Barcelona, Spain - Jenson Button lapped world champion Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages en route to his fourth win in five season races at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday for Brawn GP. Button won ahead of Rubens Barrichello in another one-two finish for the former Honda team which must now be rated a top contender for the world title as the pecking order didn't change in the defining first race of the year in Europe.
"It is a good feeling and gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season," said the Briton Button.
Hamilton, who finished outside the points in ninth place in his McLaren-Mercedes, said: "As it stands I don't have a car to win the championship. I drove my heart out but what can I do? I have not been given a car that enables me to challenge."
Button made the most of a switch from three to two pit stops early in the race while Barrichello didn't push hard enough to prevail in his car with three stops even though he won the start from third place on the grid.
Mark Webber came from behind to take third place for Red Bull and German team-mate Sebastian Vettel placed fourth as Felipe Massa ran out of fuel in the end in a Ferrari to drop from fourth to sixth.
Button leads the way with 41 points from five races ahead of Barrichello (27) and German Vettel (23). Brawn, whose other one-two was in Australia in their first-ever race, dominate the constructors list with 68 points from Red Bull (38.5).
Barrichello won the start from third place on the grid as he passed Vettel and Button, and Massa also moved past Vettel into third place while the German plunged from second to fourth.
A few metres back Nico Rosberg appeared to shift the Toyota of Jarno Trulli off the piste in the second turn which set off a chain reaction as Adrian Sutil's Force India and the Toro Rosso's of Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdaix crashed out as well.
The safety car came out for five laps as the four wrecks needed to be lifted of the piste and the debris cleared.
There was no change on the restart as Barrichello remained in command while Vettel had no chance to move past Massa despite a faster car as the Brazilian successfully used the power booster KERS.
Barrichello drove hard from the front to get the necessary advantage, but he failed again to get his first win since the 2004 China GP as Button's tactics worked better.
The Briton took the lead once Barrichello refuelled the last time and clinched the win in 1 hour 37 minutes 19.202 seconds for the 66 lap-race.
"They switched me to three stops to cover all bases. I wasn't sure whether I would come away with the win," said Button.
Barrichello did not hide his disappointment after he had some trouble in his third stint: "It was a big struggle to keep the car on the track ... I thought I had it in the bag today."
Webber made the most of a long second stint on soft tyres to move ahead of Massa and Vettel into third place, while Massa lost fourth place in the end due to the fuel problem.
Further back long-time rivals Fernando Alonso and Hamilton duelled briefly but only the Spanish Renault driver Alonso eventually made the points in his home race in fifth place.
Massa limped home in sixth, Nick Heidfeld was seventh in a BMW and Rosberg got the final point for Williams in eighth place.
While Hamilton finished ninth and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen went out early for McLaren, Ferrari had ex-champ Kimi Raikkonen retiring, but at least some encouragement from Massa's showing until the refuelling system did not work properly for him.
"This is very encouraging for the next races," Massa said, with the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo on May 24 next on the agenda.
