Button triumphs at Turkish GP 

Published: 2:20AM Monday June 08, 2009

Source: Reuters

At a glance...

Button's sixth win in seven races this season
Takes 26 point lead in the drivers' championship
Button triumphs at Turkish GP (Source: Reuters)

Source: ReutersBrawn GP driver Jenson Button of Britain celebrates on the podium after winning the Spanish F1 Grand Prix

Jenson Button ran away with the Turkish Grand Prix on Monday (NZT) to stretch his overall Formula One lead to 26 points with a sparkling sixth victory from seven races.

Australian Mark Webber finished runner-up for Red Bull, taking the chequered flag 6.7 seconds behind the Briton to equal his best ever finish, with 21-year-old German team mate Sebastian Vettel third after starting on pole position.

Button stretched his championship lead over Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello, who failed to finish after a starting glitch left him fighting way down the field, to 26 points with 10 races remaining.

The Briton has 61 points, Barrichello 35 and Vettel 29.

"You have built me a monster of a car, you guys are absolute legends," Button yelled over the team radio, his voice wavering with the emotion, after the white and lime car crossed the finish line.

Button's seventh career win, and fourth in a row, made him the first driver to win in Turkey without starting on pole position since the race made its debut at the Istanbul Park circuit in 2005.

It also ended Ferrari's Felipe Massa's run of three wins in a row at the track.

"Today the car was the best it felt all year. Today it was immense, it really was," added Button. "I wish I could have had all the guys up on the podium with me."

Vettel mistake

Vettel, who made three stops to Webber's two but failed to make the strategy work for him, made a mistake when he hit the kerb into turn nine and went wide at turn 10 on the opening lap, allowing Button to slip past.

Vettel said he had been well beaten: "Jenson was just too quick today, I don't think I would have held him anyway," he said.

In what is shaping up to be the most dominant season by a driver since the championship started in 1950, 29-year-old Button also became the first Briton to win four successive races in a single year since Nigel Mansell in 1992.

Only five other British drivers, all of them champions, have won six times in a season and that tally does not include current champion Lewis Hamilton.

The 24-year-old McLaren driver, wrestling with an uncompetitive car, finished 13th -- 80.4 seconds behind Button -- unlapped but still out of the points for the third race in succession.

Italian Jarno Trulli was fourth for Toyota, a strong comeback after that team's dismal Monaco weekend, with Germany's Nico Rosberg fifth for Williams.

Massa was sixth while Poland's Robert Kubica, a title challenger last season, scored his first points of the year for BMW-Sauber in seventh place.

Germany's Timo Glock took the final point for Toyota.

For Turkish Grand Prix results click here


Tools: Print     Text Size


Advertisement
 

ONE Sport TV Schedule

Find out what sport is on and when on TVNZ this month

ONE Sport FREE ondemand

The latest sports news bulletin as well as local and international sporting events

Sport on 7

A variety of sports shows profiling popular sports and rounding up news and events in the…

Kris Gemmell wins the mens elite race at the Contact Tri Series (Source: Photosport)

Contact Tri TV

Contact Tri TV - the place to watch the best of both local and international…

Previous
 of 
Next

Tools: Print     Text Size

Provocative, unflinching, Thursday 9:30pm
Back Benches - giving politics back to the people
The way New Zealand wakes up weekdays, 6:30am
No one gets you closer, weeknights 7pm
Looking out for the little guy, Wednesday 7:30pm
Meet the people that bring you the news
TV ONE weekdays, 6am
The home of NZ politics - Sunday, 9am TV ONE
Where there's a story, we'll find it, Sunday 7:30pm
Te Karere, Maori News - 4pm weekdays, TV ONE
News on digital channel TVNZ 7

Advertising