Button made a promising start on Sunday, closing the door on countryman Lewis Hamilton – who had stormed into 3rd after a great start – after the first few corners. From that point on, the Brawn GP driver had to limit the time gap between him and the leading Toyotas – Timo Glock’s and Jarno Trulli’s – who were clearly running lower on fuel.
It was after the very first round of pit stops – when both Glock and Trulli pitted almost 4-5 laps before the other drivers – that Button went into the lead and never looked back. Behind him, Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel managed to infiltrate themselves between Glock and Trulli and began fighting for the podium.
Kimi Raikkonen took on an interesting approach for the Bahrain race, staying the longest on the hot Sakhir track until finally making his first pit stop. That brought him a few laps into the lead, before dropping back to 7th place after the re-group.
The second round of pit stops brought nothing new to the table in terms of race leader, as Button managed to easily maintain his BGP 001 ahead of the pack. Red Bull Racing did a great job giving Vettel a one-place boost in the race, as the German re-grouped ahead of Toyota’s Trulli and McLaren’s Hamilton.
The three drivers went on to keep their track positions by the chequered flag, with Hamilton coming in 4th place. Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Toyota’s Glock were the only drivers from the leading pack to decide on a 3-pit strategy, which eventually cost them valuable positions at the finish line.
The Brazilian went on to finish 5th overall – after previously losing a lot of time behind Renault’s Nelson Piquet after the first pit stop – while Glock dropped back to 7th, behind Raikkonen. Eighth overall was Renault's Fernando Alonso.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa had a miserable race once again, as the Brazilian was slightly hit by teammate Raikkionen in the first corner of the race, causing him to pit after Lap 1. From that point on, he only raced for track information.
In the overall classification, Button has now extended his lead to teammate Barrichello to 12 points.
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