Button gives Brawn the edge

JENSON BUTTON managed to render Ross Brawn speechless following a remarkable Australian Grand Prix victory yesterday.

Up until a few weeks ago Brawn GP did not exist, but the power and persuasion of their unlikely team owner led to them rising from the ashes after Honda Racing had financially crashed and burned.

After leading a management buy-out, the technical genius has now led the team to Formula One’s promised land after scoring a one-two in the season-opener around Albert Park in Melbourne.

Not since 1954, when legendary five-times champion Juan Manuel Fangio led home Karl Kling for Mercedes in the French Grand Prix, has a team taken the top two places on their debut.

Put into greater context, Button today scored more points in this one race than he managed in his previous 35 over two years with Honda.

“You don’t find Ross speechless very often, but during the last 15 minutes I would be surprised if he said a word,” revealed Button, after only the second victory of his 154-race career.

“Seeing him on the way up to the podium he had nothing to say. The big bear was just there speechless. It was good to see as it was a very emotional day for him, as it is for us as well.”

The fact team-mate Rubens Barrichello joined him on the podium was a feat in itself as the Brazilian was involved in a first-corner melee that led to him damaging his front wing.

Then in the closing stages, Barrichello benefited from a reckless incident involving Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber as they crashed out when running second and third.

It led to the safety car being deployed, causing less than the grandstand ending Button might have hoped for when he took the chequered flag, but that mattered little in the grand scheme of things.

Reminded of the fact he had only scored nine points over the past two years, Button was almost lost for words himself.

Asked whether that put into context how awful those two years had been, Button said: “Yes, it does really. It’s quite true.

“That’s pretty rubbish isn’t it? Wow! Yeah it does.”

“To drive that car we had last year, it was a handful. Every corner we got to we didn’t know what was going to really happen. It was a beast.”

Jarno Trulli, who had started from the pit lane after his Toyota and that of Timo Glock was deemed to be using illegal flexi-wings yesterday, initially finished third. But with an unsurprising twist to a remarkable week, he was handed a 25-second penalty after the race for passing Lewis Hamilton under yellow flags.

That led to the reigning world champion, who had started 18th in a woefully uncompetitive McLaren, being elevated to third.

Along with Trulli’s penalty – although the team have lodged an appeal – that relegated him to 12th, Vettel was also severely punished by the stewards. The young German received a 10-place grid penalty for next week’s race in Malaysia as he was accused of causing the accident with Kubica and forcing him off the track.

Behind Hamilton, the other points finishers were Glock, Fernando Alonso for Renault, Williams’ Nico Rosberg and the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastien Buemi – on his debut – and Sebastien Bourdais.