Button streets ahead in bid for championship title

FORMULA ONE MONACO GRAND PRIX:JENSON BUTTON took a fifth dominant victory from six races at his "home" Monaco grand prix yesterday to ease into a seemingly unassailable title lead on an afternoon in which his only rival so far, Sebastian Vettel crashed out.

Button had done the hard work on Saturday, slotting his Brawn GP into the coveted pole position on a street circuit where overtaking is almost impossible. Vettel meanwhile could only manage fourth with his team later admitting that he was also light on fuel and on the fragile supersoft tyres.

There was a potential spanner in the Brawn works though in the shape of a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen who hounded his Ferrari to second, splitting the two Brawn cars. With the power-boosting Kers system on board, Raikkonen could have posed a significant threat on the run up to the first corner at Ste Devote.

It wasn’t to be though. At the start Raikkonen suffered massive wheel spin, negating any Kers advantage. Button simply blasted off into the distance. Worse for Raikkonen was that the lack of traction off the line meant that Barrichello sneaked through, leaving the Finn third.

For the front three that was it. Button, imperious, began to peel away even from his team-mate, establishing, by mid-race, a gap of more than a dozen seconds as Barrichello suffered from tyre graining. With Raikkonen struggling to match the pace of the Brawns, but with a significant gap behind to team-mate Felipe Massa, the podium order was laid down within the first few laps.

“I got off the line clean and had Rubens behind,” Button said afterwards. “Rubens had problems with his rear tyres though, and I was able to pull out a gap. It really didn’t change much after that apart from traffic and the normal Monaco things – where walls seem to get closer and closer the further you get into the race.

“But it was an outstanding weekend. I think we’ve proven this weekend that our package has worked and I think we’re looking very strong for the next few races. This victory is massive for us I think, especially at this point of the season.”

It was especially important as Red Bull Racing, the Brawn’s only serious championship rivals so far had a difficult race.

Vettel, like the Brawns, began on the supersoft tyres, but while Button only began to experience problems with the delicate rubber late in his first stint, Vettel’s began to degrade within a few laps of the start, the German then beginning to lap up to three seconds slower than the growing queue behind his fourth place.

Felipe Massa was the first to become impatient. On the run down from the tunnel soon after the start, he attempted to bustle past but braked too late and missed the chicane, meaning he had to cede the place back to Vettel. As he did so, Williams’ Nico Rosberg seized the opportunity and dropped into Vettel’s wake to brush past Massa and steal fifth.

It was a bold move but one that Ferrari would later negate, running a better pit strategy to put Massa out ahead of the Williams and into fourth, his best finish of the season.

Vettel though was struggling. After changing to the harder tyre in his first stop the German tried to play catch-up but pushed too hard into turn one, braked too late, locked up and hit the wall.

“Of course it’s disappointing,” he said, “but sometimes this happens. In Monaco, you make a little mistake and this is the price you pay.” With team-mate Mark Webber finishing fifth Brawn GP move into a massive 43.5-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ title race and Button extends his drivers’ championship lead over Vettel to a massive 28 points.

Barrichello sits in second place on 35 points but the threat from his team-mate is nominal.

For Raikkonen and Massa though, the return to major points finishes was welcome after recent dispiriting performances including a host of mechanical problems for both drivers and some inept pitwall decision-making.

For Button though it was more than a good result. Five wins from the first six and a third of the season gone confirm that the Englishman is now, barring disasters, facing a soft glide path to the title. However, the Englishman though is still refusing to think ahead.

“I am not changing anything, we are just taking it all one thing at a time,” he said. “I’m not talking about the world title. People say it is mine to lose, but I am not thinking or talking like that. There is a long way to go and I don’t want to go there now.”

He also didn’t want to go to the podium at the end of the race yesterday. Screaming “We got Monaco!” into his car radio, Button steered his car into pitlane instead of up the road to the grid and the podium ceremony. In the end he was forced into that most traditional of victory laps, on foot, and jogging up to receive the winnners’ trophy.

“Before the weekend, I said that this race means nothing different to me – but that was just to stop putting pressure on myself and so to win here is just fantastic.

“As a kid, I grew up watching this race on television and it is something special. It is just such a great event. It’s so different to anything else and it is great to come away with a win. A one-two here is exceptional for the Brawn team, for a new team. It is just staggering what we have done this year and this is a great moment.”

He might have taken the wrong direction to the podium here but the long road Button is now on will, it seems, leads only to one inexorable conclusion – the world championship title.