Button dominates in Turkey

Eurosport - Mon, 08 Jun 12:53:00 2009

Jenson Button of Brawn GP extended his lead in the World Championship standings to 26 points by winning the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul from Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

FORMULA 1 2009 - Brawn GP driver Jenson Button of Britain drives during the Turkish F1 Grand Prix in Istanbul - 0

Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who had said earlier in the week that he expected to fight for the title, lost ground after retiring late in the race.

McLaren's reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton finished 13th after being lapped by his British compatriot for the second successive race.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Nico Rosberg (Williams), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Robert Kubica (BMW) and Timo Glock (Toyota) filled the points places.

Button began the race on the dirty side of the track alongside pole-sitter Vettel, with the Red Bull holding a lighter fuel load.

Both got away well, but it was a nightmare start from Barrichello, who fell to 13th and spent the entire race in the lower order before a technical problem retired him with seven laps remaining.

Webber - whose second-place finish was his fourth podium in F1 and best result to date - did well to get past Trulli for third spot, the base upon which his impressive race was built after starting from fourth.

If Vettel and his team were inspired by the German's ability to lead Button away, their confidence was knocked towards the end of the first lap when he ran wide and the Englishman shot past to take P1.

Barrichello and Heikki Kovalainen swapped places a couple of times, with the McLaren's KERS keeping the Finn abreast of the Brawn on a few occasions while he managed to retake the spot when the Brazilian did sneak past.

After seven laps Barrichello spun out while attempting to sneak up the inside, Kovalainen closing the door; a few laps later the Brawn's right front wing was snapped off as he looked to pass Adrian Sutil in the Force India when there was no space to do so.

By this point the other Force India was retired, Giancarlo Fisichella blaming his new braking set-up for the decision to come in.

After 20 laps Vettel began to slice into Button's lead, and it looked as though the fans inside Istanbul Park would be treated to a fight at the front.

However Vettel was on a three-stop strategy and had to come in after a brief spell of pressure, allowing Button to escape.

It also allowed Australian Webber - on a two-stop - to cement second spot ahead of his colleague.

If Vettel hoped that he might challenge for second on softer tyres in his final quick stint - the last 11 laps - he was to be disappointed.

He did close the gap but found it difficult to get into position to overtake; he was eventually ordered by the team to ease off as Webber apparently had the faster car.

Button, 20 seconds clear heading into the final laps, coasted round the anti-clockwise track for his sixth win from seven races this season while Rosberg passed Massa for fifth late on and his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen came in ninth after issues with his KERS.

There was late disappointment for Kazuki Nakajima after a botched pit-stop saw him drop from seventh to 12th.

Button now has 61 points in the drivers' table, ahead of Barrichello (35), Vettel (29) and Webber (27.5).

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport

Comment 274 - 293 of 293

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  1. the hamster slapping continues.

    From Burt, on Mon 8 Jun 10:58PM
  2. Nice one Liam

    From Reefgirl, on Mon 8 Jun 10:38PM
  3. Reefgirl I also hear that Ferrari wont be entering the­ Bridtish GP because it is their Dolmio day lol

    From liam, on Mon 8 Jun 4:27PM
  4. the brawn kebab launcher worked a treat,it kept the­ slippery one well behind them.

    From Burt, on Mon 8 Jun 4:12PM
  5. Its a shame well never know how good Mr Schumacher­ would have been in a Brabham or back of the grid car­ that other drivers had to do .Bernie helped him get a­ deal with Benetton,by kicking out Roberto Moreno a move­ the late James Hunt felt was not a good idea,even with­ his talent.Its a good example of Bernie meddling.

    From Rick Moth, on Mon 8 Jun 3:52PM
  6. that would be byrne, not burn obviously....

    From tt, on Mon 8 Jun 3:18PM
  7. touron - the diffuser was NOT invented by Burn - Jim­ Hall started looking into ground effects in the mid­ 60s, the first ones to implement it in F1 were Wright­ and Rudd with Lotus. The F430 diffuser fins are not­ even remotely similar to the double decker Brawn­ diffuser - they are just normal, run off the mill­ diffusers for a closed wheel flat bottom car and have­ been around for decades. The fin design that you are­ referring to is on EVERY F1 car on the grid - that is­ the normal diffuser (limited to 17cm in height). The­ F430 has an oil cooler where the Brawn diffuser in­ question sits (center of the car), so please do us all­ a favor and drop it, it gets old and is void of any­ facts.

