Button claims Spanish success

This was the ninth successive year that a driver has won from pole position at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, but it was no conventional procession from start to finish for Button.

Yet despite standing on the top step of the podium for the fourth time this year, Button's lead is only 14 points over Barrichello, who duly claimed second ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber.

After being passed by Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello on the run down to the first corner, Button and his team made the call to run from three stops to two early on.

It proved decisive as the 29-year-old did enough when Barrichello made his three trips into the pits to again take the chequered flag at the end of the 66 laps.

The start to the race was marred by a four-car accident, bringing a swift end for Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella in his Force India, and the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi.

Lewis Hamilton produced a credible drive from 14th on the grid, but in finishing ninth, he missed out on what would have been another deserved point.

Instead, he finished a lap down on Button, who finished 13 seconds clear of Barrichello, with Webber in close attendance.

Another mistake from Ferrari at Felipe Massa's second pit stop as his crew failed to put enough fuel in his car, saw him relegated from fourth to sixth in the closing laps.

In the constructors' championship, Brawn GP now hold a 29.5-point cushion over Red Bull Racing, with Toyota 31.5 points adrift.