Jenson Button led the Brawn GP team to victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix today, achieving his second Grand Prix win and capping a stunning debut race weekend for the British-based team

Jenson Button

Button led from pole as Barrichello bogged down when his car activated its anti-stall device, and the Brazilian was then embroiled in a first-corner clash with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen.

Button streaked away from Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber, Nico Rosberg’s Williams and the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. But the face of the race changed on Lap 19 when Kazuki Nakajima crashed his Williams heavily, bringing out the safety car until the end of the 24th lap.

By then Button had watched a 47.7s lead reduced to nothing, and began to struggle to generate heat in his tyres. But he got his head down and opened a gap to Vettel again. As the Ferraris faded, Kubica found his BMW Sauber getting better and better on the harder Bridgestone tyre and gradually began to put Vettel, on the softer option tyre, under serious pressure in the closing stages.

Going into Turn Three on the 55th lap - with three left to run under a setting sun which made driving conditions very difficult - Kubica got alongside Vettel but they touched. Both spun, but continued. But not for long. Vettel had lost his front wing and crashed heavily just as Kubica, further down the road, did the same thing. Out came the safety car again.

Incredibly, that melee had promoted Barrichello back to the second place, despite his first-lap incident and a later touch with Raikkonen which damaged his Brawn’s front wing. It was changed during his first pit stop on the 18th lap. As the race finished under the safety car, he admitted that he had never expected a one-two after all his dramas.

Jarno Trulli started from the pit lane after Toyota’s rear wing infringement yesterday, but hauled through to take the final podium finish, while a very determined drive brought a hugely valuable fourth place for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. The world champion was briefly third in the dying stages after Trulli ran off track behind the safety car, before the Italian subsequently retook the place - an infringement which prompted stewards to subsequently add 25s to his race time, later dropping him to 12th.

In the second Toyota Timo Glock came home fifth. The German survived a spin while battling from his own pit lane start, when he and Fernando Alonso tangled.

The Spaniard brought his Renault home sixth, while seventh place came as a bitter disappointment to Rosberg. The German was running fourth with six laps to go and had set fastest lap, but had used up his Bridgestone option tyres and was simply in no position to defend the place. By the finish he had rookie Sebastien Buemi thirsting after him as Toro Rosso’s Swiss driver scored a point for eighth place on his debut.
Neither of the Ferraris finished. Both struggled with tyre wear, and as Massa suffered a mechanical problem late in the race, Raikkonen spun and subsequently retired.

Sebastien Bourdais was ninth in the second Toro Rosso, ahead of Adrian Sutil, who survived a brush with Force India team mate Giancarlo Fisichella. They were separated by Heidfeld, who was consigned to a recovery race after the first corner fracas, while Fisichella further delayed himself by missing his pit marks in his first stop.

Webber, another in recovery mode, was the final classified finisher, ahead of Vettel, Kubica, and Raikkonen. The retirements were Massa, Nelson Piquet who spun his Renault after the first safety car restart, Nakajima and Kovalainen.

Button’s great victory marked the 200th for a British driver.

It was always likely that the rain would affect Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, but nobody expected the precipitation to play such a key role in a race that was full of excitement. The management of pit stops proved crucial as conditions changed and Brawn GP’s Jenson Button won amid much confusion as the race was red flagged after 32 laps.

Button was leading when the expected rain finally arrived on the 22nd lap, despite making a second pit call (the first had been on the 19th lap) to switch from his second set of soft compound Bridgestones to wets. He resumed still in the lead and continued that way until it became clear just how fast Toyota’s Timo Glock was going on intermediates after his stop on Lap 22. Button swept back in on Lap 29 for inters, and grabbed the lead back from Glock as the Toyota dived in at the end of Lap 30 for wets.

The conditions had changed again, so in came Button for a third time on lap 31 to go back to the deeply grooved rubber. He resumed in the lead again as Glock battled with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld for second place, and that was when race director Charlie Whiting decided that it was time for the safety car. A lap later, out went the red flag. Confusion reigned.

Up to that point, the Malaysian Grand Prix had been a gripper.

Button made a poor start and was engulfed by Williams’ Nico Rosberg, who made a super getaway. Button tried to run round the outside of him in Turn One and lost out also to Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, and Renault’s Fernando Alonso got in on the act briefly too before Button snatched back third before the lap was over.

Further back, Rubens Barrichello had sprinted up to fifth in the second Brawn car ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Glock, Heidfeld and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

In the second McLaren Heikki Kovalainen went off the road in Turn Five, while Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber was all but left on the grid and expired on the second lap.

Rosberg pulled away a little from Trulli, who had his hands full with Button, but after the German stopped on the 15th lap and the Italian on the 17th, Button got the hammer down and was able to concede the lead just to team mate Barrichello before taking it back when Rubens stopped on lap 23.

