Jenson Button scored a valuable World Championship point in this afternoon’s Italian Grand Prix after driving a tenacious race to eighth place at the Autodromo di Monza. To cap an encouraging afternoon for the Honda Racing F1 Team, Rubens Barrichello drove a solid race to 10th position.
Both drivers made good starts from 10th (Jenson) and 12th on the grid. Jenson emerged from Turn 1 in eighth place.
Rubens also gained one position at the start and he was running in 11th place when the Safety Car came out at the end of lap two, following an accident involving David Coulthard. The Safety Car was out for three laps while Coulthard’s car was retrieved from the outside of the Curva Grande and when the race went green at the start of lap six, Jenson and Rubens were in ninth and 11th positions.
A fascinating and intense battle ensued between Jenson and Nico Rosberg, with the two of them trading places for the next 20 laps. First Jenson passed Nico and then Nico passed him.
By lap 30 the Honda Racing F1 Team drivers were running eighth and 10th, both of them having gained a place when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa retired from third place. They continued to gain positions as people ahead of them pitted and when Jenson made his one and only pitstop of the race on lap 33, he was in fifth place.
Rubens pitted one lap later from seventh place and rejoined the race 12th. The two-stoppers ahead of them then made their second pitstops and when the race had settled down again, Jenson was in eighth place and Rubens 10th, which is where they finished.
After 53 laps of hard racing, Jenson was just five seconds ahead of Rubens, their RA107s sandwiching the Red Bull of Mark Webber.
The Honda Racing F1 Team now has less than a week to decamp to Spa-Francorchamps for the next round of the championship, the Belgian Grand Prix on 16 September.-Honda
