Jenson Button’s latest tour de force in Monaco has left rivals – including his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello – wondering what they have to do to stem what is looking increasingly like an unstoppable title charge.
ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen analyses Button’s performance and all the other key talking points in his regular post-race verdict.
Jenson Button described his momentous victory in the Monaco Grand Prix as his “best win so far”. It’s hard to argue with that.
The 29-year-old took his fifth win of the season in regal style, from pole position.
It was a very impressive weekend fro Button. He started out with problems on Thursday in practice, but he worked on the set-up, learned a bit from Rubens Barrichello’s set-up and then focused on getting the lap when it mattered in the final moments of qualifying.
This was what Jackie Stewart refers to as ‘mind management’; when the pressure was on, he zeroed in on the main prize and delivered.
This set him up for a great race on Sunday and he was helped enormously by Barrichello removing the main threat, which was Kimi Raikkonen at the start.
Rubens passed the Ferrari into Ste Devote and this gave Button breathing space.
The Brawns had started on the softer tyre, which was known to go off after a few laps.
This was certainly the case for Sebastian Vettel, who also started on them. By the end of his short first stint he was a couple of seconds off the pace.
This bunched the field up behind him and allowed the top three to get the margin that would ultimately guarantee them a podium.
Towards the end of the first stint the tyres started to go off on Barrichello’s car and this dropped him and Raikkonen off the back of Button.
The 15s cushion Button got at this point was the margin which ensured his victory.
As far as Button’s race was concerned, this was the decisive phase as he managed the decline of the tyres better than Barrichello.
After that it was all about maintaining concentration, because he tried backing off slightly and his lap times became a bit erratic.
So he popped in a couple of fastest laps from time to time to keep himself stimulated.
Everyone in F1 – rivals drivers and engineers included – feel that Button is driving absolutely brilliantly at the moment.
Ross Brawn has said that he continues to surprise him and John Button, who has always had total belief in his son, told me that the qualifying lap yesterday had surprised even him!
It was a good weekend for Ferrari, all things considered.
They may feel that they had a fast enough car to challenge for victory and if they had got the pole it might have worked out differently. Raikkonen only missed it by hundredths of a second.
But from where they started out this season, they are now in good shape and I think they will be winning races soon.
Vettel again didn’t have the weekend he could have had.
Red Bull have made life easier for Brawn than they should have, with small tactical errors.
Here they put Vettel on a very aggressive short fuel strategy, but then put him out on the track for his decisive lap behind Kazuki Nakajima, who was always going to be the heavier and slower Williams.
Sure enough Vettel got trapped, because he had team-mate Mark Webber behind him and he didn’t want to ruin his laps by backing off too much.
The result was fourth palace with a very light car, less than ideal.
I’m alarmed by the decline of Toyota, who had the fastest car only two races ago in Bahrain.
They were nowhere and they have no idea where the performance has gone.
Likewise BMW are terribly slow, which is astonishing given the performance they had last season.
Robert Kubica must be unsettled by this and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear his name on the list of possible movers for next season.
Next stop Turkey, then Silverstone. These will both suit the Red Bull, with the RB5’s love of long fast corners.
But Button can afford to drop a few points to Vettel and Webber.
His car will be strong at Nurburgring, Budapest and Valencia.
He can afford now to play the percentage game, having been so aggressive in the early part of the season.
No question, Jenson is in the pound seats and is tightening his grip on the championship.