F1: Rubens Barrichello - Grand Prix winner after five years away

Ross Brawn - the man who engineered the controversy over Barrichello's surrendering of position to Schumacher - congratulated the Brazilian saying "it's just like the old days." Not quite: these days Brawn is at pains to point out that his drivers are free to race each other as much as they race the pack.

And while some have claimed that strategies have favoured Barrichello's team-mate Button, Rubens has said that they are free to choose their own strategies and Button's team have made quicker or better decisions.

The Valencia circuit threw up surprise after surprise. In practice and qualifying, Barrichello and Button had been consistently at the front - and together. In final qualifying, however, Button made an error that, although tiny, cost him the tiny amount of time that is enough to fall back down a grid in these hyper-competitive days.

And so, Barrichello started at P3, and Button behind him in P5. With the two McLarens on pole and Raikkonen fourth, Button's starting position was already looking dodgy relative to the KERS cars. In a first corner concertina, Button stayed out of trouble as the first four shot away. But he was shuffled down to eighth, then pushed wide by Webber, elected to straight line the chicane and considered to have held onto a place that he would have lost had he not taken a short-cut.Button battled all afternoon, his car loose at the back end (which he doesn't like) and stuck behind a succession of cars that were just too quick to pass but too slow to allow him to catch up. Valencia has some of the fastest speeds in F1 - but only for a moment or two before another corner demands hard braking.

As cars started to suffer from the heat, Brawn shuttled their cars into open air using pit stops. And once they had empty track in front of them, they were consistently the fastest on the track (until two laps from the end when Glock raised eyebrows by clocking one fast lap to take the FTD).

The Brawn strategy had been daring but simple: voluntarily give up the front row of the grid, and run several laps longer in the first stint than the KERS cars.

For Rubens, it worked out perfectly and if Button had been alongside him, then the pair stood a good chance of a 1-2 finish.

As it was, Rubens was the most consistent of the weekend and as a result took the honours.

And deservedly so.

Button is furious with himself. Now, he points out, his nearest rival in the Championship is his own team mate. But his congratulations for Rubens were genuine and heartfelt: after all, this is a team that, a year ago, appeared to be in training to be perpetually last on the grid... and six months ago appeared to no longer to be a team.

Webber's challenge had an off-day with him eventually finishing out of the points and his team-mate was even worse off: he blew 25% of his year's engine allocation in Valencia.

Meanwhile, down the pit lane at Ferrari, Kimi's quiet day ended with another podium that few people seemed to notice or care about. He looked, even by his standards, disinterested in his result. His new long hair, his fun in Rally Finland and the fact that a former team-mate can still push his name out of the news all appear to conspire to suggest that he's almost mechanical in his relationship with the team: get in the car, make it do its best, get out, go home. Ironically, he is turning in some of his best driving whilst not being inspired. And he's fed up with driving what he sees as a second-rate car. Asked why the car is quicker in races than in qualifying his answer was as blunt as it was telling "it's not fast enough," he said in the post race press conference.

In second, Lewis Hamilton had shot away at the beginning and his team-mate stayed with him. For no obvious reason except Hamilton's pace, Hamilton was suddenly on his own.

A fraction of a second mis-timing in changing the pit-stop strategy cost Hamilton "a couple of seconds." His team decided to tell him to stay out for one more lap on an empty track - but sent the message just as he turned into the pit lane. Because teams are not allowed out of the garage unless their car is on its way into the pits (which can include on the in-lap) all the kit and tyres were out of position when Hamilton arrived in his box.

But it cost McLaren nothing in the end result, says the team's Martin Whitmarsh. They had a secure second and thought there was a slim chance that one extra fast lap might give them a win. By that point, it was almost certainly going to be Brawn's race, said Whitmarsh: "the reality is that we weren’t quick enough to win today."

It was a day for records: the 100th win by a Brazilian Driver and McLaren's 250 th race with Mercedes engines.

The championship is a long way from over: and it's certainly not the done-deal for Button that was predicted after the first eight races of the season. Proving the fallacy of the "most wins, wins" plot, all those Button victories are being eroded by consistent performances from those behind him. And for sure, it's not due to anyone being complacent: the racing is, generally, closer than it's been for years. Now tiny slip ups can cost several places. It's almost as if there are no favourites any more. And that's how it should be for fans of racing. The tribalists, no doubt, have a different view.

(this article was published on 24 August but due to an error was not properly indexed and has therefore been republished).