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Brazilian GP. Race Review. Brawn GP's Jenson Button clinched his maiden world drivers championship with a thrilling drive at Interlagos after Rubens Barrichello's challenge fell apart, in a race eventually won by Red Bull's Mark Webber, and packed with drama.

In the end, after looking set to be forced to fight for the championship in the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi after a dreadful qualifying performance, it was almost too comfortable for Button, as he put in a searing first stint to leap up from 14th on the grid into the points, and then controlled his pace to the flag, while pole man Rubens Barrichello was swamped by other cars in the pit stops and eventually dropped to 8th with a puncture.

But though the final result saw that he clinched the title with room to spare, the route there was a troublesome mix of breathless overtaking, nervy waits while pit strategies sorted themselves out, and wary glances at the weather. Like just about anything attempted by anyone in this crazy season, the road to success was paved with twists and turns of dubious credibility.

From the start, Barrichello made a perfect getaway, leading around the first lap from pole, while Mark Webber clashed with the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen as he fended off the advances of the Finn, breaking the Ferrari's front wing. Heikki Kovalainen spun at the first corner, but was able to continue.

Less fortunate were three of the frontrunners halfway round the first lap, as Adrian Sutil squeezed Jarno Trulli off the track, the Toyota got a wheel on the grass and slewed sideways across the track, collecting Sutil and the blameless Fernando Alonso. All three were out on the spot, and Trulli took time out to gesticulate angrily at the German man, making his thoughts on where the blame lay perfectly clear.

A safety car ensued, which was bad news for Barrichello, whose light fuel strategy was dependant on him building up a big lead in his first sting. Further bad news was that the clashes had left Button in 9th place, and when the safety car came in, he quickly set about improving that position.

The Brawn GP man has pulled a few choice overtaking moves so far this year, especially in the early stages, and he added to that list in Brazil, deposing first Grosjean and then Kazuki Nakajima in successive laps. Not the most stellar list of driving talent to say you overtook at the best of times, but given the effort put up by his rivals, especially Grosjean, who ran side-by-side with him for a series of corners and more than once threatening to make contact with him, it was a testament to bravery rather than driver skill.

That was 7th place for the championship leader, and he then settled into a fight with new Toyota boy Kobayashi, who proved to be a determined defender of his position to say the least, He finally made the pass on lap 23 to move into fifth place, but by then Barrichello was struggling, having lost not only the lead to Webber during the first stops, but second place to Robert Kubica's surprisingly quick BMW Sauber as well.

From that point on, Barrichello's hopes faded. He never looked like being able to catch the front two, who settled into their positions quite comfortably. He ended up losing out even to Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages, with the Brit driving through the field from the back of the grid, helped out by his KERS button, to grab third from the Brazilian across the line. Barrichello tried to squeeze the McLaren out of the move, but only succeeded in clipping his rear tyre on his rival's car, causing a puncture that meant he was forced to pit again and left him down in 8th, his title dreams shattered in front of his despairing home fans.

Button was left comfortable in 5th place, having ceded a spot to fellow title contender Vettel in the final stops. Vettel never looked like claiming the top two finish he needed in order to keep his hopes alive after a dismal qualifying session yesterday, and the bumfluff on his chin wasn't enough to disguise his misery after the race. The Red Bull car was a race winner today, but Vettel never had a chance to have a go.

So Webber took the chequered flag to record his second win of his career, comfortably clear of Kubica and Hamilton, with Vettel ending in fourth place and Button jubilant in 5th. Kimi Raikkonen came through to 6th place by the end, after surviving a spectacular incident at the start of the race.

Pitting to fix his damaged front wing following the contact with Webber, Raikkonen came in with Heikki Kovalainen, with the McLaren man emerging from his pit box with the fuel hose still attached. The flailing hose sprayed fuel all over the following Raikkonen, and the Finn had to drive through a scary-looking flash fire. Thankfully, he was unhurt, and ended up in the points.

The final points were taken by a hugely-impressive Sebastien Buemi, who was always in the mix following his brilliant qualifying effort yesterday, while Rubens Barrichello took the final, largely meaningless, point.

Kovalainen finished 9th, ahead of Kobayashi, who impressed with some quick driving, but impressed less with some overly-robust driving, which culminated in him swerving into the path of Kazuki Nakajima's Williams, launching Nakajima into the air over the top of his rear wing and causing his fellow Japanese man to suffer a nasty accident. Kobayashi did catch the eye, though, with a gutsy pass on Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari in the closing stages.

Nakajima joined his team mate Nico Rosberg in retirement, who ran third early on before succumbing to a mechanical failure, while Nick Heidfeld rather embarrassingly ran out of fuel to complete the six retirements along with the first lap casualties.

Button, then, wraps up the title with one race still to go, the first time since 2005 that the championship has been decided before the last round of the season, while Brawn GP secured the constructors championship from Red Bull.

The Brit may not have impressed too often in recent races as he crept closer to the championship, and another 5th place finish may not be the most spectacular way to wrap up a championship, but he finally managed to provide a champions performance on the day that he added his name to F1's list of champions.

Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Button 89pts (Champion), 2 Vettel 74pts, 3 Barrichello 72pts, 4 Webber 61.5pts, 5 Hamilton 49pts, 6 Raikkonen 48pts, 7 Rosberg 34.5pts, 8 Trulli 30.5pts, 9 Alonso 26pts, 10 Glock 24pts, 11 Kovalainen, Felipe Massa 22pts, 13 Kubica 17pts, 14 Heidfeld 15pts, 15 Fisichella 8pts, 16 Sutil, Buemi 5pts, 18 Sebastien Bourdais 2pts.

Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Brawn-Mercedes 161pts (Champions), 2 Red Bull-Renault 135.5pts, 3 McLaren-Mercedes 71pts, 4 Ferrari 70pts, 5 Toyota 54.5pts, 6 Williams-Toyota 34.5pts, 7 BMW Sauber 32pts, 8 Renault 26pts, 9 Force India-Mercedes 13pts, 10 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7pts.