Brawn press the right button

Jenson Button left Brawn GP boss Ross Brawn speechless on Sunday after the British driver won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix...

Jenson Button left Brawn GP boss Ross Brawn speechless on Sunday after the British driver won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and led his team to an astonishing one-two on their debut.

The 29-year-old Briton,written off as an overpaid has-been after two dismal seasons with Honda,made it look like a walk in the park while his two closest rivals drove each other off the track in the twilight. Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello started and finished second but only after Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel and BMW-Saubers Robert Kubica collided three laps from the end while second and third respectively. The safety car came out and led the field until the final corner of the race.

McLarens world champion Lewis Hamilton,starting 18th after a catastrophic gearbox failure in qualifying,showed all of his fighting spirit by clawing his way back to fourth place while the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen failed to finish. He was later upgraded to third as Jarno Trulli was penalised.

It wasnt my best race,but I still won, said Button. This win is for me and the team. Thats what I care about. I dont need to poke anyone in the eye about what was said in the past.

No Formula One team had won on their debut since Wolf in 1977 while the last to secure the top two places first time out was Mercedes,Brawns current engine suppliers,in 1954. Fifty-five years on,Button and Barrichello followed in the footsteps of the Argentinas Juan Manuel Fangio and Germany Karl Kling.

Lost for words

Button led from pole to chequered flag,despite two safety car periods,to take his first victory since Hungary in 2006 and score more points in a single afternoon than he had in two years with Honda. He said team owner Brawn had been lost for words. You dont find Ross speechless very often, he added. But in the last 15 minutes Id be surprised if he said a word. The big bear was just speechless.

The first race of a new-look Formula One turned the starting grid upside down and shook up the pecking order as many had predicted.

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Italian Trulli,who had started 19th and in the pit lane for Toyota,took third place but that was revoked when he was called to the stewards for an enquiry into an overtaking manoeuvre. Germanys Timo Glock,who also started in the pit lane after Toyota were disqualified from qualifying for using an illegal rear wing,was fifth ahead of Renaults Fernando Alonso and Williams Nico Rosberg.

Toro Rossos Sebastien Buemi became the 58th driver to score on his debut with eighth place. Neither of the Ferraris finished,with Massa retiring on the 46th lap and Raikkonen following him out.