Monaco GP: Button & Barrichello in romp

Jenson Button on his way to his 5th win in 6 races

Starting from his pole position, Jenson Button easily won the Monaco Grand Prix today, 7.6 seconds ahead of his Brawn-Mercedes teammate Rubens Barrichello for a one-two finish for Brawn GP. Kimi Raikkonen ended Ferrari's podium drought with third place, followed closely by teammate Felipe Massa. some 15.1 seconds behind Button. The win is Button's fifth of sixth races in the season so far.

Mark Webber (15.7s) in the Red Bull-Renault finished in fifth place, followed by Nico Rosberg (33.5s) in the Williams-Toyota in sixth place, Fernando Alonso (37.8s) in the Renault in seventh place and Sebastien Bourdais (63.1s) in the Toro Rosso-Ferrari took the final points paying position.

At the start Button got the jump on outside pole sitter Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari on the run up to Ste. Devote and his teammate Barrichello, also on the clean side of the track squeezed past Raikkonen as well and the Brawn cars were off and running.

From there Button was never headed and controlled the race at the front to perfection.

Jenson Button had so much energy after winning the Monaco grand prix that he managed to run the entire distance of the pit straight to get to the podium ceremony in time.

After winning the prestigious race, his fifth from six starts so far in 2009, the Brawn driver mistakenly parked into the pits, not further down the road on the straight where the top three runners assemble for the festivities.

"I'm lost for words with him really," Ross Brawn, having earlier on Sunday compared Button with Michael Schumacher, told the BBC. "He's exceeding everything I thought possible."

Button wasn't lost for words on the radio after crossing the checkered flag: "Monaco baby, yeah!" the resident of the Principality screamed.

His lead over teammate Rubens Barrichello, squarely beaten and second on Sunday, is now 16 points, while the closest non-Brawn challenger Sebastian Vettel crashed into the barriers at Ste Devote after burning up his soft tires.

The German is now an increasingly distant 28 points behind Button with 11 races to go, meaning Button can now afford to lose a couple of points to the Red Bull at every remaining grand prix on the calendar and still win the title.

Force India, with Giancarlo Fisichella in ninth, missed scoring a point by less than two seconds, amid a spate of retirements and crashes and the awful form this weekend of the BMWs and Toyotas.

Sebastian Buemi punted Nelson Piquet off, while Heikki Kovalainen and Kazuki Nakajima shunted alone, the latter Williams while negotiating the last lap.

Piquet, just a season ahead of rookie Swiss Buemi, was scathing: "These young drivers need to calm down."

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton finished twelfth and a lap down. Jenson Button has proven this season he is the best British driver on the grid, not Hamilton, having won 5 of 6 races and never putting a wheel wrong, something that Hamilton never did.

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