Brawn GP’s Jenson Button won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, capturing his fifth victory in six races to extend his Formula One championship lead.
Button finished 7.6 seconds ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello at the famed street circuit race for his fourth start-to-finish victory of the season.
Button leads with 51 points. Barrichello has 35 and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who crashed out after 16 laps, is third with 23 points.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen earned Ferrari its first top-three finish of the season by taking third. Felipe Massa was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who took his points tally to 19.5.
Brawn GP became the first team in its inaugural season to …Â Details
FIA president Max Mosley says an agreement is near with Formula One teams over the disputed budget cap.
Mosley had wanted teams to agree to a $60 million cap from 2010, but that is expected to be pushed back a year after a weekend of negotiations with the Formula One Teams Association at the Monaco Grand Prix.
“I think we are going to get somewhere,†Mosley said Sunday.
Five teams, including Ferrari, have threatened to quit motor racing’s premier sport over the cap, which Mosley is pushing to cut costs.
Stands are empty, hotel rooms available and tickets unsold.
Formula One’s most glamorous race, the Monaco GP, is feeling the pinch of the global financial crisis.
Formula One’s slim-downed, cost-conscious version arrives in Monaco, one of the world’s wealthiest states, for the 67th time. But the atmosphere is clearly different this year.
Although there will be movie stars and models frolicking aboard two-story yachts as always, the downturn has touched the tax haven many F1 drivers call home.
There were empty seats during Thursday’s first practice day and thousands of the 45,000 tickets were still available on Friday for Sunday’s 78-lap race… Details
