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31 March, 2009 03:22 (GMT +01:00)

Maiden Win For Brawn GP

Stephen Burns Motor Sports Editor

Brawn GP's fairytale début continued today as the team took the maximum points possible for the first race of the season in Australia. Having locked out the front row of the starting grid in qualifying the two Brawn BGP001 cars, which less than a month ago had no guarantee of even racing, finished first and second netting eighteen points. The drivers race took very different paths but the result was pure magic.

From the moment the lights went out to start the race Jenson Button was the man to beat. Team mate Rubens Barrichello's start was less impressive as he trigged the cars anti-stall software and several cars passed him off the line. By the time Button rounded the first corner his team mate had been hit from behind by the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, forcing the Brawn driver into the side of Mark Webber's Red Bull. Kovalinen the hit the Red Bull terminally damaging the front left suspension of the McLaren MP4-24. Button meanwhile surged away completing the first lap 4.5 seconds ahead of Webber's team mate Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton started with his usual determination and despite the poor performance of the McLaren was attacking from the off and had fought his way to eighth place by the time of his first stop at the end of lap 12. The Ferrari drivers, Massa and Raikkonen, both passed the unfortunate Barrichello from the start but soon began to loose touch with the leaders as their softer tyres meant they two seconds a lap slower than Button by the time they made their first stops. The cars on the medium tyres were able to run longer into the race and the strong performance of the Williams cars continued to impress till Rosberg suffered a delay due to a left front wheel sticking and Nakajima collided with the wall after losing control on the exit of turn four. Button's good fortune continued as he completed his first stop moments before the safety car was deployed to remove the wreckage of Nakajima's Williams.

Despite having his lead negated by the safety car Button led away from the re-start with Vettel second and the BMW of Kubica sandwiched in fourth between the Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen. The Renault of Piquet reiterd shortly after the re-start when a brake problem sent him spinning into the gravel, while team mate Alonso continued a strong midfield race. Massa continued to push through the middle stint of the race till a mechanical problem forced the Brazilian into retirement on lap 48, while team mate Raikkonen having reached as high as fourth during the second pit stop window had a small spin and light contact with the wall which dropped him to 16th.

With Button still leading after the second round of stops and now on the unfavoured softer tyres it was just a case of maintaining a lead over the Red Bull of Vettel, who now had the BMW of Kubica hunting him down. Hamilton continued to battle in the under performing McLaren and had fought his way up to 10th place after his second stop. Pressure from Kubica motivated Vettel who at one point had reduced Button's lead to less than two seconds but with only 3 laps to go The Red Bull driver was outbraked by Kubica and the two collided before both retiring from the damage sustained. The safety car was again deployed with Button first now followed by his team mate Barrichello with Hamilton in fourth having been passed by Trulli. The safety car returned to the pits at the end of the final lap meaning a dream finish for the team that a month ago was facing closure.

Following the race Toyota's Jarno Trulli was penalised 25 seconds for passing Hamilton under the safety car, while Sebastian Vettel was given a ten place penalty for the next race for his collision with Robert Kubica, and the Red Bull Team were fined £35,000 for telling the German to try to finish with a severely damaged car. The race results will however remain provisional until the outcome of the FIA Court of Appeal hearing into the legality of the diffusers on the Brawn, Williams and Toyota cars on April 14th.

Australian GP provisional results.

      P.   Driver           Team           Time       Points
1.   J. Button       Brawn GP       1:34:15.78   10
2.   R. Barrichello       Brawn GP       1:34:16.59   8
3.   L. Hamilton       McLaren       1:34:18.69   6
4.   T. Glock       Toyota           1:34:20.22   5
5.   F. Alonso       Renault       1:34:20.66   4
6.   N. Rosberg       Williams       1:34:21.51   3
7.   S. Buemi       Torro Rosso       1:34:21.79   2
8.   S. Bourdais       Torro Rosso       1:34:22.08   1
9.   A. Sutil       Force India       1:34:22.12
10.   N. Heidfeld       BMW Sauber       1:34:22.87
11.   G. Fisichella       Force India       1:34:23.16
12.   J. Trulli       Toyota           1:34:42.39
13.   M. Webber       Red Bull       +1 lap
14.   S. Vettel       Red Bull       56 laps completed
15.   R. Kubica       BMW Sauber       55
16.   K. Raikkonen       Ferrari           55
17.   F. Massa       Ferrari           45
18.   N. Piquet jr.       Renault       24
19.   K. Nakajima       Williams       17
20.   H. Kovalainen       McLaren       0

Next Race, 5th April, Malaysia

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