Jenson Button was crowned world champion Sunday when he finished fifth in an incident-filled Brazilian Grand Prix won by Australian Mark Webber.
Button, who has led the championship all season after winning the opening Australian Grand Prix in March, had started 14th on the grid, but drove with courage and determination to achieve his goal and send the Brawn GP team into wild celebration.
‘We are the champions’ Button sang from his cockpit after crossing the finishing line and capturing the title with one race to spare.
Later the 29-year-old told the BBC: ‘It's really amazing especially after the last few weeks. It was such an awesome race - I'm world champion baby!
‘When I first jumped in a car 21 years ago I never expected to be world champion - but we did it today.’
Button's success ensured also that the Brawn team, created out of the ashes of the defunct Honda team last winter, also clinched the constructors' world championship.
Button's great success came in his 169th Grand Prix and at the end of his ninth season in Formula One, a year when he won six of the opening seven races and then struggled to recapture that form.
It was a classic case of the tortoise and the hare in the second half of the season as Button survived the intensifying pressure around him, but continued to collect points.
Webber, in a Red Bull, won comfortably ahead of Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber and third place went to outgoing drivers' champion Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren Mercedes.
German Sebastian Vettel, in the second Red Bull, was fourth ahead of Button with Finn Kimi Raikkonen sixth for Ferrari.
Swiss Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso was seventh and the luckless local hero Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello, in the second Brawn, eighth after starting from pole position.
He suffered from heavy traffic and then a late puncture that wrecked his hopes of glory.
Result of the Brazilian GP at Interlagos:
1. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull-Renault 1:32:23.081
2. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber +00:07.626
3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren-Mercedes +00:18.944
4. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull-Renault +00:19.652
5. Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn-Mercedes +00:29.005
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari +00:33.340
7. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso-Ferrari +00:35.991
8. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn-Mercedes +00:45.454
9. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren-Mercedes +00:48.499
10. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Toyota +01:03.324
2009 Formula One drivers' championship standings:
1. Jenson Button (GBR) 89pts
2. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 74
3. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) 72
4. Mark Webber (AUS) 61.5
5. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 49
6. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 48
7. Nico Rosberg (GER) 34.5
8. Jarno Trulli (ITA) 30.5
9. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 26
10. Timo Glock (GER) 24.0
Constructors' championship standings:
1. Brawn 161pts
2. Red Bull 135.5
3. McLaren 71
4. Ferrari 70
5. Toyota 54.5
6. Williams 34.5
7. BMW Sauber 32
8. Renault 26
9. Force India 13
10. Toro Rosso 7
