He reportedly told an American TV station after the race that if he detects even a sniff of favouritism for Button within the Brawn team, he will hang up his helmet tomorrow.
The team were adamant that the three-stop approach was the quickest and flatly denied any talk of conspiracies. Ross Brawn, the F1 Online team principal, said that the switch for Button was made because they were worried he was going to get stuck in traffic.

Ferrari, who managed to get Felipe Massa to sixth place, despite running low on fuel in the closing stages, have made a step forward. But the others are stuttering, leaving the Brawn team battling the Red Bull cars of Mark Webber, who was third yesterday, and Sebastian Vettel, who was fourth, for the silverware this year. And who could have predicted that?

Exacerbating Barrichellos problems, added Brawn, was a tyre issue late in the race that affected his pace. Nope, no, said Brawn in response to the suggestion that the team are favouring Button. I hope Rubens doesnt think that, because we are not. I think you saw at the first corner that there are no team orders.

Spain was supposed to be the occasion that Buttons charge to immortality could have run into trouble, where the sleeping giants of Paddock f1 ” Ferrari, BMW Sauber, McLaren Mercedes and even Toyota ” launched their missions to catch up. On the evidence of 66 laps around one of the least exciting tracks on the circuit, there seems precious little sign that the competitive balance has changed, or will.