Button Puts the Doubters Aside as He Captures Title
SÃO PAULO —Jenson Button drove the race of his life Sunday, finally putting a lock on the driver’s title at the Brazilian Grand Prix after starting in 14th position to finish the race in fifth.
“The championship! I am the world champion!” Button, who drives for the Brawn GP team, shouted moments after the race.
“I made it happen. Now all I want to do is get to my team, because they deserve it.”
Mark Webber in a Red Bull took the pale glory of the victory as he drove a smooth and quiet race at the front after starting in second position and taking the lead after the pole sitter, Rubens Barrichello, in the other Brawn, made his first pit stop.
Button, driving for Brawn GP, had won the first six of seven races of the season and been widely criticized after he failed to win any races since the Turkish Grand Prix on June 7. Since Istanbul, he also had finished in the top three only once — at the Italian Grand Prix last month.
But his driving Sunday was the focus of the race, and a performance that separated him from all the other 19 drivers, with only 14 of them finishing. Not even a pressing attempt by Sebastian Vettel, who along with Barrichello, was the only other title contender at the start of the race, to push the British driver to an error in the middle section of the race discouraged Button from his charge.
“This race was the best I have driven in my life,” said Button.
Button, 29, started his Formula One career at the Williams team in 2000 and shot to immediate stardom as the youngest British driver ever to race in the series. In the second race of that year, in Brazil, he became the youngest driver to score a point by finishing sixth.
But he then went into several years of poor results at struggling teams. Even last year, his Honda team finished at the tail end of the championship. This year, under the new name of Brawn GP after the Honda car manufacturer pulled out of the series and sold the team to team management under the direction of Ross Brawn, Button and the team suddenly woke up and dominated the championship.
“We made hard work of it over the second half of the year,” Brawn said to BBC television. “But we’ve done it, and it’s very special. It’s going to take a while to settle in.
“As for Jenson, he’s a fantastic racer and on the day he had a great race. He knew what he had to do.”
The victory Sunday also hands the constructors’ title to the team that had almost failed to start the year, being saved only at the last moment before the season began in March.
The race started chaotically in a reflection of the starting grid that had formed after the qualifying session Saturday was interrupted and marred by rain. The normally one-hour session lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes and ended with the local hero, Barrichello, on pole and with hopes at keeping his title chances alive.
Button, meanwhile, qualified only 14th, while Vettel qualified 15th in the other Red Bull. Webber qualified second. Barrichello had a perfect start to the race while behind him, Adrian Sutil for Force India and Kimi Raikkonen, who started fifth in his Ferrari, drove up side by side with Webber and the three fought a battle into the first corner. But Webber had the better line and made it through in second position.
Things were less peaceful behind, however, as several incidents then combined through the first couple of corners, resulting in a combination of accidents that led to three drivers being eliminated: Sutil, Jarno Trulli in a Toyota and Fernando Alonso in a Renault. The track was covered in debris from the collision between Sutil and Trulli, and the safety car was deployed to clean it up.
That eliminated three cars that had started ahead of Button. When the race was restarted, the British driver immediately began scything his way up the pack. He first passed Romain Grosjean in a Renault. Then he proceeded to pass the two Japanese drivers, Kamui Kobayashi at Toyota and Kazuki Nakajima at Williams.
“It was so messy on the first lap,” said Button.
“I knew I had to get past people because I was stopping before them,” he added, referring to his pit stop. “I had to be careful with the moves I did, because I could have crashed.”
Meanwhile, Barrichello slowly dropped down the pack until he finally had to make a third pit stop with eight laps left to drop behind Button definitively in both the race and the championship. Barrichello finished eighth, to earn a single point.
Button leads the championship with 89 points, ahead of Vettel, who finished the race fourth, with 74 points and Barrichello in third with 72 points. With one race left and a maximum of 10 points available, Button is declared the winner of the series.
Webber, for his part, took his second victory of his career and of the season, after he won the German Grand Prix in July. Robert Kubica was second in his BMW Sauber and Lewis Hamilton third in his McLaren Mercedes.
“Fantastic win for the team, I really feel proud for the team,” said Webber, who pointed out the team finished second in the championship.
But the last words went to Button during a half-hour press conference after the race in which he could not stop saying, “I am the world champion,” and he added, “I’m going to be saying that all night.”
