Brawn speechless after debut win

Jenson Button controlled the race from the front throughout, while his team-mate Rubens Barrichello recovered from a poor start and two collisions to take second.

The result came less than a month after the team's future was secured following Brawn's takeover of the former Honda operation, which ended a winter of uncertainty.

"It feels stunning," Brawn told the BBC. "With everything that all our staff have been through it is just sensational. I can't really put it into to words.

"It wasn't that easy and there were times where we were having to look after things and of course reliability was an issue because we haven't had all that much testing over the winter.

"Two cars to the finish, Rubens had a problem at the start which meant he picked up some damage and the car wasn't in great shape... Just unbelievable. It doesn't get much better than that today."

The team's CEO Nick Fry was equally stunned by the squad's achievement.

"Absolute fairytale," Fry told the BBC. "I just can't believe that we actually managed to do it. We were getting quite worried at the end there with (Robert) Kubica going quickly on the prime tyre, so we were getting a bit sweaty under the collar.

"But we got there in the end and it was a fantastic effort from everyone. Everyone at Brackley, everyone at Mercedes-Benz, just a great, great job."

He underlined that the team had been through an emotional rollercoaster since Honda announced its withdrawal at the start of December 2008.

"Most of us thought we would be out of a job or doing something else," Fry admitted.

"It just means the world to everybody, [who have] worked their socks off. The drivers have stayed super-fit over the winter. The car is just absolutely wonderful.

"Jenson has showed tremendous loyalty to the team, he has stuck with it. He had other alternatives but he decided to stick with us even though he might not have had a job. He just drove superbly from start to finish, in fact both drivers did."