19/04/2009
NEWS STORY
Brawn GP's Jenson Button took his third consecutive podium of the 2009 Formula One season at the end of a rain-soaked Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit today. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished in fourth position to secure further valuable points for the team's championship challenge.
For the second race in succession, the weather had a major impact as heavy rain showers led to the race starting under the safety car with all drivers fitting wet tyres. The racing got underway on lap nine with Rubens and Jenson lying in third and fourth places respectively behind the two Red Bulls cars.
Suffering from a brake warm-up issue throughout his first stint, Rubens ran wide on lap eleven giving Jenson the opportunity to move up into third place. In very tricky conditions, the pair largely kept their Brawn-Mercedes cars on the track, successfully negotiating two pit-stops and a further safety car period, to cross the line with Jenson in third position and Rubens taking fourth place.
After the first three races of the season, the Brawn GP team leads the Constructors' Championship with 36 points with Jenson leading the Drivers' Championship with 21 points and Rubens in second place with 15 points.
Jenson Button: A very difficult race today and I am so pleased that we got both cars to the end of 56 laps and scored as many points as possible. The conditions were pretty crazy with rivers of water all over the circuit which changed every time you encountered them. The last turn particularly was like a lake and you just couldn't brake for the corner. I struggled with the car aquaplaning and the tyres shuddering as we couldn't get the temperatures high enough to make them work properly. Mark Webber and I had a good fight for a few laps but I just couldn't stay with him. However to finish the race today is an achievement in itself and to be on the podium is fantastic. We couldn't have beaten the Red Bulls and congratulations to Sebastian and Mark on a great result.
Rubens Barrichello: It was a tough race in very challenging conditions out there today. I only had three brake discs working on my car for the first 19 laps which made it even more difficult for me to keep the car on the road. Thankfully the problem resolved itself when the brakes heated up during my first pit stop and I had a good pace from then but unfortunately it was a bit too late. However we got the car to the end of the race in difficult circumstances and I scored as many points as I could have done, so we have to be happy with that.
Ross Brawn: Another dramatic race today to continue what is turning out to be a very exciting 2009 Formula One season. Jenson and Rubens did an excellent job to bring the cars home in the difficult conditions which combined with a solid team performance over the whole weekend enabled us to score as many points as possible. We had a good strategy with both drivers fuelled long for their first stints which allowed us to bridge the gap to the leaders. However on similar fuel, Vettel and Webber were then able to pull away. Congratulations to Red Bull for their one-two performance today. We know from Australia what a fantastic feeling that achievement is and I'm sure they will enjoy every minute of it. Our focus now turns to Bahrain next weekend for what will hopefully be a dry race.