Fernando Alonso’s Renault finished fifth, followed by Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.
Button and Barrichello sat one-two on the grid. Barichello made a better start and took the lead. Felippe Massa in the Ferrari used his KERS to rocket into third.
Torro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi slowed to try to pick a path through the mess, only to be rammed from behind by teammate Sebastian Bourdais, sending both Torro Rosso cars to the garage for the duration.
“Trulli was spinning, and I was too late to go to the left, and too early to go to the right,” Buemi explained. “Bourdais didn’t see I was slowing down so he went right over my car.”
Only McLaren and Ferrari opted to use their KERS systems at Spain.
KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) uses mechanical forces to charge a battery, which powers an electric motor to add an extra eighty horsepower for a short burst of extra speed. The system so far is not reliable, and weighs approximately ninety pounds, which is a huge load for a car weighing only 1320 pounds overall.
Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen complained that his KERS was not working reliably early in the race. On lap 17, Räikkönnen ‘s engine went off, leaving him limping around the track back to the pits. Apparently his electrical system went awry, possibly related to the huge voltages (600 volts) used by the KERS.
Drviers came in for the first round of pit stops starting on lap 18. Button and Barrichello went onto different fuel strategies; Barrichello, leading, was given a short fuel load, to get him back on the track quickly, putting him on a three-stop schedule. Button stayed longer in the pits, getting a fuel load of fuel, which would slow him down but would also let him run the race with only two fuel stops.
“We thought that three-stops would be the quicker strategy here and that was what we fuelled for in Q3 yesterday,” Button explained. “I had a good start from pole but Rubens had an absolute flier and I couldn’t hold him off. Having lost the lead and with the prospect of being caught behind Rosberg, we made the decision to switch to a two-stop strategy.
Barrichello needed to gain at least twenty seconds on the field in order to make a three-stop strategy work. Barrichello needed to run at record pace on every lap, and for a while, he did, setting lap records. Because he planned to pit more frequently, he didn’t need to conserve his tires, allowing him to push harder than drivers on a two-stop strategy.
World Champion Lewis Hamilton brought his McLaren in ninth, just out of the points, while Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren dropped out on lap seven with a broken gearbox.
Timo Glock brought the lone running Toyota home in tenth.
BMW and Toyota have both announced that they will not be returning to Formula One next season unless the new 2010 regulations, which include an optional spending cap and two different sets of regulations based on spending, are revised or rewritten. Ferrari has also intimated that they might withdraw from F1.
After Barrichello’s second stop, Button found his rhythm, and started opening a lead. Barrichello had been lapping at one minute twenty-three second, and Button at 1:24. After the second stop, Button was turning in 1:23.4s, while Barrichello was running 1:24s.
Two thirds of the way through the race, the order was Button, Massa, Vettel, and Barrichello. Massa was turning in excellent laps, in the 1:23.1 range, but Button maintained a five-second lead.
On lap 45, the Brawn managers told Barricheloo, “Okay Rubens. The two cars up ahead stopped much earlier than we expected, so you can now push, you can really push; you can beat them.” But Barrichello didn’t seem to have the energy.
After the final shuffle of pit stops, Button had the lead, with Barrichello and Webber behind, with Massa and Vettel filling out the top five.
Finally, Massa had to slow. Better to finish fifth or sixth, the team decided, than to have to pit and finish put of the points. This mismanaged fuel strategy is just the latest in a season-long series of Ferrari mistakes. This once-dominant team has been racing like amateurs all year.
Eventually, Vettel passed Massa and pulled away. Massa had to surerender the position.
On the final lap, Alonso passed the Ferrari to take fifth, much to the delight of the crowd.
Brawn continued its amazing dominance, and Button’s season continued on its amazing trajectory; four wins out of five races for Button and Brawn, with Brawn 30 points ahead of its nearest competitor, Red Bull.
| Final Results Spanish Formula One Grand Prix | ||||
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Pts |
| 1 | 22 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 23 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 14 | 6 | ||
| 4 | 15 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 7 | 4 | ||
| 6 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 7 | 6 | 2 | ||
| 8 | 16 | 1 | ||
| 9 | 1 |
| ||
| 10 | 10 |
| ||
| 11 | 5 |
| ||
| 12 | 8 |
| ||
| 13 | 17 |
| ||
| 14 | 21 |
| ||
| Ret | 4 |
| ||
| Ret | 2 |
| ||
| Ret | 9 |
| ||
| Ret | 12 |
| ||
| Ret | 11 |
| ||
| Ret | 20 |
| ||
Championship Points | ||
| Pos | Team | Points |
| 1 | Brawn-Mercedes | 68 |
| 2 | Red Bull-Renault | 38.5 |
| 3 | Toyota | 26.5 |
| 4 | McLaren-Mercedes | 13 |
| 5 | Renault | 9 |
| 6 | BMW Sauber | 6 |
| 7 | Ferrari | 6 |
| 8 | Williams-Toyota | 4.5 |
| 9 | Torro Rosso-Ferrari | 4 |
| 10 | Force India-Mercedes | 0 |
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