Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello lead Brawn GP in historic debut 1-2

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Button and Barrichello finished 1-2 in the Australian Grand Prix

Brawn GP grabbed an historic one-two finish in the dying stages of the Australian Grand Prix.

It cemented an unbelievable transformation for the team that massively under-performed in 2007 and 2008, was sold by Honda over the winter, and rescued by a management buy-out just a few weeks before the season began.

Jenson Button lead most of the race despite pressure from Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in the dying stages. But with three laps to go the Red Bull and BMW drivers controversially collided allowing Rubens Barrichello to complete Brawn’s joy by grabbing second.

The jubilant drivers stood on the podium with hardly any sponsors on their overalls, and hastily-applied Virgin decals on their cars.

An ecstatic Button claimed his second win, finally following up his maiden triumph in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

It marked the first time a new team has won its first race since Jody Scheckter steered Wolf to victory in the 1977 Argentine Grand Prix.

Image (C) Bridgestone

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on “Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello lead Brawn GP in historic debut 1-2”

  1. But Hamilton could get 6 points from this race, I bet no one expected that!!

    1. Me too! A lot of Ferrari fans finished the race with theis TV sets off… Hurray for McLaren! and Merdeces! ;)

  2. Fab result, great race, although i thought 1st SC stayed out a lap longer than it needed to. I thought Lewis had a mature and champion like drive, not taking long shots and getting the best out of the package he’s got. Hope he gets 3rd.

  3. Just hope that Brawn don’t get disqualified on the 14th….it’d reflect well on the other teams if they withdrew thier protests now

    1. Billy,

      Brawn won’t get disqualified. Their win, and whatever result they achieve in Malaysia, will surely hold. This is such a subjective matter that the FIA surely won’t take away the results.

      What the FIA would do if they rule the diffuser attachment in breach of the “spirit” of the rules (which is really the argument from the whiners) is tell Brawn, Williams, and Toyota to simply not run their attachments anymore. I can see it hurting Williams and Toyota, but I really can’t see it hurting Brawn that much. It may bring the Red Bull into competition with them, but I don’t think it will kill their pace that badly.

    2. Yep, knocking off 0.5-0.7s is probably still going to keep them at the top. But we still have to see the performance of the cars at other tracks – though I doubt the Brawn will have problems elsewhere, I think other cars may be better than Red Bull on some.

      In any case, good result for Brawn, and for F1 in general! I hope they can keep this up and carry it throughout the season, because they have the whole grid targetting them now.

      I only wish I had put my bet on Brawn when I had the chance…!

  4. What a fantastic result for the team. So pleased for them. I really hope that nothing comes form the appeal – would also be pretty darn ridiculous having five cars from the top eight losing their places – would provide a very farcical and false result!

    1. But that’s exactly what F1 stewards specialize in!

      It would suck if they do loose the 1-2, but I would be 100% un-suprised.

  5. Why would they withdraw now? brawnGP won with their “advantage”.

  6. bravo brown gp, HOnda must be very sad now
    bravo hamilton, bravo alonso
    piquet, nakayima, uhhhhhhh. lol.
    3erd toyta ilegal?

  7. masayoshi shibazaki
    29th March 2009, 11:00

    Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello is the best driver in 2009 fomuraone go………………………………………….brawngp you are number one this year.

  8. It was a mathematical certainty.

    4B + 4D = 1 – 2

    (Brawn Button Barrichello Branson) + (Double Decker Diffusion Device) = 1-2 finish.

    1. martin,

      I wouldn’t call Brawn’s version of the device a “Double-Decker.” I’d call it the “Thong Diffuser.” (Honestly, that’s what I thought of when I first saw it.)

    2. haha, great analogy ;)

  9. great race with a great result, got to feel bad for kubica and vettel, i was sweating a bit there, looked like either one of them would catch button and win the race – but it was not their day and the bad luck that rubens started with came back to him in the end.

  10. Granted no one could touch the BrawnGp team, but I just get the feeling, the stewards delayed the release of the safety car until button was done with his pit stop. Else he may have ended up at the back.

    1. Oliver, you couldn’t be more right. I wonder if the same would have happened with a non british driver at the front. There is a car stopped in the racing line, two big pieces of it in different sides of the track after a blind corner and the track is surrounded by fences. Were they really considering leaving it all there until the race was over? Two full laps went by, three minutes to take the decission, and it gets taken so that the safety car emerges about 2 seconds behind Button out of the pits… suspicious and a bit ridiculous as it added two more safety-car laps until it could collect Button again.
      Don’t misinterpret me, Button was the fastest through and through, saw his advantage dissapear and rebuilt it, and thoroughly deserved the win… but other drivers have lost deserved wins before because of a safety car.

