Through a race of attrition, and the most drama I have seen in 1/2 in the first lap that I have ever seen, Jenson Button has emerged as World Champion with his 5th place finish at the 2009 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix, bringing along with him the Constructor’s Championship to Brawn GP, one of many F1 history firsts that were accomplished this past weekend. The drama really stared with torrential rain on Saturday during a record-setting 3 hour qualifying session, where the usual suspects for the top five to 8 positions were found qualifying in 14th (Button), 16th (Vettel) and 18th (Hamilton). Following this was the drama filled first lap which saw Trulli go off in a track taking Sutil with him, who in turn took out Alonso. Trulli was then seen immediately running up to Sutil’s crashed car where aggressively confronted Sutil for causing the crash. While this may or may not be true, Trulli was fined after the race for US$10,000 for his behavior. Following these incidents, the safety car was brought out. Through the first few corners, both Kovalainen and Raikkonen were involved in racing incidents which caused them to pit. Heikki however, was let go to early, and proceeded to rip out the fuel hose while the car was still being fueled (a-la Massa in Singapore 2008). He proceeded to spill fuel through the hose down the pit straight, where Raikkonen’s Ferrari caused the fuel to ignite in a brief but entertaining ball of fire. And that was all in just the first lap! The face ended with Webber taking the chequered flag, however, it’s Button who is the one really celebrating after setting F1 history by becoming a driver at a new F1 team to win both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships. Mercedes, who powers the Brawn team, and is rumored to be interested in becoming a larger partner with the team next season, were thrilled by this. Norbert Haug, VP of Mercedes Motorsport, has a gem of a quote, “For the second year in a row, car number 22, driven by an Englishman and powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine has finished fifth in Brazil to win the world championship – what an amazing list of coincidences”. (Found on F1-Live)
