	9
11	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	9
12	Nick Heidfeld	German	BMW Sauber	6
13	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	McLaren-Mercedes	4
14	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	3
15	Robert Kubica	Polish	BMW Sauber	2
16	Sebastien Bourdais	French	STR-Ferrari	2
17	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italian	Force India-Mercedes	0
18	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	0
19	Nelsinho Piquet	Brazilian	Renault	0
20	Kazuki Nakajima	Japanese	Williams-Toyota	0

Constructor Championship Standings :

Pos	Team	Points
1	Brawn-Mercedes	96
2	RBR-Renault	56.5
3	Toyota	32.5
4	Ferrari	20
5	McLaren-Mercedes	13
6	Williams-Toyota	11.5
7	Renault	11
8	BMW Sauber	8
9	STR-Ferrari	5
10	Force India-Mercedes	0

[Source : Super Wheels , BRAWN GP, F1 Official]