Button leads from start to finish

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Jenson Button has continued his almost perfect season start with yet another win, now at the principality of Monaco. He has never been under any threat and will be joined by his teammate Barrichello for a prestigious Brawn 1-2. Kimi Raikkonen is third on the podium.

The weather at Monaco is excellent, with clear skies and an ambient temperature of 25°C.

When the lights go out, Button retains his pole position and is the first man to enter turn 1. He is followed by Rubens Barichello who jumped Raikkonen in the first metres. Behind the Ferrari are Vettel, Massa, Rosberg and Kovalainen.

After 2 laps without incidents, the Brawns appear to pull away from the rest of the field. Basically everhbody retained their positions apart from Barrichello who gained one. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile moved up to 17th thanks to a pitstop by Kubica and a pass over Trulli.

By lap 6 Vettel is also heavily under fire by Massa, a dangerous situation for the German as the Ferrari's, as well as the McLaren's are fitted with KERS. That same lap Massa tries to challenge Vettel at the tunnel's exit but misses his braking point. He cuts the chicane, and while slowing down to allow Vettel to re-pass, Rosberg profits and also sneaks into the gap left by the Brazilian.

Vettel has really holding up a bunch of cars behind him. Despite being the least charged in fuel, he is up to 3 seconds a lap slower than Raikkonen. Two laps later, the is an obvious problem for Vettel as he is quickly passed by Rosberg and Massa, one before the chicane, one after it. He enters the pitlane right after that to get rid of his super soft tyres.

That same lap, Buemi drives into Piquet in turn 1. Both men are out of the race.

Barrichello on the other hand is being told to try and preserve his tyres while a the same time he sees Raikkonen close up behind him. Button is by that time 9 seconds ahead. The Brazilian is also running on the super softs. He gets rid of them in lap 16, one lap after Raikkonen made his pitstop.

Vettel's race ends at the same time after he is entering St. Devote much too fast and ends up breaking the suspension of his left rear wheel.

In lap 17 Button enters the pit and rejoins the track just ahead of Massa. He is now 2nd while Rosberg is leading the race. Only for a single lap though as the German is in for new primes. He gets back on track just behind Raikkonen and Alonso.

3 laps later Massa also completes his first stop and in the event gains a position on Rosberg.

In lap 28 Alonso finally makes his first pitstop. He has been running consistently between both Ferrari's in fourth place and rejoins he track in 11th position, in the middle of a bunch of cars that have not yeat made their pitstops.

One lap later Kubia is into the pitlane and is pulled into the box. This will be another major blow for the Pole who finished second at Monaco last year but who has not yet marked a single point in 2009.

Lap 37 shows the problems that Lewis Hamilton is currently suffering. Not even at the halfway mark of the race, Hamilton is passed by Button and hence a lap down on Jenson Button.

On lap 42 it's up to Webber to mark the fastest lap. Felipe Massa put in several consecutive ones before that but he was warned repeatedly not to cut the curbs too much as it would eventually result in a penalty.

After lap 43, Button is still comfortably leading. He has 15 seconds over teammate Barrichello. Raikkonen is following 2 seconds further down, folowed by Massa at approximately the same distance. Webber is 4 seconds further behind but he is slowly closing the gap thanks to another fastest lap. Nico Rosberg is 6th but more than 10 seconds further down the field, closely followed by Kovalainen. Bourdais is 8th and still counting 0 pitstops.

Lap 51 marks the start of a new string of pitstops, started by Barrichello. Bourdais and Sutil follow suit, as well as Button. The latter rejoins in between the Ferrari's, leaving the race lead up to Raikkonen.

One lap later Kovalainen oversteers at La Piscine and crashes out, resulting in a yellow flag situation, despite some debris on the track. Raikkonen immediately dives into the pitlane and is again behind Barrichello after his stop.

In lap 53 the other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton is also in the pits. A new nose is being fitted, together with a new set of the harder tyres.

In lap 63 Rosberg is in for this second stop to make a short stint on the fragile option tyres. Alonso and Trulli do exactly the same one lap later. Rosberg is 6th after his stop, Alonso 7th while Trulli is 13th with only Sutil running behind him.

One single lap from the end, Nakajima plants his car in the tyres. It would have been a nice finish after a good race.

It's fairly obvious that this is Button's first Monaco win as he simply parked his car in the pitlane, instead of at the end of the straight in front of the Principal family. The other podium finishers and his fans were already waiting when Button ran towards the podium.