The biggest gamble of the day came from Ferrari. When Raikkonen pitted on the 18th lap they put him on wets early, and it proved a disastrous decision as he lapped 21s slower than Button. Further back, team mate Felipe Massa struggled with Hamilton as the world champion lost out in fights with the Red Bulls of Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who had been the first to pit, on lap 13.

Just before the rain, the order was Button, six seconds ahead of Rosberg, Trulli and Barrichello. Alonso was fifth from Hamilton (both yet to stop), then came Heidfeld and Massa, Piquet and Nakajima, Webber, Glock and Trulli who had all stopped, Raikkonen, and then the Toro Rossos and Force €ndias.

Then came the wholesale stops on the 22nd lap as the rain came, followed by thunder and lightning and all the drama that had been predicted.

By lap 25 things had stabilised a little as the drivers splashed their way around, and parts of the track became less wet than others. Button was still leading, from Rosberg, Trulli and Barrichello, but Webber was now fifth from Heidfeld after Alonso had briefly fallen off, then came Hamilton, Glock, Massa, Piquet, Nakajima, Vettel (also, like Glock, flying on inters), Alonso, Raikkonen et al. But conditions were still so tricky that many decided to change to inters, only to find, as Button did, that wets were the answer after all.

When the red flag came out on lap 32, the order read: Button, Glock, Heidfeld, Trulli, Barrichello, Hamilton, Rosberg, Webber, Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Raikkonen, Sutil, Vettel, Buemi and Fisichella (who had spun twice).

That was when the guessing began. Would they restart the race, as the rain eased but the sky became darker with the onset of evening? If not, when would they backdate the result, because of all the pit stops?
At 18.52 the race directors finally called it off. Button had won, it was just a matter of deciding how far they would go back to decide the order behind him. In the end, that was lap 31, giving a race finishing order of: Button, Heidfeld, Glock; Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg as the points scorers. Then: Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Raikkonen, Vettel, Buemi, Sutil and Fisichella.

Since the race had gone past the 50 percent mark but not 75 percent, half points were awarded. But for Button, it was the chance to extend his championship lead from 10 points to 15, with Barrichello next on 10 from Trulli on 8.5. In the championship, Brawn have 25 to Toyota’s 16.5.

The third round of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship in China was another exciting race in challenging wet conditions. Sebastian Vettel won his second career Grand Prix following his 2008 victory at Monza. Mark Webber finished second on the podium, the best finish of the Australian’s career. The 1-2 finish for Red Bull Racing marks a memorable maiden victory for the Milton Keynes based team. Jenson Button, current World Championship leader, continued his 2009 podium streak with a strong third place finish.  Neither Kimi Räikkönen nor Felipe Massa finished the race within the points, keeping Scuderia Ferrari searching for their first Championship points of the 2009 season.

Following the torrential rain at the second round of the season in Malaysia, China provided another wet race which began behind the safety car. The difficult track conditions and cold tyres caused a host of spins and accidents for most drivers throughout the race. Felipe Massa was running well in third until a problem caused him to retire his Ferrari F60 on lap 18. Kimi Räikkönen was fighting for points in the first half of the race, but struggled during the second half and finished just out of the points.

It’s been a weekend for celebrations at Red Bull Racing.

Sebastian Vettel’s win in the race was preceeeded by further good news when it was announced that he has been nominated for a Laureus World Sports Award.

Vettel has got a nod in the category of Breakthrough of the Year for his stunning victory at the Italian GP in Monza last year for Toro Rosso. If Vettel wins however, it’s likely to be a lower key victory than the one he scored in Italy. Because of the uncertain economic climate, the Laureus awards is foregoing its normal glittering prize-giving ceremony in Monaco in favour of a number of quite presentations throughout May and June.

For those with an eye for detail, you’ll have noticed Vettel named his car for the weekend. Although it didn’t sound too complimentary… until we found out the real reason behind his RB5 being named Kate’s Dirty Sister.

“Like a ship, a car should be named after a girl as it is sexy,” said Vettel. “The first was called Kate but I crashed it in Melbourne, so we called this one Kate’s Dirty Little Sister because it is more aggressive and faster.”

And that fast lady took Seb to a podium where he unfortunately sustained an injury. “When I was raising the cup, I cut myself, no big deal,” he said afterwards “I put on a sticking plaster and still went to the party.”

Slightly less amusing was the mess-up with the national anthems. As a team registered in Austria we should have heard Land der Berge, Land am Strome, the country’s national anthem.

Instead the Chinese played the British anthem – the confusion coming as our Factory and team headquarters are in the UK.

