Monaco GP victory goes to Jenson Button.

Everything was in place for a smooth cruise to victory for Jenson Button.  The weather was perfect, no predictions for rain, and all seemed calm.  With last years Monaco GP winner and current world champion Lewis Hamilton having crashed out during qualifying, thus being placed last on the grid, all that was left for Button was to have a great start to the race and maintain his lead. And he did just that.

Both Jenson Button and his team mate, Rubens Barichello, had a great start to the race, with Button quickly taking the lead and Barrichello snatching Kimi Raikonen’s 2nd place.  It was basically a smooth cruise to a 1-2 victory from there on for the Brawn GP cars, Button upholding his reputation for being a smooth, consistent driver.  A big highlight of the race is seeing Button actually lapping Lewis Hamilton after 36 laps, which came as a shock when we remember what seemed like God-like abilities from Lewis Hamilton at last year’s Monaco race.

The race wasn’t without its unfortunate victims though.  10 laps into the race, the first person to retire was Swiss driver, Sebastien Buemi, after he rear-ended his Torro Rosso into Nelson Piquet’s Renault.  Piquet was able to remove himself from the accident but only to bring his car into the pits.  The next retiree was Sebastien Vettel.  When Vettel lost the back end of his Red Bull car and crashed it into a tyre barrier, we could almost hear the breaths of relief from the other drivers. Vettel is proving to be one very competitive driver this season, but the smallest of mistakes meant his race was over with 62 laps left.  Kubica was the next to retire after what seemed like technical problems, while Heiki Kovolainen crashed his car into a wall after losing control going over the Piscine chicane, he had 27 laps left.  The last of the retirees was Kazuki Nakajima after he lost control of his car going into turn 5 at Mirabeau.

“Monaco baby! Yeah! Woohoo!” is what we could hear Jenson Button shouting into the team radio after he won.  He has finally won the race that all GP drivers want to win the most, and bathed in the glory that comes with a victory in Monaco.  The next race is in two weeks in Turkey.  We can’t wait.

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