Reubens Barrichello Wins in Valencia

Reubens Barrichello stated at the start of the 2009 Formula One season that he would win a race for Brawn GP during the 2009 Formula One season. Sunday on the pavement of Valencia he fulfilled his promise to his team by making it across the finish line just two seconds ahead of Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton.

Brawn GP has a little work to do if they want to win the constructors' championship

Lewis Hamilton started the race in the lead due to his KERS, along with team mate Keikki Kovalainen, which put Rubens Barrichello in third after the first few minutes of the race. Just behind them, Kimi Raikkonen was sitting in fourth, also due to KERS assist. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel tagged along behind them for awhile, along with Brawn GP’s Jenson Button, but both soon fell off the pace set by the leaders.

Hamilton was in front until his first pit stop on Lap 16, which allowed Kovalainen to take the lead for one lap, until he was forced to pit. This was Barrichello’s moment as he was able to run for another three laps before he was forced to pit for fuel.

Hamilton had a 3.6 second lead over Barrichello as they made it to Lap 36, but when he went to pit a lap later McLaren didn’t have the right tires ready. They had to request that he stay out on the track for one more lap and this cost them considerable time. The team insists this mistake didn’t cost them the win but the delay allowed Barrichello the time he needed to get into the pit and get some fuel and tires. By the time he came out of the pits he was still ahead of Hamilton, so the pit problems with tires did cost the team some time.

Hamilton kept the pressure on Barrichello all the way through the last laps but couldn’t close the gap to more than a 2.3 second gap. Barrichello was able to back off the speed a little during the last few laps and crossed the finish line over 2 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

This win increases Brawn’s constructor’ championship lead over Red Bull and puts Barrichello into second place in the drivers standings.

“Image: Zuma Press”