Full Throttle

Jenson Button made it six wins out of seven races by claiming the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul. With his teammate Rubens Barrichello failing to score, Button now carries a 26-point lead into his home race at Silverstone in two weeks.

Sebastian Vettel had beat Button for the pole position, and the German driver seemed to have a good chance of stopping the Brawn steamroller and scoring the first dry-track win of his career. Vettel did the difficult part by beating Button off the line at the start, but later in the lap he ran wide. He did a good job to regain control, but Button snuck through and led at the end of the lap.

Button soon began opening up a gap. But when Vettel pitted the team decided to keep him on the three-stop strategy that had been decided before the race, even though it would make it very hard for him to beat Button. In the second stint with a lighter car, Vettel caught up with Button but got stuck behind and couldn’t use his lighter car to an advantage. The need to make an extra stop later dropped Vettel back to third behind Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Button had things under control throughout the race and didn’t put a wheel wrong as he cruised home in front. Webber was delighted to take second and his third podium of the year. But Vettel was frustrated to have to settle for third and admitted he was surprised that the team had put him on a strategy that had made his life difficult.

“(It’s) the first race where the car has been absolutely perfect,” Button said. “This car is just outrageous. Before this, I really believed the Red Bulls were on our pace, but today we were a step ahead.”

“Every race has been pretty emotional, all the old memories come flooding back,” said Button, who spent last season at the back of the grid. “We thought it was going to be a tougher battle today.”

Vettel may not get another chance for a second win this season.

“Maybe today was the first day that Jenson showed what he could do,” the German driver said.

Button’s fourth straight win - the best streak by a Briton for 17 years - makes him the fifth driver to achieve six victories in a season so quickly. The previous four - Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher - all went on to win the championship.

Nigel Mansell was the last British driver to win four straight wins in one season as he took the title in 1992. Button joined Mansell, Damon Hill, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and James Hunt as the only Britons to win six races in a season.

Rubens Barrichello was the other podium contender but he made a terrible start and then damaged his front wing as he tried to make up ground. After dropping to the back he eventually retired with a gearbox problem. It was the Brawn team’s first retirement of the season.

Toyota continued its rollercoaster season as Jarno Trulli recovered from qualifying at the back in Monaco to take an excellent fourth place, while Nico Rosberg was fifth for Williams as the original double diffuser gang demonstrated that their cars are more developed than those of the teams who have had to follow that route late.

After showing well in Monaco, Ferrari’s performance in Istanbul was a disappointment. At a track where he won from pole for each of the last three years, Felipe Massa could only finish sixth, while Kimi Raikkonen was ninth after damaging his front wing in an early shunt.

The Ferraris were split by the BMW of Robert Kubica in seventh, and the Toyota of Timo Glock in eighth. Behind Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, after a gamble on a low qualifying fuel load failed to pay off. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso still hasn’t been on the podium this season.

McLaren has now gone eight races without finishing in the top three.