Valencia, Spain (My Sportsbook) - Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello won a Formula One race for the first time in five years after he benefited from Lewis Hamilton's costly pit road mistake in Sunday's European Grand Prix.
Hamilton, the pole sitter, looked as though he was on the way to his second straight victory, but he was delayed during his final pit stop when McLaren was not properly prepared for a tire change. Barrichello captured the lead and then held off the defending world champion for the remainder of the 57-lap event to claim his 10th career F1 victory. His last win came in the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix when he drove for Ferrari.
"It's been a weekend that I will never forget," Barrichello said. "After five years, you don't forget how to do it."
Barrichello, the oldest current F1 driver at age 37, became the second Brazilian to win the European GP in consecutive years. His fellow countryman Felipe Massa won last year's race on the Valencia Street Circuit. Massa did not attempt to defend his title, as the Ferrari driver continues to recover from head injuries he sustained in a qualifying crash last month in Hungary.
Hamilton, who won the Hungarian Grand Prix, made steady progress in the closing laps at Valencia, but settled for a second-place finish, with McLaren continuing its resurgence after a dismal early season.
"We win or lose together," Hamilton said. "These things happen. I've had so many races with this team, and this has rarely happened, perhaps the second time. In the amount of races that I've done, I think they deserve a pat on the back."
Kimi Raikkonen, from Ferrari, finished third, while Hamilton's teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, took the fourth position. Nico Rosberg, from Williams, completed the top five.
Spaniard Fernando Alonso finished sixth in front of his home crowd. Alonso's Renault team had a one-race suspension lifted by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Court of Appeal last Monday.
Jenson Button finished seventh and saw his lead in the world championship standings slightly trimmed. The Brawn driver was caught up in opening lap traffic and was never a factor from there. He now holds an 18-point advantage over his teammate Barrichello.
While Brawn capitalized on both the driver and constructors' championships at Valencia, Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel saw their title hopes diminish. Webber finished ninth and fell 20.5 points behind Button. Vettel encountered a fuel problem on his first pit stop and then suffered mechanical failure midway through the event, which caused him to retire first. He also failed to finish the Hungarian GP. Vettel is 25 points back with six grand prix remaining in the season.
"I will fight for the championship until the last breath, but days like this not finishing the race is not a good thing," Vettel said.
Luca Badoer, who is substituting for Massa, finished 17th in his first grand prix start since 1999, while Romain Grosjean was 15th in his F1 debut. Grosjean replaced Nelson Piquet at Renault earlier this month.