SÃO PAULO —Jenson Button drove the race of his life Sunday, finally putting a lock on the driver’s title at the Brazilian Grand Prix after starting in 14th position to finish the race in fifth.
“The championship! I am the world champion!” Button, who drives for the Brawn GP team, shouted moments after the race.
“I made it happen. Now all I want to do is get to my team, because they deserve it.”
Mark Webber in a Red Bull took the pale glory of the victory as he drove a smooth and quiet race at the front after starting in second position and taking the lead after the pole sitter, Rubens Barrichello, in the other Brawn, made his first pit stop.
Button, driving for Brawn GP, had won the first six of seven races of the season and been widely criticized after he failed to win any races since the Turkish Grand Prix on June 7. Since Istanbul, he also had finished in the top three only once — at the Italian Grand Prix last month.
But his driving Sunday was the focus of the race, and a performance that separated him from all the other 19 drivers, with only 14 of them finishing. Not even a pressing attempt by Sebastian Vettel, who along with Barrichello, was the only other title contender at the start of the race, to push the British driver to an error in the middle section of the race discouraged Button from his charge.
“This race was the best I have driven in my life,” said Button.
Button, 29, started his Formula One career at the Williams team in 2000 and shot to immediate stardom as the youngest British driver ever to race in the series. In the second race of that year, in Brazil, he became the youngest driver to score a point by finishing sixth.
But he then went into several years of poor results at struggling teams. Even last year, his Honda team finished at the tail end of the championship. This year, under the new name of Brawn GP after the Honda car manufacturer pulled out of the series and sold the team to team management under the direction of Ross Brawn, Button and the team suddenly woke up and dominated the championship.
“We made hard work of it over the second half of the year,” Brawn said to BBC television. “But we’ve done it, and it’s very special. It’s going to take a while to settle in.
“As for Jenson, he’s a fantastic racer and on the day he had a great race. He knew what he had to do.”
The victory Sunday also hands the constructors’ title to the team that had almost failed to start the year, being saved only at the last moment before the season began in March.
The race started chaotically in a reflection of the starting grid that had formed after the qualifying session Saturday was interrupted and marred by rain. The normally one-hour session lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes and ended with the local hero, Barrichello, on pole and with hopes at keeping his title chances alive.
Button, meanwhile, qualified only 14th, while Vettel qualified 15th in the other Red Bull. Webber qualified second. Barrichello had a perfect start to the race while behind him, Adrian Sutil for Force India and Kimi Raikkonen, who started fifth in his Ferrari, drove up side by side with Webber and the three fought a battle into the first corner. But Webber had the better line and made it through in second position.
Things were less peaceful behind, however, as several incidents then combined through the first couple of corners, resulting in a combination of accidents that led to three drivers being eliminated: Sutil, Jarno Trulli in a Toyota and Fernando Alonso in a Renault. The track was covered in debris from the collision between Sutil and Trulli, and the safety car was deployed to clean it up.
That eliminated three cars that had started ahead of Button. When the race was restarted, the British driver immediately began scything his way up the pack. He first passed Romain Grosjean in a Renault. Then he proceeded to pass the two Japanese drivers, Kamui Kobayashi at Toyota and Kazuki Nakajima at Williams.
“It was so messy on the first lap,” said Button.
“I knew I had to get past people because I was stopping before them,” he added, referring to his pit stop. “I had to be careful with the moves I did, because I could have crashed.”
Meanwhile, Barrichello slowly dropped down the pack until he finally had to make a third pit stop with eight laps left to drop behind Button definitively in both the race and the championship. Barrichello finished eighth, to earn a single point.
Button leads the championship with 89 points, ahead of Vettel, who finished the race fourth, with 74 points and Barrichello in third with 72 points. With one race left and a maximum of 10 points available, Button is declared the winner of the series.
Webber, for his part, took his second victory of his career and of the season, after he won the German Grand Prix in July. Robert Kubica was second in his BMW Sauber and Lewis Hamilton third in his McLaren Mercedes.
“Fantastic win for the team, I really feel proud for the team,” said Webber, who pointed out the team finished second in the championship.
But the last words went to Button during a half-hour press conference after the race in which he could not stop saying, “I am the world champion,” and he added, “I’m going to be saying that all night.”
Source: New York Times
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