Nightmare start for Button

Jenson Button made a nightmare start to the British Grand Prix today.

While the top three got away safely at the front, pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel leading from Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber, championship leader Button went backwards from sixth place, dropping to ninth place to severely dent his hopes of a seventh win in 2009.

Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima moved up to fourth place off the start after passing Toyota’s slow-starting Jarno Trulli, which in turn held up the Brawn of Button.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was the big winner off the line, leapfrogging to fifth pace from ninth on the grid.

With Adrian Sutil’s Force India car starting from the pit lane after his heavy qualifying shunt, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton moved up a place to 18th on the grid and was 15th by the end of lap one.

Button was on the move on lap two, however, profiting from a mistake by Ferrari's Felipe Massa who ran wide in Stowe to concede eighth place to the Englishman.

Further back Hamilton was in the wars as he was held up by the Renault of Fernando Alonso, the reigning world champion forced onto the grass and allowing BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica to pass.

Vettel was in a league of his own at the front, however, and by lap nine had opened up a 9.6-second lead over Barrichello, who was being kept more than honest by the faster-looking and no doubt frustrated Webber.

Nakajima, meanwhile, was proving that his qualifying pace was no flash in the pan as he began to pull away from the Ferrari of Raikkonen, the Japanese with a two-second lead over the former world champion by lap 12.

At the back of the field, Heikki Kovalainen was giving a good indication of the woes currently gripping the McLaren team as he found himself running down in 19th place and in no real danger of passing the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi in front of him.

Alonso and the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld were providing the best of the action with their scrap over 12th, the Spaniard harrying the tail of the German’s car, which was struggling with front wing damage from an early tangle.

Back at the front, Vettel continued to pull away at the rate of a second per lap as he opened up a 15.8-second lead by lap 15.