“I am disappointed because we have a Austrian license but no Austrian anthem was played,” said Dr Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s racing consultant. “Probably the Chinese do not have it.”

Brawn GP’s Jenson Button took his third consecutive podium of the 2009 Formula One season at the end of a rain-soaked Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit today. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished in fourth position to secure further valuable points for the team’s championship challenge.

For the second race in succession, the weather had a major impact as heavy rain showers led to the race starting under the safety car with all drivers fitting wet tyres. The racing got underway on lap nine with Rubens and Jenson lying in third and fourth places respectively behind the two Red Bulls cars.

Suffering from a brake warm-up issue throughout his first stint, Rubens ran wide on lap eleven giving Jenson the opportunity to move up into third place. In very tricky conditions, the pair largely kept their Brawn-Mercedes cars on the track, successfully negotiating two pit-stops and a further safety car period, to cross the line with Jenson in third position and Rubens taking fourth place.

After the first three races of the season, the Brawn GP team leads the Constructors’ Championship with 36 points with Jenson leading the Drivers’ Championship with 21 points and Rubens in second place with 15 points.

Despite his eternally youthful good looks that defy both his age and experience, it really is 10 years since Vodafone McLaren Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa made his Formula 1 debut – at the 1999 Australian Grand Prix.

At the wheel of an Arrows A20 fitted with a 3-litre Hart V10, Pedro started his first grand prix from 18th (out of 22) and finished sixth, scoring a point on his Formula 1 debut. After a stint at Jaguar Racing, Pedro joined McLaren-Mercedes in 2003 and has become an integral part of the operation, successfully racing for us on nine occasions, and repeatedly proving invaluable in refining and developing the team’s cars into race- and championship-winning contenders.

Lewis on Pedro

“I’ve known Pedro since he joined the team in 2003. His approach, outlook and positivity were an inspiration to me as I prepared to make my Formula 1 debut. His efforts over the years have lifted this team to some phenomenal heights. I am proud of what Pedro has done – and continues to do – for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, the guy is a legend.”

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, has said it is willing to postpone the planned introduction of a new points system until 2010 if the teams are unhappy with making the change for the 2009 season.

The new system, which would see the driver with the most wins (rather than points) crowned champion, was announced by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, after it rejected an alternative proposal for a revised points structure from the teams.

The teams have since expressed their belief that the rules could not be changed so soon prior to the start of the season without their unanimous agreement and the FIA offered to defer the plan.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has developed a new competition car, the Racing Lancer, whose mission will be to target victory on next year’s Dakar which breaks new ground in 2009 with a switch from Africa to South America. For Mitsubishi Motors, not only does the Dakar serve as a platform for the sales and marketing of the Pajero/Montero but it also provides a unique proving ground for powertrains and 4WD transmission systems. In light of the corporate decision to focus the firm’s cross-country rallying activities on the development of a new diesel engine, Mitsubishi Motors sees it as a natural step for the Lancer (known in Japan as Gallant Fortis), a commercially and globally important model powered by the diesel powerplant, to take over the competition baton from the Pajero/Montero and the Pajero/Montero Evolution.

The Racing Lancer is a Super Production Cross-Country Rally car, which has been developed in compliance with the FIA’s Group T1 regulations (modified cross-country rally cars). It also complies with the new rules due to come into force in 2010.

The FIA has announced that from 2010, teams will be allowed more technical freedom if they agree to a cost cap of £30million, to cover ‘expenditure of any kind’. Teams will also be free to instead continue running under the existing rules, which are to remain stable until 2012.

The teams that accept the cost cap will be granted technical freedoms in three main areas: a more aerodynamically efficient (but standard) under body; movable wings; and an engine which is not subject to a rev limit or a development freeze. To ensure that the cost-capped cars have neither an advantage nor a disadvantage when compared to cars running to the existing rules, the FIA will retain the right to adjust elements of these freedoms.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli has lost his third place in Australian Grand Prix after stewards penalized him for passing under the safety car in the closing laps.

Trulli ran off road near the end of the race, thus losing a place to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, but then repassed the world champion once he had rejoined the circuit.

The Italian was given a 10-second stop-go penalty as a result, but since the offence occurred within the final five laps that was translated into a 25-second penalty added to his race time. He thus drops to 12th.

General Motors Corporation announced recently that it is scheduling multiple down weeks at 13 assembly operations in North America. Under this plan, approximately 190,000 vehicles will be removed from GM’s North American production in the second and early third quarter of this year.

There are three primary reasons for this scheduled downtime:

• Dealer vehicle inventories are at high levels, given the current depressed market.
• The shutdown will allow GM the opportunity to bring production in line with current market demand.
• The downtime actions also consider the possible production implications of the complicated and difficult negotiations with Delphi and its debtor in possession lenders.