F1: Stat Wrap: Spanish GP

Formula 1

F1: Stat Wrap: Spanish GP

Sean Kelly notes historic moments in the careers of Jenson Button and Mark Webber in this week's Stat Wrap from Barcelona.

Sean Kelly | Posted May 10, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Spanish Grand Prix Photo Gallery HERE

The podium for the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix: Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello (L), race winner Jenson Button and Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix saw Jenson Button reach a level where no driver has failed from in Formula 1 history.

Drivers have scored victories in four of the first five races in a season on nine previous occasions, and they have gone on to win the title every time. They were, in order: Jimmy Clark (1963, 1965), Jackie Stewart (1969), Ayrton Senna (1991), Nigel Mansell (1992), Damon Hill (1996) and Michael Schumacher (1994, 2002 and 2004).

Button’s win may not have been surprising in the context of 2009, but he has never enjoyed a particularly strong record around this circuit. Prior to Sunday, he had never finished in the top five at the Circuit de Catalunya, and it was the first time since 2003 that he had outqualified a teammate here.

Conversely, Button scored his only points of the entire 2008 season when he was sixth last year for Honda, so it is a track that now holds good recent memories for him.

Rubens Barrichello finished second, 13 seconds behind the Englishman and scoring his first podium finish since Australia, in bringing up the Brawn GP 1-2 finish. This race showed Barrichello’s true speed. As mentioned in the Bahrain stat wrap, the Brazilian had only led Button on track for 12 laps out of a possible 202 all season (the worst performance of any driver relative to his teammate).

However, Barrichello passed Button and Sebastian Vettel for the lead into turn one, and led confidently for the opening 19 laps of the race. By taking an additional pitstop he led another 10 laps at mid-distance, and looked much more impressive relative to Button. The Brawn cars are now the only cars to complete every lap this season, and the only ones to score in every race.

Third place went to the surprising Mark Webber, who managed to beat Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa in a straight fight to take the final podium spot. It was a fitting day for the Australian to be on the podium – Webber tied Sir Jack Brabham’s record of 126 race starts on Sunday, which is a record for an Australian driver.

Even more coincidentally, Sunday was also the 50th anniversary of Sir Jack Brabham’s first career race victory, at the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix for Cooper, in the year he took the first of his three world titles.

Teammate Sebastian Vettel was eventually fourth, having slipped back from his front row start. He has still not qualified lower than third this season, which is the best record in the field – although he was penalized 10 positions in Malaysia. Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko celebrated his birthday in Bahrain, and it was race team manager Jonathan Wheatley’s turn in Barcelona, as he was 42 on Thursday.

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