Malaysian Grand Prix

06th April 2009

British ace Jenson Button scored his second race win on the trot, with victory in an action packed Malaysian grand prix.

The Brawn GP driver was awarded the win after heavy rainfall forced organisers to abandon the race after just 32 laps. BMW’s Nick Heidfeld finished in the runner’s up spot, with Timo Glock securing the final podium place in his Toyota.

Jenson had to work hard for the win, despite the much shorter race distance. After a poor start, the Englishman dropped from pole position to fourth place, behind NIco Rosberg, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.

But by the first round of pit stops Button had fought his way to the head of the field. Then the rain began to fall, forcing all the teams to bring in their cars for a change of tyres.

Most runners went with a full wet tyre, although the rain initially wasn’t heavy enough to make them effective. Toyota’s Timo Glock made an inspired move to intermediate rubber, allowing him race up the order.

All the other teams followed suit, but where then surprised only a few laps later with a heavy downpour, meaning a return to the pits once again for the full wet option tyres.

And only a handful of laps after the rain set in, organisers took the decision to stop the race due to the poor visibility and amount of standing water on the track.

However, as the race was stopped before three quarters of the distance was run, drivers were only awarded half points.

As a result, defending champion Lewis Hamilton scored a single point, despite finishing in seventh. But this was still a welcome boost for the McLaren star following his disqualification from the previous race at Melbourne, Austraila.

But for Button even half points and heavy rain could dampen his enthusiasm. “What a crazy race”, exclaimed the Brit. “We had everything in that race. It was very enjoyable. I would obviously love to have the ten points, but this is the best we could have done, I think, and realistically it was the right thing to do.”

Next up the teams travel to Shanghai for the Chinese grand prix on 17 April.

1.  Button        Brawn GP
2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber
3.  Glock         Toyota
4.  Trulli        Toyota
5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP
6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault
7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota
9.  Massa         Ferrari
10. Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11. Alonso        Renault
12. Nakajima      Williams-Toyota
13. Piquet        Renault
14. Raikkonen     Ferrari
15. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault
16. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes
18. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes