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Button takes Monaco victory

Jenson Button has won the Monaco Grand Prix
Jenson Button has won the Monaco Grand Prix

Formula One championship leader Jenson Button mastered Monaco's treacherous streets on Sunday to chalk up his fifth victory in six races and lead another Brawn GP one-two finish.

The Briton's sixth career victory, in an untroubled drive from pole position on a sunny afternoon, stretched his lead over team mate Rubens Barrichello to 16 points with 11 races remaining.

Button, who took the chequered flag 7.6 seconds clear of the Brazilian after a masterfully smooth performance around a tight and twisting track lined by metal barriers, has 51 while Barrichello has 35.

‘Yeah, Monaco baby, yeah,’ the Briton, a Monaco resident, yelled over the team radio after his third win in a row.

The only mistake he made, after 78 laps at the wheel, was to park his car in the wrong place after taking the chequered flag.

Astonishingly, considering what he had gone through during the previous hour and 45 minutes, he climbed out of the car and ran along the straight from the pit lane, waving at the fans and jumping for joy.

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen, who had started on the front row but lost out to Barrichello at the start, took third place for champions Ferrari in the Italian team's first podium finish since the last race of 2008.

Mercedes-powered Brawn, heirs to departed Honda, have now finished one-two three times this year.

Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth ahead of Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull.

Germany's Nico Rosberg finished sixth for Williams, with Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso collecting two points for Renault and Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais eighth for Toro Rosso.

There was disappointment for Force India, chasing their first points finish, with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella finishing ninth.

McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton, who started last on the grid after crashing in qualifying, was 12th and lapped by his winning compatriot.

Button became only the seventh driver to win five of the first six races of a season, the last being Germany's seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher in 2004.

He was also the sixth British driver to win in the Mediterranean principality. Hamilton won last year's race.

In a race with few incidents, 15 cars finished. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, Renault's Nelson Piquet and Toro Rosso rookie Sebastien Buemi all crashed out.

Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix result:

1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn 1:40:44.282
2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn 1:40:51.948
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:40:57.724
4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:40:59.392
5 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:41:00.012
6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:41:17.868
7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:41:22.121
8 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:41:47.424
9 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:41:49.322
10 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota at 1 Lap
11 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 1 Lap
12 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren at 1 Lap
13 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 1 Lap
14 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India at 1 Lap
15 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams at 2 Laps

Driver Standings after Monaco GP:

1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn 51pts
2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn 35
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 23
4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 19.5
5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 14.5
6 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 12
7 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 11
8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 9
9 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 9
10 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 8

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