Hail the new F1 world champion!

It’s not every day that we see two drivers step on top of their race cars to celebrate victory. But that’s exactly what we saw after the cars were parked on parc ferme of the Sao Paolo circuit at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The two “winners?” Mark Webber and Jenson Button. Webber won after a hard fought race, having started from second on the grid. Button, meanwhile, clinched his first drivers’ championship by virtue of finishing fifth and crucially ahead of title rivals, his Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

And while I, and perhaps most other F1 fans, would have preferred to have the drivers’ title decided at the last race of the year in Abu Dhabi in two weeks’ time, Jenson Button didn’t want to wait much longer and produced a stunning recovery drive truly worthy of a world champion.

The British driver bravely battled back from a dismal qualifying session that left him 14th on the grid, combining a string of aggressive but brilliantly executed passing moves while deftly evading various crashes of other drivers in the early part of the race, to garner enough points to wrap up the championship as Barrichello’s title dreams – just as compatriot Felipe Massa last year – died on home soil.

Barrichello had led during the first few laps of the race, but dropped to third behind eventual race winner Webber and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica after the first round of pit stops; thereafter his pace faded and after being passed by 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton for third place in the closing laps, fate dealt him one final cruel blow as a puncture – and the resultant unscheduled pit stop – dropped him to eighth place with eight laps to go.

In any case Button had already done enough to clinch the crown on his own merit – thanks mostly to his 14-point lead going into Brazil – and succeed countryman Lewis Hamilton’s as Formula 1’s world champion.

And having only needed a single point to wrap up the constructors’ title with one more race to go, Brawn becomes the first Grand Prix team in history to win the title (both the drivers and constructors titles, at that) in its debut year to cap a nightmare-turned dream 2009 for the Brackley-based squad. Weeks before the 2009 Grand Prix season started, the team practically didn’t even exist! (Honda – Brawn GP’s prior incarnation – announced a shock pullout from Grand Prix racing towards the end of last season, leaving the race team in limbo until mere weeks before the first Grand Prix in Melbourne last March.)

Red Bull may have missed out on both titles but Webber at least ensured the team had something to celebrate, the Australian driving a perfect race to claim his second win of the year and of his career – as well as an impressive fourth win for the Red Bull team this year.

Kubica, in his BMW Sauber, was equally impressive to claim his first podium of the season, while Hamilton produced another sensational drive to finish third from all the way back in 17th on the grid. Sebastian Vettel also delivered a stunning fightback from 16th on the grid to finish in fourth ahead of the champion Button in fifth, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Buemi promoted to sixth and seventh, respectively, after Barrichello’s tire misfortunes.

Button had endured an extremely trying second half of the season, having not won since the Turkish Grand Prix. His poor qualifying result saw him start outside the top ten for the third straight race, and with main rival Barrichello on pole, it looked like the title fight would be extended into Abu Dhabi. But then Button surged forward in the race, clinching the title in style.

Still – and if this is some consolation for those who want yet more F1 excitement – there is one more race and the fight for second place in the drivers’ championship is very much alive. At this point, Vettel has finally surpassed Barrichello in the rankings by two points with one race to go. The Brazilian – and of course his team – would want to make it a Brawn 1-2.

The perennial rivalry between Ferrari and McLaren is still also on, with the British team overtaking their Italian rivals for third spot in the championship in Brazil, and now leads them by a single point. BMW Sauber and Renault also have their own battle for seemingly lowly seventh place, separated by just a handful of points.

Bring on Abu Dhabi!

Due to the space we’ve devoted to the vehicle assistance bulletin, we have space for only one comment from last week’s “Blame It On The Rain?” by yours truly. Here it is…

Nicely done, wish there were a “like” button ala facebook here somewhere. – butterscratch