Barrichello Wins Italian Grand Prix

Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button battled for Brawn GP on Sunday afternoon against current Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton driving for McLaren in a dramatic affair that saw it come down to the last pit stop deciding it all. Hamilton grabbed the lead as expected due to using KERS in a lightly fuelled McLaren and was able to pull ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s Adrian Sutil in the early part of the race. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button were sitting in fourth and fifth place at this time in the race, just in front of the fuel heavy McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, who was overtaken in the early going by Vitantonio Liuzzi and pushed back to seventh place.

Hamilton was able to increase his lead after a series of early fast laps but this advantage disappeared during his first pit stop for fuel on Lap 15. Sutil and Raikkonen were also on a one stop strategy and stopped on Lap 17 and Lap 19 respectively. After these three drivers pitted, the Brawn GP race cars were in front until they pitted on Lap 28 for Button and Lap 29 for Barrichello.

This was the part of the race that determined the winners and losers, with the Brazilian taking the win and the Englishman being the bride’s maid. Button was 2.1 seconds behind Barrichello before they pitted and 4.2 seconds after. Barrichello pulled away after they both pitted and went after Hamilton, Raikkonen and Sutil, who had passed them while they were in the pits, but they still had one stop scheduled.

Hamilton decided to try his luck on Lap 34, but when he emerged from the pits behind the Brawns, the writing was on the wall. Hamilton couldn’t see the writing though and he went after the win like it was his. He and Button took a large chunk out of Barrichello’s 5.4 second lead and slowly reeled him in. Button and Barrichello were under control at this point but Hamilton was riding an edge that was about to cut into him. Trying to cut a corner a little too sharply, Hamilton lost control of his McLaren and spun out, hitting the inner wall and bringing to an end his chances for a win.

Rubens Barrichello crossed the line ahead of Button for his second victory of the 2009 Formula One season and reduce Button’s lead in the championship race to 14 points.

“Image: Zuma Press”