McLaren pit error helps Barrichello to victory

Rubens Barrichello has clinched his first Grand Prix victory for almost half a decade by taking advantage of a pit-stop mistake by McLaren in Sunday's European Grand Prix. The Brazilian completed an impressive run of rapid laps to pull away from World Champion Lewis Hamilton and win for the first time since 2004.

Ambient temperatures reached highs of 31°C (88°F) in Spain on Sunday as the sun confirmed a glorious day in Valencia. With the track at weekend highs of 49°C (120°F), the warmer surface temperatures looked to suit the Brawn GP cars although it was McLaren which locked out the front row courtesy of World Champion Lewis Hamilton and Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.

Kimi Räikkönen made the most of his KERS system to shoot from sixth on the grid to fourth by the second corner as the couple of Silver Arrows pulled away from the pack through the long Turn 1; Kovalainen's start was fractionally better than that of Hamilton although both drivers remained sensible as the field threaded its away around the first lap. The same could not be said for some further back in the pack, as Sébastien Buemi's Toro Rosso rear-ended the Toyota of Timo Glock at Turn 3 to cause unscheduled pit-stops for both drivers. Also in at the end of Lap 1 was the Renault of new boy Romain Grosjean to allow Luca Badoer's Ferrari through to 17th.

Hamilton pulled away to stretch out a lead of over six seconds in the opening stint as Kovalainen tried his best to stay in touch. Rubens Barrichello was third, ahead of Vettel, who has also dropped back behind Räikkönen. A bad start for Jenson Button saw the championship leader fall from fifth to ninth place.

It was a disastrous afternoon for Sebastian Vettel, however, as the German's second Renault engine failure of the weekend ensured that the Red Bull - which had been running ahead of both Mark Webber and Jenson Button - retired from the race. Button, meantime, had allowed Webber past for 8th after cutting the Turn 4-5 chicane on the opening lap of the race.

Another Red Bull car, that of Sébastien Buemi in the sister Toro Rosso team, also experienced a bad afternoon as the STR4's left-front brake disc exploded to result in a spin at Turn 12 and subsequent retirement. Kazuki Nakajima's Williams experienced a right-rear tyre blowout on the same part of track later in the race before eventually rejoining from the pits to wind up three laps down. Grosjean had a spin at Turn 19 on his way to 15th position on his first F1 outing as Luca Badoer lost the Ferrari once before finishing last of the runners in 17th.

The crucial points of the afternoon for winner Barrichello came during the pit-stop windows; the first of the Brazilian's services included rapid in and out-laps to be able to jump Kovalainen for second place. The Finn then lost another spot to compatriot Räikkönen at the second round of stops to allow the Ferrari driver to achieve a second consecutive podium finish.

The turning point of the 2009 European Grand Prix also came in the pit lane, as McLaren left leader Hamilton - heading for a certain victory - standing for over (an ironic) 13 seconds when the right-front tyre remained in its blanket and was therefore delaying proceedings badly as Barrichello duly went through.

With Barrichello on the softer (Super Soft) compound tyres and Hamilton on the harder (Soft) for the final laps of the race, the McLaren driver tried in vein to catch the Brazilian although a Paulista could not be stopped once again in Valencia as the ever-popular Barrichello registered his first Grand Prix win since the Chinese Grand Prix of 2004 for Ferrari.

Nico Rosberg completed another strong afternoon in fifth place as Alonso finished his second home race of the year inside the top six. Robert Kubica had not expected points but takes one home to BMW-Sauber's Hilwil after finishing eighth behind Button, as the championship leader loses half a point's advantage. However, his closest challenger, now 18 points behind, is team-mate Barrichello. Brawn now boats a 27.5-point gap over Red Bull in the Constructors' battle after Webber slipped back to ninth at the final stops and the outfit therefore fails to score for only the second time this season. Adrian Sutil also impressed with a top ten finish for Force India.

Source: GP Update