Valencia Spain

Valencia Spain

VALENCIA, Spain — Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello claimed an emotional 10th Formula One victory on Sunday when he drove his Brawn GP car through a perfectly-judged race in searing heat to win the European Grand Prix. It was his first win this season and his first triumph in five years since the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai for Ferrari as well as a popular victory greeted with delight and tears in the paddock. Barrichello's win lifted him from fourth to second in the drivers' championship standings.

Briton Jenson Button, his Brawn team-mate, who was seventh, now leads with 72 points ahead of the Brazilian on 54 with Australian Mark Webber third on 51.5. The 37-year-old driver from Sao Paulo came in ahead of defending drivers champion Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren and Finn Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari at the Mediterranean street circuit in eastern Spain. Hamilton had started from pole but his hopes of victory were dashed by a muddled second pit-stop when the McLaren team had not prepared his tyres.

Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, took fourth ahead of German Nico Rosberg of Williams and local hero Fernando Alonso of Renault, who was sixth. Webber, second in the championship before the race, was ninth after his Red Bull team-mate German Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire with an engine failure. Button, starting fifth, suffered a dreadful opening lap and, after being swamped in a rush through the first corner, emerged down in eighth place. At the front McLaren's duo drove like a dream machine, leading the field comfortably with Hamilton reeling off fastest laps and little else changing as the procession stretched out around the harbour streets.