Button takes win at Spanish GP

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Jenson Button has won an incident packed Spanish Grand Prix, a race that really went smoothly for the Briton. Rubens Barrichello had a little more difficult time but managed to secure second place behind his teammate. Red Bull's Mark Webber is 3rd thanks to an excellent pitstop strategy.

In excellent conditions, the Spanish Grand Prix took of spactacularly. In turn 2, Trulli slightly went off track and upon rejoining he was hit by Adrian Sutil. Both cars were heavily damaged when they came to a half on the other side of the track. At the same time, one of the Toro Rosso drivers braked to avoid the collision and was instantly hit by his teammate. Both of them are out of the race too.

The safety car is immediately deployed to clear up the debris off the track. 4 laps later, Barrichello is released again for racing. The Brazilian launched from 3rd place and immediately took the first position. Button is second, followed by Massa. Sebastian Vettel slightly missed his start and is down two places to 4th place, just ahead of Webber. Fernando Alonso made a good start to 6th, even challenging Webber to gain even more, but he was eventually repassed by the Australian.

Lewis Hamilton missed his start completely and was completely in the back of the field after carfully avoiding the debris from the crash ahead of him. In the first racing laps however he moved up to 12th position. Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand made an excellent start and moved up to 10th place after having started from 18th.

Nakajima meanwhile fell back to 15th and last after having to make a pitstop to repair damages on his car.

15 laps into the race, Kimi Raikkonen is stuck behind Nick Heidfeld. He has repeatedly tried to pass the BMW Sauber aided with his KERS system but the German has succesfully defended his position by keeping the inside of turn 1.

3 laps later Timo Glock is the first to enter the pitlane. Button and Alonso follow suit one lap later.

One lap further along Barrichello is also in the pitlane, leaving the lead of the race to Felipe Massa. Less fortunate is Kimi Raikkonen who came to a halt along the track with a technical problem. He is the 6th man to abandon after Kovalainen stopped at his pitbox, also with technical trouble.

When Massa entered the pit, Vettel decides to do the same, hopeful of passing the Brazilian in the pitlane. Both their positions however stayed the same, with Massa leading Vettel by less than half a second.

After the first stops, in lap 23, Barrichello is leading Rosberg who has still not stopped. Jenson Button is 3rd, 5 seconds ahead of Massa and Heidfeld. Lewis Hamilton is 7th because he also didn't stop yet.

In lap 30, Rubens Barrichello already makes a second stop after having pulled a gap to Jenson Button of 12 seconds. A quick pitstop allows his to rejoin the track not far behind Massa and Vettel.

So far, all front runners have been running the softer option tyre and look likely to complete longer final stints on hard tyres.

Massa and Vettel are the first to make the switch. Their last stints will total 23 laps. 4 laps later Button is also in for new tyres and fuel. He rejoins on a clear track in third position, behind Barrichello and Webber, both of which still have to make their final stops.

Just 2 laps later they make their stops to get into 2nd and 3th place. Button is now first and may well win this race. Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel have lost places because of more running on the harder tyres.

Interestingly, Massa's last stop was at least 1.5 seconds quicker than Vettel's. 10 laps from the end however, Vettel has closed into Massa again, the latter receiving orders from his team to save more fuel in order to get to the end of the race without needing another pitstop.

Lewis Hamilton in 9th is also having trouble to keep position as Timo Glock has closed in on him. Despite several attacks, Glock remains behind the McLaren, partly because it's difficult to pass a KERS powered car when you don't have it yourself.

4 laps from the end, Massa eventually lets Vettel by and needs to save one lap of fuel to make it to the end. Alonso is however 15 seconds behind the duo so the Brazilian should be able to savour that 4th position. It looks like Ferrari have simply taken a too aggressive route which Massa will not be happy about.

One lap later Button takes a lap on Hamilton, an event that happened frequently last season, albeit the other way around.

In the last lap, Alonso managed to get by Massa who is desperate to safely get to the end o the race. The Ferrari was really crawling across the finish and had only 2 seconds left on Nick Heidfeld in 7th position. Felipe eventually came to a halt only 1km after the finish line.