Brawn GP wins again at Malaysian F1 GP

Jenson Button made it two wins in a row after he won the rain-shortened Malaysian F1 GP. A rain storm caused the race to be red-flagged, and then there was not enough daylight left to allow it to continue. Button found out he was the winner while sitting in the car on the grid for a restart that never came. But the top eight finishers only received half points.

At the beginning, Nico Rosberg shot into the lead ahead of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso. Button was soon up to third, and kept the pressure on the two leaders for the rest of the first stint. He jumped into the lead after the first pit-stops.

When the first drops of rain came on lap 22, most drivers stopped for extreme-wet tires. When the heavy rains didn’t happen, everyone switched back to intermediate-wet tires, only for the storm to finally come and force everyone back to extreme-wet ones.

Button largely maintained his lead until conditions became so bad that a red flag was waved and the race suspended. The cars sat on the grid for an hour before the race was declared finished at 31 laps due to nightfall.

Nick Heidfeld worked his way up to second after making just a single stop in his BMW Sauber, while Glock took third. Trulli finished fourth in the other Toyota, while Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg completed the top eight.

Ferrari had another terrible day with Felipe Massa finishing only ninth and Kimi Raikkonen retiring after his fancy-pants kinetic-energy recovery system crapped out. Robert Kubica retired with an early engine problem, while Heikki Kovalainen spun off on the first lap and Sebastien Vettel slid off the track in the rain after another strong race.

RESULTS

1 J Button, Brawn-Mercedes
2 N Heidfeld, BMW Sauber
3 T Glock, Toyota
4 J Trulli, Toyota
5 R Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes
6 M Webber, RBR-Renault
7 L Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
8 N Rosberg, Williams-Toyota
9 F Massa, Ferrari
10 S Bourdais, STR-Ferrari
11 F Alonso, Renault
12 K Nakajima, Williams-Toyota
13 N Piquet, Renault
14 K Raikkonnen, Ferrari
15 S Vettel, RBR-Renault
16 S Buemi, STR-Ferrari
17 A Sutil, Force India-Mercedes
18 G Fisichella, Force India-Mercedes
Ret R Kubica, BMW Sauber
Ret H Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes

POINTS TO DATE

Button 15
Barrichello 10
Trulli 8.5
Glock 8
Heidfeld 4
Alonso 4
Rosberg 3.5
Buemi 2
Webber 1.5
Bourdais 1
Hamilton 1
Massa 0
Raikkonen 0
Kubica 0
Kovalainen 0
Vettel 0
Piquet 0
Nakajima 0
Sutil 0
Fisichella 0

CONSTRUCTOR POINTS TO DATE

Brawn GP 25
Toyota 16.5
BMW Sauber 4
Renault 4
Williams 3.5
Scuderia Toro Rosso 3
Red Bull Racing 1.5
McLaren-Mercedes 1
Ferrari 0
Force India 0

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