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Oct 21, 2009 03:00 PM
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Have you all watched your tivoed instances of the Brazilian Grand Prix? Excellent! Then you know full well that Formula One’s new champion is here and his name is…
Jenson Button, the whiz kid of late 90s gokarting, who found himself in a Formula One car at the precocious age of 20.
He would probably never have guessed the nine bleak years that would follow, 155 races with a single lucky win in Hungary, punctuated by mediocre or downright horrible racing cars.
His ascendancy to the highest rung of motor racing also happened to coincide with the rise of a particular team led by his current boss Ross Brawn: Scuderia Ferrari.
Awakening from a slumber of almost twenty years, Ferrari came to dominate Formula One like no one had before.
But this scruffy British kid has now been paired with a sublime car and a boss whose giant brain is certainly helpful for building a winning team. With a manic, courageous drive which took him from 14th place to 5th, Jenson Button claimed the 2009 Formula One world championship in high style at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
A beautiful way to end a season tarred and slimed by mischief and mayhem, a season which saw a shakeup of the established order like few seasons ever have, a season which spelled the righteous end of Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatore.
And it’s a season which is not even over yet. November 1 will see the inaugural Formula One race at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit, where Button and his constructor’s champion Brawn GP team will have a chance to say a relaxed farewell to a season to remember.
Or maybe not: also up for grabs is second place in the driver’s championship and Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello (embraced on the picture above by Button’s father John) maintains but a two point lead over young hotshot Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.
Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images, Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Send an email to Peter Orosz, the author of this post, at peter@jalopnik.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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