    2. I’m with you Oliver. The fairytale feel-good story of Brawn’s comeback must have been too tempting to miss out on and I genuinely feel that the stewards made sure it happened. As good as it is that the season is back underway and we have an exciting new pecking order, that really left a sour taste in my mouth.

  11. Why do people keep talking about Branson? He doesn’t own the team. I don’t remember the owner of Vodafone taking credit for McLaren winning a race :P

    1. Yeah but he’s already saying ‘we’re not the owners yet..’ Worse: he’s hinting that a buy out would imply the team being called Virgin not Brawn. :o(

  12. Eduardo Colombi
    29th March 2009, 14:56

    martinb: hahahaa, great math!

    COngrats Brawn! started with some luck with Rubens taking the second place after kubica-vettel’s crash.

    Outstanding race for Hamilton with the car off the pace, proving that KERS really make some difference. He drove like a champion and got a 3rd making his work paying of.

    Good job for Alonso too, with the 5th place after the stewards ridiculous decision to punish Trulli with 25 sec penalty.

  13. StrFerrari4Ever
    29th March 2009, 15:01

    Great 1-2 the race was Good not Outstanding if Brawn , Toyota & Williams diffusers are ruled legal then the other teams will surely act fast so they make up the time on those three i read that Horner said Red Bull have been looking at making their own advanced one in past weeks and are expecting to do their best so it can work perfectly with the RB5’s design principles especially the rear suspension they said expect it sometime in Spain i believe. If this is true then i believe the gap will be reduced massively because even without that diffuser the RB5 was showing solid fast pace lets hope they can do this to the STR4 aswell i’d love to see them up there like last season great day for them today regarding all the incidents Buemi shocked me Monsieur Bourdais must improve fast :)

  14. schumacherthegreatestever
    29th March 2009, 15:30

    Thoroughly enjoyed the race, certainly cheered my day up despite my hangover.

    Button, ive criticsed him on this site alot in the past ut ive changed my opinion now, great drive in lets be honest new conditions to him leading from the front, he never looked like he was going to make a mistake.

    barrichello super drive to get back to 4th after the start he had and the prolems with his front wing and then 2nd after vettel and kuica collided.

    hamilton, well, i think that drive should shut the critics up. super drive, 18th on the grid, bad car, didnt matter, top class

    im still confused aout the actual pecking order, no doubt brawn are the best and have got a it of an advantage to anyody else. after that its hard to see.

    what did everyone else think about the overtaking??? certainly was alot more of it than usual, was that down to the regulations or just typically crazy aussie gp??

  15. Honda must be so gutted. Can you imagine how much a 1-2 win is worth in marketing terms? A couple more like that & it’d surely have been more cost-effective (in terms of increased car sales) to keep Honda F1 going.

  16. Bravo Jenson and Rubens. This was one of the most exiting races I’ve ever seen. I think F1 is more fun than before in every aspect. The pack didn’t break and there was uncertainty till the end. Can’t wait for the Malaysian GP.

  17. No penalty for Barichello, oh I see drum up some interest at the start of the season – that sounds fair for everyone. Well no but hey why not make up the rules as you go.

  18. I really did enjoy the race and well done to Jenson, Rubens and the whole Brawn team. Mind you I could have throttled Rubens when he messed up on the starting line. Still not sure what happened there but if he could have got away from the start cleanly it would have made things easier for Jenson I reckon. But at the end of the day Rubens drove a great race to get back up to second. Well done. Just hope the FIA don’t do anything daft about the diffuser protests. Looking forward to next weekend.

  19. Rubens was obviously a bit rusty in race trim. But he soon sorted his act out. He’s not been in a front running car for over 3 years now! That brawn was very robust though!

  20. congrats to the brawn team! a lot of ppl say its all about the driver n not so much the car…but look at the difference a strong car can make for a driver who had only won 1 race in 155 starts. he did drive a nearly flawless race, but if it hadnt been for the car u would have seen a mid table finish. i thought nico drove a brilliant race! too bad the super softs let him down in the end….he could have ended up 2nd due to the crash and (if every1 hadnt passed him….rubens was the first to take him)

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