Button wins again as Vettle makes early mistake

ISTANBUL - Jenson Button was gifted the lead by Sebastian Vettel as the Briton went on to make it six victories in seven Formula One season races, at the Turkish Grand Prix Sunday.

The Red Bull driver Vettel hung on to his pole position at the start, but briefly rode onto the grass later in the first lap which allowed Brawn GP’s Button to pass him for first place.

Button never looked back on a hot afternoon as he further cemented his 2009 dominance with victory ahead of Mark Webber in the other Red Bull and Vettel.

Button enters his British home GP in Silverstone on June 21 with a massive lead on 61 points from seven of 17 races. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello follows on 35 after failing to finish on a terrible afternoon, and Vettel is third with 29 points.

Vettel stole the pole from Button Saturday but then failed to win again like in the previous two races in which he had topped the grid, Italy 2008 and China 2009.

The young German won the start but like in some previous incidents this season appeared to risk too much which proved costly. Later in the first lap he briefly rode off the track which was enough for Button to seize the lead.

But not everything went according to plan for Brawn as Rubens Barrichello had an afternoon to forget with clutch and other problems as he failed to finish, the first time this season a Brawn did not go the full distance.

Button, meanwhile, needed to take no risks as he comfortably rode home to his seventh career victory with a conservative two-stop strategy in 1 hour 26 minutes 24.848 seconds for the 58 laps.

Vettel’s team switched to a three-stop strategy but that was to no avail as he failed to pass Button in his second stint with a light car, a move he would have needed to have a chance for victory.

The German pitted again at the halfway mark and the strategy eventually also cost him second place as Webber moved up in his two-stop race.

Ferrari’s hopes of a first season win never materialised. Felipe Massa, who won the last three Istanbul races from pole, came sixth and Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for ninth after coming third two weeks ago in Monte Carlo.

World champion Lewis Hamilton was 13th in his McLaren-Mercedes and lapped by Button in the third straight race.

The other riders in the points behind the three podium finishers were Jarno Trulli in a Toyota, Williams driver Nico Rosberg, Massa, BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Timo Glock in a Toyota.