Bahrain Grand Prix

British ace Jenson Button has continued his winning ways, taking victory in last weekend’s Bahrain grand prix. The Brawn GP driver has now won three out of the first four races of the season.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the winner last time out in China, but the young German had to settle for second this time. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who failed to capitalise on his pole position start, took the final podium place.

There were encouraging signs of progress for McLaren after Lewis Hamilton posted a season’s best finish of fourth position. The defending champion had been as high as third after using his power boosting KERS off the start line to blast past Button and Vettel into the first corner.

However, Lewis was soon bumped back down to fourth after being overtaken by Button at the end of the first lap. This crucial move allowed the Brawn GP star to keep pace with the leading Toyotas of Timo Glock and Trulli, which were both much lighter on fuel.

At the first round of pit stops, Jenson leapfrogged the Japanese cars to take a lead he would never lose. Vettel and Trulli then took turns in second place, before the Red Bull driver finally secured the spot after his final stop for fuel and tyres.

Behind this scrap Hamilton managed to stay of Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was next up – the Finn’s sixth place resulted in the team’s first points of 2009.

The biggest shock of the weekend was the poor showing of the BMW Saubers, which were the last two cars home in 18th and 19th places. Team bosses blamed the result on a first corner clash between drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

But at the other end of the field there were no such worries for Jenson Button. “I am very happy”, he claimed. “This race win for us is probably the best out of the lot. The whole team should be very proud of themselves. They have worked so hard.”

The teams now return to Europe for the Spanish grand prix at Barcelona on 10 May.


Results

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



Drivers Championship
1.  Button        31        
 2.  Barrichello   19        
 3.  Vettel        18        
 4.  Trulli        14.5      
 5.  Glock         12        
 6.  Webber         9.5      
 7.  Hamilton       9        
 8.  Alonso         5

Constructors Championship

1.  Brawn GP-Mercedes      50
2.  Red Bull-Renault             27.5
3.  Toyota                             26.5
4.  McLaren-Mercedes         13
5.  Renault                             5
6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari            4
7.  BMW Sauber                    4