FORMULA ONE
2009 Monaco Grand Prix Race Report
Button Makes It Five Wins From Four
Jenson Button ended a perfect weekend in the sun on the Principality with another convincing win. The Brawn driver led from start to finish and has showed the rest of the F1 grid that he means business and that the drivers’ title could be on the cards this year.
The Brit extended his lead in the world championship with his fifth victory from six races, his team-mate Rubens Barricello managed to beat the Ferrari’s and finish in second overall to make it a one-two for the Brawn team.
An elated Jenson Button beamed, “Wow Winning the Monaco Grand Prix is something that you dream about as a child and as a racing driver and the reality of taking that victory just feels awesome. To win in Monaco is truly a special feeling. With Rubens taking a superb second place, a one-two finish for the Brawn-Mercedes team in Monaco is fantastic. The race felt like it went on forever and you feel that the barriers are getting closer and closer as the end of the race approaches. But for the last couple of laps, I was able to relax and really enjoy the moment. It’s been an unbelievable day, capped with my impromptu sprint down the pit straight to the podium. I can tell you it’s a very long way But it was amazing to get such a fantastic reception from the crowd and I hope the fans enjoyed what was a great race for the team. The car felt good today but we didn’t have the best of starts to the weekend so it makes this victory even more of an achievement. For the team, for Mercedes-Benz and for my family who were here in Monaco watching the race this weekend, today has to be the high-point of what has been an exceptional season.”
Second place Rubens Barricello was pleased to be able to fend off the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa who finished in third and fourth respectively.
A happy Barricello said, “Another one-two for the team today is just amazing. I had a really good start on the option tyre and was able to get ahead of Kimi before the first corner which put me in a great position to challenge Jenson. I had tremendous pace but following so closely behind him affected the aero balance of my car and I suffered with massive graining on the rears which lost me a lot of time. We had a great strategy to recover and I came in earlier than planned to keep second place but by then Jenson was over ten seconds ahead. However it was a great race and I really enjoyed the challenge and the fight with Kimi. I’m still very much in the fight and collecting as many points as possible whilst pushing Jenson as hard as I can.”
Team owner of Brawn GP, Ross Brawn was overjoyed with another good job at the office, “Fantastic drives from Jenson and Rubens, outstanding pit stops from the team and the performance of our Mercedes-Benz engine secured an amazing one-two victory for Brawn GP here in Monaco today. Jenson gave himself the best possible chance of victory after achieving pole position with his flying lap yesterday and he was able to control the race from the front today. Bringing the car home in one piece after 78 laps is no easy feat in Monaco but Jenson was calm and assured throughout the race and drove with real finesse. Rubens had a great start to get ahead of Raikkonen and was showing excellent pace before his first set of rear tyres began to grain heavily as a result of following Jenson so closely. Unfortunately that compromised his chance of fighting it out with his team-mate but he did superbly well to keep Raikkonen at bay and bring home maximum points for the team’s championship challenge. The Monaco Grand Prix is an incredibly special race and to win here means so much to everyone here at the track, at the factory in Brackley and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth. Special congratulations to Mercedes-Benz for supplying an engine that has now won three Grands Prix, a modern day record in Formula One.”
After six rounds of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, Brawn GP leads the Constructors’ Championship with 86 points with Jenson leading the Drivers’ Championship with 51 points and Rubens in second place with 35 points.
Third placed Kimi Raikkonen said, “I wasn't too happy with the third place at the Monaco GP. For sure it was the best result in the last time, but that was nothing new to me and we knew that we could arrive on a place on the top. When the leaders in the Championship are so far ahead in the classification, in the end it's only a victory that counts. Being back on the podium is a nice reward for the whole Team. The hard work of the last weeks finally bears some fruit, which is really positive for all of us. We know that we're on the right way now: there are still some minor things to be done but sooner or later we will win. We'll show up with further improvements of the F60 in the upcoming races and we hope we can then challenge the leaders even more, in the qualifying and in the race.”
Red Bull's Mark Webber came home in fifth, while Williams's Nico Rosberg, Renault's Fernando Alonso and the Toro Rosso of Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais filled the remaining points places down to eighth.
