F1: Spanish GP Brawn's Button storms to convincing win

Trulli went off right, flipped back left; the two Torro Rossos avoided him – but one unsighted by the other, they mounted and disintegrated. Sutil went off in sympathy, his car bursting into flames.

Hamilton picked his way through the flying wreckage.

After a safety car (a stupid decision: the entire track was covered in shards of carbon fibre and a stop and restart have been a much more sensible approach) the Brawn pairing swept off with Massa slipping back and holding up both Vettel and Webber.

Watching Kimi following Heidfeld demonstrated that his KERS was not working – fully charged according to the data, Heidfeld was able to pull away out of every corner and Kimi had no extra grunt to catch him down the main straight – and the slipstream was not enough.

For ten laps, Button and Barrichello swapped fastest laps – chasing each other to go hundredths faster than before.

First to blink for scheduled stop was Glock on lap 17 – and as he left Brawn prepared for the first of their cars. In the days of Brawn at Ferrari, the custom was to bring in the car in second place – and Button came in first. On the same lap, Kimi's Ferrari ground to a halt: the engine was running but there was no drive. Marshalls swarmed all over the track as he slowed. Embarrassingly, the engine drive went off exactly level with the pit lane entrance.

After the pit stops, Button fuelled heavy and came out behind Barrichello – and for a short time Massa and Vettell came in two laps later from a temporary first and seconds – and rejoined in the same order. Rosberg was holding station behind Barrichello pending his first stop.

“Conserve fuel and see if we can make it to the end,” said Massa's race engineer over the radio with 14 laps to go. But with Vettell under his rear wing for almost half the race, that seems like an instruction to go for points not glory, almost surrendering a fourth place.

But the real surprises came from Barrichello's three stop strategy. A journalists' briefing after the last pit stops, Brawn told reporters that both drivers planned a three-stop strategy, but Button changed to two stops before the first stop. Both strategies worked against the rest of the field – but Button gained just a few seconds over the length of the race. Had Button swapped strategy after a quick recalculation of expected consumption after six laps under the safety car?

Massa was using KERS to fight off Vettell and short shifting. On lap 56 - “your fuel consumption was too high on the last lap, you need to save fuel or we won't get to the end,” came a message. Massa responded “what can I do, do you want me to give up the place?” Then with five laps to go - “let him go. We have 16 seconds to Alonso. Let him go. We need one lap more of fuel.”

And with four laps to go, Massa slowed and Vettel, who had started at the back of Massa's car since the first corner, started off on a chase after team-mate Webber.

Button lapped Hamilton with two laps to go – and Alonso put on a charge and started to close on Massa at a race of almost five seconds a lap faster than Massa. AND AS mASSA Started his last lap, Alonso caught Massa, flying around the outside and leaving Massa for dead.

Almost an entire lap ahead of them, Button swept over the line. Barrichello second, Webber just under a second behind him. Alonso kept his foot hard down – and finished far ahead of the stumbling Massa – who ran out of fuel before he got back to the pits.