Button's Heaven and Barrichello's Hell

(Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

In the most contradicting of race day circumstances, Brawn GP’s two drivers drifted further apart as one mans inspirational drive was at opposites with another mans exaggerated disasters.

With such an incredible zest for victory, highlighted by his ecstatic post victory conversation with his team, Jenson Button improved his credentials to become Hamilton’s successor, with such a commanding victory in Turkey.

Such a remarkable transformation from last years demoralising scenes at the back of the pack could never have been imagined. Button is truly proving that in a poor car he has little to offer, but with a fiercely competitive monster underneath him he becomes elevated to super status.

Sadly the race day action in Turkey was not as effortless as the Brawn GP would have liked or expected however.

Rubens Barrichello has never been a great starter, and he has never been a consistent race winner. And today’s events did much to maximise this image of the experienced Brazilian and his previous shortcomings.

His anti-stall rescued him from an embarrassing early exit, and this was accompanied with later collisions and a general lack of his team mates electrifying pace. His race was effectively over as he dropped ten places on lap one and he never fully recovered, falling into retirement as the race reached its climax, from a position a country mile away from a points finish and credible recovery.

The emerging distance between Button and Barrichello in terms of title winning credentials and points tally has immediately increased as a result, and despite Barrichello’s aggressive opinions on not becoming a ‘team order’, such an event can only now be seen as an inevitability.

If Barrichello yearns to reverse this inevitability then his obvious way forward is to force himself into race win challenges. Yet more importantly it is to edge himself in front of his British team mate and acclimatise himself once more as his teams number one driver.

This is something that the Brazilian is not incapable of as throughout Honda’s 2008 season Barrichello clearly instated himself as the number one driver, scoring 11 points and a podium finish in comparison to Button’s sole sixth place points finish.

For the time being however, it looks as though the title is already won. Only an equally spectacular run of victories from Barrichello or more likely Vettel can seemingly halt Button’s finest season yet, and this almost certainly has to be accompanied by a collection of unexpected errors from the title leader himself.

Other performances worthy of note were Jarno Trulli, who bounced back to a fourth place finish after the horrendous fall from grace witnessed in Monaco. Fallen hero Robert Kubica finally etched his name onto the point’s standings with a solid seventh place finish ahead of former champions Raikonnen, Alonso and Hamilton who all had sub par performances and more finishes outside of the scoring.

For all those who expected a turnaround from the likes of Renault, Ferrari and especially Mclaren, the sport is still left in a state of complete unpredictability and incredible awe. And rightfully so. Mclaren themselves now must take a good hard look in the mirror and establish where they want and where they need to be before the seasons conclusion.

For the longer Brawn and Button’s demolition continues the more a distant memory Ferrari, Mclaren and Renaults recent successes becomes.

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