Nico Rosberg stated, “I’ve got to be happy with sixth place today, more just wasn’t possible and we did the best we could have in the circumstances. It was a great start with lots going on, but I managed to come through it and it set me up well for the early phase of the race. We then did a long middle stint on primes as we were worried about the durability of the option tyre, but it seemed to hold on much better than expected in the last stint, perhaps due to the amount of rubber down on the circuit by the end of the race. That said, I always enjoy racing here, it is a huge challenge that requires you to be inch perfect and it was very demanding out there.”
Sam Michael, the Williams Technical Director said, “It was good to collect some points today and Nico drove well, unfortunately we were on a compromise strategy as a result of yesterday’s qualifying, so it was always going to be quite difficult to beat the guys around him, but he did well to earn some points. It was difficult to progress Kazuki somewhere like Monaco where you can’t overtake. The car was good in terms of pace around here and if we keep pushing the development, the performance will start to show through.”
It was another disappointing race for the BMW Sauber F1 Team as it left Monaco empty handed. Nick Heidfeld finished 11th, while his team mate, Robert Kubica, retired after 29 laps because of brake problems.
A disappointed Nick Heidfeld stated, ”I tried to make up positions at the start and on the first lap, but this time it just didn’t work out. It is too narrow here. I was stuck behind Adrian (Sutil) for quite a while. Apparently he had problems with his tyres, and once I even touched the rear of his car. In turn one Lewis (Hamilton) hit me, but I was happy I was able to continue. I was on a one stop strategy, and with the softer compound on the second stint I had degradation. We gave everything today but we were too slow here.”
Simon McBride
2009 Monaco Grand Prix Results
| 1 Jenson Button | Brawn GP | 1h 40m44.282s |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | Brawn GP | 1h 40m51.948s |
| 3 Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1h40m57.724s |
| 4 Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1h40m59.392s |
| 5 Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1h41m00.012s |
| 6 Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1h41m17.868s |
| 7 Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1h41m17.868s |
| 8 Sebastien Bourdais | Torro Rosso-Ferrari | 1h41m47.424s |
| 9 Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 1h41m49.322s |
| 10 Timo Glock | Toyota | Lapped |
| 11 Nick Heidfeld | BMW-Sauber | Lapped |
| 12 Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | Lapped |
| 13 Jarno Trulli | Toyota | Lapped |
| 14 Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | Lapped |
| DNF Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | crash, 76 laps |
| DNF Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | crash, 51 laps |
| DNF Robert Kubica | BMW-Sauber | retired, 28 laps |
| DNF Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | crash, 15 laps |
| DNF Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | retired, 10 laps |
| DNF Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | crash, 10 laps |
2009 FIA Formula One Driver's World Championship
| 1 Jenson Button | 51 |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | 35 |
| 3 Sebastien Vettel | 23 |
| 4 Mark Webber | 19.5 |
| 5 Jarno Trulli | 14.5 |
| 6 Timo Glock | 12 |
| 7 Fernando Alonso | 11 |
| 8 Kimi Raikkonen | 9 |
| 9 Lewis Hamilton | 9 |
| 10 Felipe Massa | 8 |
| 11 Nico Rosberg | 7.5 |
| 12 Nick Heidfeld | 6 |
| 13 Heikki Kovalainen | 4 |
| 14 Sebastien Buemi | 3 |
| 15 Sebastien Bourdais | 2 |
| 16 Adrian Sutil | 0 |
| 17 Robert Kubica | 0 |
| 18 Nelson Piquet Jr | 0 |
| 19 Kazuki Nakajima | 0 |
| 20 Giancarlo Fisichella | 0 |
2009 FIA Formula One Constructor's World Championship
| 1 Brawn-Mercedes | 86 |
| 2 Red Bull Renault | 42.5 |
| 3 Toyota | 26.5 |
| 4 Ferrari | 17 |
| 5 McLaren-Mercedes | 13 |
| 6 Renault | 11 |
| 7 Williams-Toyota | 7.5 |
| 8 BMW-Sauber | 6 |
| 9 Torro-Rosso Ferrari | 5 |
| 10 Force India | 0 |
All results subject to FIA confirmation
Simon McBride
Thanks to Brawn GP, Toyota, Force India, Williams, Ferrari and BMW F1 teams for suppling the images.
