Button makes it five from six

It was Button's fifth win in six races, and he joins a pantheon of F1 greats to achieve such a feat, after Alberto Ascari (1952), Juan Manuel Fangio (1954), Jim Clark (1965), Sir Jackie Stewart (1969), Nigel Mansell (1992) and Michael Schumacher (1994, 2002 and 2004).

The brilliant Briton also spearheaded a third Brawn GP one-two of the season, stretching his convincing lead over team-mate Rubens Barrichello to 16 points, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen back on the podium for the first time since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Button joins another exclusive club, becoming only the sixth Briton in the 60 years of the world championship to win in Monaco. Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart, David Coulthard and Lewis Hamilton have all previously emerged victorious at the end of the world's most famous motor sport event.

It was as routine as they get, with Button making it look easy in a car that has won in a park, in the wet, the dry, and now on the streets as the Brawn has so far supremely adapted to every type of condition.

Once he was away cleanly from the start, what followed was a drive of sheer class and perfection, underpinned by the car beneath him.

Hamilton had predicted that without any incidents, Button would enjoy a nice Sunday drive, and that was precisely the case. It was a mistake-free afternoon, other than after taking the chequered flag because after his victory lap he parked his car back in the pits rather than in the top three parc ferme.

Behind the runaway Briton, Barrichello's second place arrived via a superb start, beating Raikkonen off the line, and from that moment the result was a foregone conclusion barring catastrophe.

The Finn did threaten at one stage early in the race as the Brawn duo used the less-suited super-soft tyres for their first stint, but on this notoriously difficult circuit to pass, Raikkonen never got a look in.

As for world champion Hamilton, after starting at the back of the grid, he did all he could to finish 12th on a bleak day for his team when they had come into it hoping for so much. And for the rest of the top eight, Red Bull's Mark Webber was followed by Rosberg and Renault's Fernando Alonso, with Sebastien Bourdais claiming a fine eighth for Toro Rosso.