    From tt, on Mon 8 Jun 3:05PM
  8. Netzer: It is not Brawn's diffuser in general - it­ is simply that the more diffuser there is, the worse it­ gets. A moving object displaces air - air obviously­ creates resistance and slows the car, so the idea is to­ displace as little air as possible. When an object­ displaces air, it creates sort of a vacuum right behind­ it - aka clean air - that is why it is so nice to­ follow a large truck closely. A diffuser does exactly­ what you say, it 'cleans up' the air for the­ vehicle itself, but in turn creates less of a slip­ stream for the one following closely. The FIA­ recognized that and limited the vertical dimension of­ the diffusers to 17cm. At the same time, they allowed­ for extra body work behind the rear axle in a 20cm wide­ channel along the centerline of the car, aka rear crash­ structure. What that regulation did not specify is that­ this extra bodywork may not be used for aerodynamic­ purposes. So instead of designing a rear crash­ structure Brawn, Toyota and Williams designed another­ diffuser (double or triple decker) which does not­ conform to the 17cm height limitation. So more­ diffuser, less displacement of air, results in dirtier­ air, results in less overtaking.

    From tt, on Mon 8 Jun 2:36PM
  9. Johnny Bop and Liam - Touron don't have any other­ argument, he's been banging on about this for­ months, he never posts about anything else, apart from­ his delusions that he works in F1 and is giving us­ inside information.

    Oh and he tried to convince us­ that Force India doesn't test during Ramadan for­ religious reasons.

    Oh Touron, did you know Ferrari­ aren't compeating in the British GP because­ it's Litha's Eve

    From Reefgirl, on Mon 8 Jun 2:20PM
  10. I nearly threw up when the ignorant english­ commentators on the BBC compared that nobody to Mr­ Schumacher. Disgrace! And have any of you small minded­ fools stepped back and thought, maybe he has had it­ rough for all these years because he isn't good­ enough to race for a top team. But hey he can just fall­ into one out of sheer unimaginable luck. F1 is diying a­ slow and painful death. More competitive my @#$%.­ We've gone from a 2/3 hose race to 1. Well done­ FIA.

    From scuderia.italia, on Mon 8 Jun 1:49PM
  11. Johnny Bop, fix three fins on the f430, and cut away­ the middle section what have we got,BRAWNS diffuser, an­ idea from Rory Byrne,(FACT).

    From touronroute, on Mon 8 Jun 1:19PM
  12. touronroute you have a loophole in your tiny little­ mind why have you always got to put a downer on things­ and spoil the forum

    From liam, on Mon 8 Jun 1:13PM
  13. Johnny Bop, why did ferrari take the diffuser issue up­ with the fia,idiot because it was illegal, the design­ came from the f430,put (brawns diffuser) into your­ browser. which will take you to a site f1 badger, then­ click on illegal diffuser and see them side by side.­ and then email badger and ask why they had to alter­ their wording from identical to similar.

    From touronroute, on Mon 8 Jun 1:01PM
  14. Johnny Bop dont talk out off your arse,how can a­ constructor drag another guy into court if its not­ identical.

    From touronroute, on Mon 8 Jun 12:55PM
  15. burt- don't know about that, personally they make­ me want to chuck.

    From zoso, on Mon 8 Jun 12:50PM
  16. f1 police,touron and francis s are the forum­ superstars,they make life brighter for all you hamster­ lovers.

    From Burt, on Mon 8 Jun 12:20PM
  17. tourtothebullshitehouse, Please stop your BS about­ Brawn stealing Ferrari's design. Brawn have not­ stolen anything. If Ferrari believed that Brawn had­ stolen the design DO you not think that Ferrari would­ have dragged Brawn GP into court???? This has not­ happend and will never happen because Brawn have not­ stolen anything.
    You are the only brain dead idiot that­ keeps banging on about this. If you believe Brawn have­ stolen the design why do you not contact Ferrari and­ let them know. The reason you will not do this is­ simple, you know what the responce will be from­ Ferrari, they will laugh at you like we all do. You­ are a complete @#$%. Please stop.

    From Johnny Bop, on Mon 8 Jun 12:09PM
  18. Posting 223, Pearl Harbour is on the Island of Oahu,­ which is part of the chain of Islands called Hawaii,­ which is the 50 State of America.

    From Johnny Bop, on Mon 8 Jun 12:03PM
  19. so whats the ferraris moving floor? an innovative­ design?

    From Pablo from Bolivia, on Mon 8 Jun 11:54AM
  20. Reefgirl, just got this email funny about americans:
    ­

    Americans, dont you just love em?

    From paulhancock1123, on Mon 8 Jun 11:34AM
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