Barrichello beats Button in Italy

• Brazilian takes two points out of Button's title advantage• Hamilton spins out of third place on final lap at MonzaRubens Barrichello gave his championship hopes a modest boost by winning the Italian grand prix at Monza this afternoon while his main rival and Brawn team-mate Jenson Button finished in second place.The Brawn team's decision to put both its drivers on a one-stop strategy paid off as behind them Kimi Raikkonen claimed the final podium position for Ferrari. Third place would have belonged to the polesitter, Lewis Hamilton, but he span his McLaren and crashed on the final lap while chasing Button.As one of only three drivers on a two-stop strategy, the lighter McLaren of Hamilton dominated the early stages of the race as he made a perfect start to maintain his lead. Behind him the front-row starter Adrian Sutil was passed by the third-place starter Kimi Raikkonen – both also one-stopping – and Hamilton steadily built a strong advantage before having to make the first of his two scheduled pit stops. A clean refuel and change to harder tyres on lap 15 let him rejoin in fifth position, behind Button. Raikkonen had stayed out on track for four more laps than Hamilton before pitting, but it was not enough to jump the McLaren.After the lead trio pitted, Barrichello led from Button and the title rivals pushed each other on at such a pace that it already threatened Hamilton's chance of winning the race. Button was the first Brawn to pit, just before the halfway point of the race, with Barrichello following him a lap later and comfortably retaking his position ahead of his British team-mate.The outcome rested on Hamilton's second stop, which McLaren opted to take surprising early on lap 34. Despite a smooth visit to the pits, Hamilton rejoined behind the pair of Brawns and began to chase down second-placed Button in the closing stages until putting a wheel on the kerb at the Lesmo and spinning. Ahead of them Barrichello maintained his lead to take the flag for his second victory of the year and carve two points out of Button's championship lead with four races remaining. The one-two finish also strengthens Brawn's advantage in the constructors' battle."It just feels really good," said Barrichello. "It was a great decision yesterday [to opt for a two-stop strategy] as the guys with Kers [Hamilton and Raikkonen] have 20 metres on us at the start so we had to bear that in mind. Luckily I had a good start and the pace was good enough to be in the front of them by the last pit stops."His title rival Button said: "Rubens did a better job [than me]. But second is good, and I gained seven points on [Sebastian] Vettel. He [Barrichello] is my closest rival. We've got a good relationship but we are competitive."Behind them Force India's Sutil finished in fourth place after a great battle with Raikkonen, the pair having suffered difficult second stops, Sutil when his car knocked down a pit crew member and Raikkonen when he appeared to stall his Ferrari. Putting Renault's race-fix scandal to one side, Fernando Alonso finished in fifth place ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. Red Bull's Vettel picked up one point with eighth place thanks to Hamilton's error as he suffered another difficult race in his bid to win the world title; he is now 27 points behind Button.Red Bull's other championship contender, Mark Webber, made it no further than the first lap, having been pushed off the track and into retirement by BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, the Pole later retiring himself. Vitantonio Liuzzi's racing return with Force India was scuppered by a gearbox problem on lap 23, while Giancarlo Fisichella finished just outside the points in ninth place in his race debut for Ferrari.Italian grand prix results:1 Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes2 Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes3 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari4 Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes5 Fernando Alonso, Renault6 Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes7 Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber8 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault9 Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari10 Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota11 Timo Glock, Toyota12 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes13 Sébastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari14 Jarno Trulli, Toyota15 Romain Grosjean, Renault16 Nico Rosberg, Williams-ToyotaNot classified:Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-MercedesJaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-FerrariRobert Kubica, BMW SauberMark Webber, Red Bull-RenaultBrawnJenson ButtonLewis HamiltonFormula OneMotor sportGemma Briggsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Jenson Button on Monaco pole

• British driver pips Kimi Raikkonen into second position• World champion Hamilton to start 16th after sliding offJenson Button put himself in the perfect position from which to win his fifth race of the season when he took pole position for tomorrow's Monaco grand prix with a last-minute lap of 1min 14.902 sec during today's final qualifying session.Next to his Brawn-Mercedes on the front row will be the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, with the second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello and the Red Bull-Renault of Sebastian Vettel behind them. Felipe Massa's Ferrari and Nico Rosberg are on the third row, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren-Mercedes and Mark Webber's Red Bull.Of the 55 editions of the race held since the second world war, 22 have been won by the driver starting from pole position. The forecast is for fine weather in the principality tomorrow, reducing the risk of the sort of chaos that can produce a surprise result on this tight street circuit.Button's challengers are unlikely to include Lewis Hamilton, who found his way past an all-Ferrari front row to win his first Monaco GP with a brilliant display last year but crashed out of today's first session. He had just clocked the fastest first-sector time when he lost control under heavy braking for the sharp right-hander at Mirabeau, sliding wide and clouting the barrier with his left rear wheel.The red flag came out to call a temporary halt to the session while marshals removed the McLaren-Mercedes and Hamilton walked back to the pits, resigned to a place on the eighth row of the grid for tomorrow's race. To compound his frustration, the car had been looking like a candidate for its best result of the season on a circuit where its mechanical grip is not compromised by its aerodynamic deficiencies.Others who failed to make it past the first session included the entire BMW and Toyota teams, with Nick Heifeld and Robert Kubica an ignominious 17th and 18th in the German cars and Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock an even worse 19th and 20th for the Japanese manufacturer.Trulli, normally an outstanding performer in qualifying and a winner of this race from pole position five years ago, claimed to have been baulked by a Renault. For the BMWs, however, there was no excuse. Those who were watching the morning's untimed session out by the entry to the swimming pool complex could not fail to notice how twitchy the white cars looked as they changed direction through the fast left-right flick, a place in which the Brawns looked almost unnaturally stable."It's not going to be easy," Button said afterwards, looking forward to starting as favourite to win for the first time in the place where he has lived for the past eight years. "But it's a great feeling to be on pole here."Formula oneJenson ButtonLewis HamiltonMotor sportMcLarenBrawnFerrariguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Button turns up heat in the desert

