2009 Turkish Grand Prix Final...

Sunday’s Turkish GP started off with an incident packed first lap that saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso strike Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and Felipe Massa passed by a hard charging Nico Rosberg. Starting with a heavily fuelled car, last year’s world champion Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was unable to start the race aggressively and slotted into a dismal 17th. Adopting a single-stop strategy from the off, he pushed hard throughout but the best he could achieve was 13th place at the chequered flag.

The Brawn driver's advantage over Sebastian Vettel, who by some is considered the Briton's most likely challenger for the crown, blew out to more than double the Red Bull racer's points tally of 29.

"Today we were a step ahead," Button said, "and it's a nice feeling."

Vettel, third, had to follow his teammate Mark Webber to the chequered flag, after a three-stop strategy. The 'hold station' team order was given in the form of: "Sebastian, save the car, Mark is faster". The German led away from pole position, but let Button past with an early mistake at the exit of turn 10.

"It was my mistake," an unhappy Vettel, 21, said, "but I think Jenson was just too quick today, I wouldn't have been able to hold him."


Button’s team mate Barrichello had a bad day, beginning with an atrocious start, a messy run through the pack requiring a new nose, and ultimately retirement with a suspected gearbox problem. Jarno Trulli ended Toyota's slump with fourth, while Felipe Massa ended his run of Turkish GP victories, dating back to 2006, with his sixth place.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	58	1:26:24.848	2	10
2	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	58	+6.7 secs	4	8
3	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	58	+7.4 secs	1	6
4	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	58	+27.8 secs	5	5
5	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+31.5 secs	9	4
6	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+39.9 secs	9	3
7	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	58	+46.2 secs	10	2
8	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	58	+46.9 secs	13	1
9	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	58	+50.2 secs	6
10	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+62.4 secs	8
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	58	+64.3 secs	11
12	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	58	+66.3 secs	12
13	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+80.4 secs	16
14	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	14
15	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	18
16	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	57	+1 Lap	17
17	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	15
18	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	20
Ret	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	47	Gearbox	3
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	4	Brakes	19

via:World Car Fans and motorauthority.com