Barrichello wins in Italy as his second victory of season

Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello led home a deserved Brawn 1-2 at Monza this afternoon, taking full advantage of a one-stop strategy to leapfrog pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. The Briton had been set to take a comfortable third place but crashed on the final lap after pushing too hard for second.

At the start, top-three starters Hamilton, Sutil and Räikkönen all had reasonable starts, with Räikkönen getting the best getaway only to have his chance of taking the lead scuppered by being pushed onto the grass by Hamilton. Behind, Heikki Kovalainen lost three places on the opening lap, as Barrichello, Button and Liuzzi all found their way by.

Hamilton was the first of the two-stoppers to pit as planned on lap 15, four laps earlier than then rival Räikkönen. Nevertheless, Lewis was able to keep ahead of the Finn, but a sterner challenge was coming from even further behind from the one-stopping Brawns.

Webber secures maiden pole in German Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Mark Webber secured his maiden pole position for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring this afternoon, in what was a hugely entertaining and highly unpredictable qualifying. Rain mid-way through the qualifying hour caused chaos throughout the pitlane, before things finally settled down at the end of Q3 when pacesetters Red Bull and Brawn rose to the top of the timesheets.

After a chaotic qualifying session, the provisional grid for tomorrow’s grid reads: Webber, Barrichello, Button, Vettel, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Sutil, Massa, Räikkönen, Piquet, Heidfeld, Alonso, Nakajima, Trulli, Rosberg, Kubica, Buemi, Fisichella, Glock and Bourdais.

Button wins Turkish Grand Prix in front of two Red Bull’s

Jenson Button secured his sixth win from seven races today in Turkey to extend his championship lead to 26 points over team-mate Rubens Barrichello who failed to finish after a dramatic day. With title rival Sebastian Vettel finishing in third position, Button surely now is in a commanding position as he aims for the championship with Brawn Mercedes.

Vettel’s one error came on that first lap as he ran wide through turn nine and with his momentum lost, Button breezed by to take the lead exiting turn ten, one he would never relinquish.

Vettel pips Button to Istanbul pole

Qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix saw Sebastian Vettel claim the pole position for the Red Bull Renault team ahead of the dominant Brawn Mercedes duo of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Behind there were a few surprises such as McLaren struggling more than expected and BMW Sauber picking up the pace with the new aero package.

Button got pole in Monaco ahead of Raikkonen

Jenson Button once again got pole position this season at Monaco Grand Prix. Despite his struggle in early stages of Qualify today he did an exceptional lap at dying moments of Q3 and secured pole position. Raikkonen was second just 0.025 seconds behind Button despite he was the fastest man in Q2 with almost six tenths quicker than last years best Q2 time. Barrichello from Brawn was third ahead of Vettel in fourth who didn’t seem to be on pace this week. Massa was fifth who crashed his car at the beginning of Q1 but was lucky enough to continue. Rosberg was sixth, Kovalainen seventh and Webber was eight before tomorrow’s race.

The real drama was Hamilton’s crash at first session after posting the best first sector time. Hamilton seemed very strong all week here and he could deliver a very strong performance today if he didn’t crash. Another big surprise was seeing both cars of teams BMW and Toyota to be knocked out in Q1 while Force India and Torro Rosso drivers were in top 15. Car weights are yet to be published by FIA, but most of the time strategy is more important at this circuit than the raw speed.