Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza this afternoon to score his second victory of the season and his eleventh Formula One win. Team-mate Jenson Button came home in second position in his Brawn-Mercedes car to complete a fantastic weekend which sees the team’s eighth victory and fourth one-two finish of the 2009 season.
After a strong qualifying performance on Saturday, Rubens and Jenson began the race from fifth and sixth positions respectively with heavy fuel loads for a one-stop strategy. Rubens started on the harder prime tyre with Jenson favouring the softer option. Both drivers had excellent first laps to pass Heikki Kovalainen and get into position behind the two-stopping cars ahead of them.
With aggressive lap times, the pair were able to maintain the gap to the front-runners prior to their pit stops, on lap 28 for Jenson and lap 29 for Rubens, before jumping the three two-stopping cars at their second stops. Rubens crossed the line after 53 laps to take the flag just over 2.8 seconds ahead of Jenson.
Brawn GP leads the Constructors’ Championship with 146 points, 40.5 points ahead of second place, with Jenson leading the Drivers’ Championship with 80 points and Rubens in second place with 66 points.
RESULTS
Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Race Result / Fastest LapRubens Barrichello 23 BGP 001-03 P1 01:24.967Jenson Button 22 BGP 001-02 P2 01:24.935
Weather Hot and sunnyTemperatures Air: 26-28°C Track: 37-41°C
RUBENS BARRICHELLO“Monza has always been a great track for me and it feels just wonderful to win here again. We made some great decisions this weekend and the work that we achieved on Friday was the key to setting up the result today. We had to think strategically in qualifying because of the KERS cars and our one-stop strategy really paid off. I had a great start to get ahead of Heikki and from there I had the pace that we needed to beat the two-stopping cars who started ahead of us. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at the factory, here at the track and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth for designing, building and developing such a great car and engine. I’m driving a fantastic car with a fantastic Mercedes-Benz engine and the team is doing a fantastic job! It’s going to be a good and healthy fight for the championship over the next few races and I’m really looking forward to that. Two wins in three races is pretty good going and I’ll be giving it my all. And finally I would like to dedicate this win to my two sons Eduardo and Fernando who both had their birthdays this month.”
JENSON BUTTON“I had a really good race today and it’s a fantastic feeling to be up on the podium again. The team and Rubens did a great job this weekend and congratulations to Rubens for his second win of the season. The car worked very well all weekend and the balance was good throughout the race which meant I could set consistently quick lap times when it really mattered. The strategy that we chose on Saturday for qualifying was the perfect one for us and I was able to get ahead of Heikki on the first lap which was absolutely crucial for my race. Lewis was pushing hard behind me for the final part of the race but I was confident that I had him covered and it’s a very difficult circuit to overtake here even with KERS. We have shown that the Brawn-Mercedes is a very good car and credit to the team for the efforts that have gone into improving it over the past couple of months. It’s going to be a very exciting end of the season and a challenge that we are all looking forward to.”
ROSS BRAWN“We are all delighted with our result this weekend after two very strong drives from Rubens and Jenson to achieve our fourth one-two finish of the season. We have a lot of very talented people at the team who have made this result possible and I am very pleased with how our race weekend here in Monza was planned and operated. The car worked well in low-downforce and the Mercedes-Benz engine gave us the power required for this high-speed circuit. This weekend has been a great result for Brawn GP but the hard work is far from over. There are four crucial races coming up which will decide the championship battle and we will be back at the factory in Brackley tomorrow and looking ahead to the next challenge in Singapore.”
Pos. No. Driver Team Laps Time Gap Kph Best Lap
1 23 R. Barrichello Brawn GP Formula One Team 53 1:16:21.706 - 241.000 1:24.967 48 2 22 J. Button Brawn GP Formula One Team 53 1:16:24.572 2.866 240.849 1:24.935 46 3 4 K. Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 53 1:16:52.370 30.664 239.397 1:24.761 36 4 20 A. Sutil Force India F1 Team 53 1:16:52.837 31.131 239.373 1:24.739 36 5 7 F. Alonso ING Renault F1 Team 53 1:17:20.888 59.182 237.926 1:25.199 50 6 2 H. Kovalainen Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 53 1:17:22.399 60.693 237.849 1:25.109 51 7 6 N. Heidfeld BMW Sauber F1 Team 53 1:17:44.118 82.412 236.741 1:25.488 30 8 15 S. Vettel Red Bull Racing 53 1:17:47.113 85.407 236.589 1:25.194 50 9 3 G. Fisichella Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 53 1:17:48.562 86.856 236.516 1:25.498 28 10 17 K. Nakajima AT&T Williams 53 1:19:03.869 162.163 232.761 1:25.976 51 11 10 T. Glock Panasonic Toyota Racing 53 1:19:05.631 163.925 232.675 1:25.751 50 12 1 L. Hamilton Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 52 1:14:59.622 DNF 240.761 1:24.802 52 13 12 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 52 1:16:18.421 DNF 236.618 1:25.564 50 14 9 J. Trulli Panasonic Toyota Racing 52 1:16:27.945 1 LAP 236.126 1:25.700 49 15 8 R. Grosjean ING Renault F1 Team 52 1:16:59.720 1 LAP 234.502 1:25.609 51 16 16 N. Rosberg AT&T Williams 51 1:17:07.169 2 LAPS 229.618 1:25.901 50
Not Classified (DNF : Did Not Finish) Pos. No. Driver Team Laps Time Gap Kph Best Lap 21 V. Liuzzi Force India F1 Team 22 31:59.464 DNF 238.448 1:26.041 22 11 J. Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 19 28:22.878 DNF 232.035 1:27.846 17 5 R. Kubica BMW Sauber F1 Team 15 22:48.793 DNF 227.725 1:27.819 12 14 M. Webber Red Bull Racing 0 -
Click here for the Official Felipe Massa web site - designed and built by Racecar
Click here for the Official Kimi Raikkonen web site - designed and built by Racecar
Click here for the Official Giancarlo Fisichella web site - designed and built by Racecar