• Briton overcomes high temperatures to clinch third grand prix• Button comes from fourth place on the grid to claim winJenson Button won his third race of the season after surviving trying conditions in the desert heat to claim the Bahrain grand prix.Button, who started the 57-lap race in fourth place on the grid, consolidated his lead in the drivers' championship, after steering his Brawn past the chequered flag ahead of the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and Jarno Trulli's Toyota in 1hr 31 min 48sec.There was good news at last for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who crossed the line in fourth place, and also Kimi Raikkonen, who finally ended Ferrari's points with a sixth-place finish.But it was a disappointing day for Timo Glock, who managed to get a better start than his Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli – who began in pole position – to take the lead at turn one. The young German was unable to capitalise on his promising start though and eventually slipped back to eighth place, one ahead of the Renault of Fernando Alonso.Hamilton, starting from fifth in his McLaren, also made good progress early on, the world champion passing Button and Vettel before the first corner. Hamilton then attacked Trulli in a bid to gain second place on the opening lap, but the 34-year-old managed to fend off the Briton.At the start of lap two, though, Button pulled off a fine manoeuvre to overtake Hamilton and reclaim third place by slipping down the inside of the McLaren at turn one. The jostling behind the leading five was considerable as drivers traded places.At the start of lap three, Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber and the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima were both forced into the pits for new front wings due to damage sustained in the early skirmishes. Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who had started from eighth, was another of the casualties due to a front wing problem, while the second BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld also made an early unscheduled stop.Their problems dropped the quartet to the back of the field, with Massa, Kubica, Nakajima and Heidfeld running in 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, and seemingly with little hope of points.On lap eight, running third and within sight of the Toyotas, Button was told to turn down his engine to prevent overheating, with the heat of the day not helping as temperatures hit 36 degrees centigrade.Running with a light fuel load compared to those behind him, it was no surprise when Glock was the first of the leaders to pit at the end of 11. Surprisingly, despite carrying another three laps' worth of fuel more than Glock, Trulli pitted a lap later, resulting in a call to Button from the pit wall "to give it everything you've got".When he made his first call into the pits, he emerged ahead of Trulli, keeping faith with the supersoft tyres that had served him well to that point. In contrast, Trulli had switched from the soft tyres to the primes which were running close to a second per lap slower, as was proved during the middle stint of the race.By the time of the second stop at the end of lap 37, with both men in, Button had opened up a cushion of almost 18 seconds. Trulli switched back to the soft tyres, whilst Button was forced to take on the prime, and the duel appeared to be on between those two drivers.However, Vettel was to prove a major player following an unusually poor start from his perspective, although he was the heaviest with fuel of the top five. Starting from third on the grid he was passed by both Button and Hamilton, who used the KERS boost button to pass the German and his fellow Briton on the run down to the first corner.It was a position Hamilton was soon to relinquish, though, due to the superiority of the Brawn over the McLaren, with Button making his move on the 24-year-old at turn one of lap two. As for Vettel, he was forced to hang onto the exhaust of the duo and hope two rounds of pit stops would work in his favour. And they did as Vettel edged out Hamilton at the first and then Trulli at the second. The latter will have been especially gratifying as he found himself held up by Trulli for 18 laps in the middle stint, even though he was on the marginally quicker softer tyres.Over the closing stages the tables were turned as Trulli was unable to make any kind of move on Vettel, despite running closely behind the Red Bull. Come the finish, Button clinched his victory by 7.1 seconds over Vettel, with Trulli third, followed by Hamilton who was 22 seconds down, but who grabbed his best result of the season.Button now leads the drivers' championships by 12 points over his team-mate Barrichello, who has 19 points, one more than Vettel.Bahrain grand prix result1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 1hr 31mins 48.182secs2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:31:55.3693 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:31:57.3524 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:32:10.2785 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:32:25.9616 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:32:30.2397 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:32:31.0628 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:32:40.9579 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:32:46.380Drivers' championship1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 31pts2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 193 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 184 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 14.55 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 126 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 9.57 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 98 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 59 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 410 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 411 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 3.512 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 313 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 314 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1Jenson ButtonBrawnFormula oneMotor sportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

'What a guy' - Raikkonen slams Coulthard

Apr.24 (GMM) Kimi Raikkonen bit back at his former McLaren teammate David Coulthard on Friday, after the retired Scot questioned the Ferrari driver's car development abilities.

Raikkonen slams Coulthard

''What a guy'' Kimi Raikkonen bit back at his former McLaren teammate David Coulthard on Friday, after the retired Scot questioned the Ferrari driver's car development abilities...  

Chinese GP Review: Ferrari

K. Raikkonen: 10th, 1:59.15.235 + 1.31.750, 56 Laps F. Massa: R, 46.32.964 Lap 21, 20 Laps Chassis: K.Raikonen 276, F. Massa 275 Weather: air temperature 20 °C, track temperature 22/21 °C, rain.