Jenson Button secured his only F1 championship with fifth place in 2009 Brazilian GP after starting from 14th ahead of the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Button arrived at the penultimate race of the 2009 F1 World championship as a leader, but to win the title his team mate Rubens Barrichello shouldn’t score five or more points than him.
Sebastian Vettel had to finish first or second in order to stay in the hunt for the championship in the last race in Abu Dhabi. In the Constructors’ standings, Brawn GP needed half a point to confirm the title. Second-placed Red Bull needed two 1-2 victories in last two races with Brawn GP scoring zero points in both races.
Qualifying was repeatedly interrupted by a tropical storm which made it last 2 hours and 41 minutes, becoming the longest qualifying session in the history of Formula 1. In the first part (Q1) eliminated drivers were Fisichella, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Vettel and Heidfeld.
Championship leader Jenson Button was eliminated in Q2 and started the race from 14th place.
For the first time since the three-part qualifying format was introduced, the last part was attended by nine different teams. Only McLaren didn’t have its representative, and Williams was only team with two drivers in Q3. Pole position went to Rubens Barrichello ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Adrian Sutil in the Force India.
Webber won convincingly ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber, and the third was Lewis Hamilton after starting from 17th place. With those six points McLaren jumped Ferrari in the fight for third place by single point which proved to be crucial as both teams failed to score in the last race of the championship in Abu Dhabi.
Sebastian Vettel also made a good recovery from 15th and finished fourth, while Jenson Button finished fifth after starting from 14th on the grid which was enough to seal the title one race before the end of the season. Rubens Barrichello finished only eighth after starting from pole position and third place in 2004. remained his best performance at home Grand Prix.
Jenson Button became the tenth British champion in Formula 1 and the first that replaced another British champion (Hamilton 2008.), 40 years after Jackie Stewart replaced Graham Hill as British champion in 1969.
Button also became the second consecutive driver after Hamilton to win the championship with fifth place in Brazil, in the car with the Mercedes V8 engine and number 22 on it.
Jenson completed the whole season using a single chassis in which he drove every training, qualifying and the race. For example, BMW has used eight chassis, Toyota six, and Red Bull five.
Mercedes engine FO108W also broke many records as the most successful engine in modern Formula 1 and has won three consecutive races with Jenson Button at the wheel of Brawn GP BGP001.
