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Button leads Brawn to dream 1-2 debut

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-30 10:09

MELBOURNE: Jenson Button left Brawn GP boss Ross Brawn speechless yesterday after the British driver won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and led his team to an astonishing one-two on their debut.

Briton Jenson Button races his Brawn-Mercedes through the setting sun during F1's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne yesterday. Button won the race with teammate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil in second, and Lewis Hamilton in third after Jarno Trulli was dropped from third for overtaking during a safety car period. [Agencies]

The 29-year-old Briton, written off as on overpaid has-been after two dismal seasons with Honda, made it look like a walk in the park while his two closest rivals drove each other off the track in the twilight.

Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello started and finished second but only after Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica collided three laps from the end while second and third respectively.

The safety car came out and led the field until the final corner of the race.

McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton, starting 18th after a catastrophic gearbox failure in qualifying, showed all of his fighting spirit by clawing his way back to fourth place while the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish.

Right after the race, Hamilton was promoted to an official third-place finish with Toyota's Jarno Trulli penalized by stewards after the race for overtaking under safety car conditions.

The overtaking occurred in the late safety car conditions, which ended the race following a crash between BMW's Robert Kubica and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. Trulli was penalized 25 seconds by the stewards, dropping him from third to 12th in the final classification.

The decision gives Hamilton six championship points instead of five.

"It wasn't my best race, but I still won," said Button. "This win is for me and the team. That's what I care about. I don't need to poke anyone in the eye about what was said in the past."

No F1 team had won on their debut since Wolf in 1977 while the last to secure the top two places first time out was Mercedes, Brawn's current engine suppliers in 1954.

Fifty five years on, Button and Barrichello followed in the footsteps of the great Argentine champion Juan Manuel Fangio and Germany's Karl Kling.

Lost for words

Button led from pole to chequered flag, despite two safety car periods, to take his first victory since Hungary in 2006 and score more points in a single afternoon than he had in two years with Honda.

He said team owner Brawn had been lost for words.

"You don't find Ross speechless very often," he added. "But in the last 15 minutes I'd be surprised if he said a word. The big bear was just speechless."

The first race of a new-look F1, with radically-revised aerodynamic regulations, slick tires and the new KERS energy recovery systems, turned the starting grid upside down and shook up the pecking order as many had predicted.

Germany's Timo Glock, who also started in the pit lane after Toyota were disqualified from qualifying for using an illegal rear wing, was fourth ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso and Williams' Nico Rosberg.

Toro Rosso's Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi became the 58th driver to score on his debut with seventh place.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen retired after being caught in a first lap coming together.

Neither of the Ferraris finished, with last year's overall runner-up Massa retiring on the 46th lap and 2007 world champion Raikkonen following him out.

Reuters