Brawn praises his drivers

Schumacher won and Barrichello finished third, despite starting down in sixth and seventh positions respectively.

"Strategy was very important, but the drivers and the team did a fantastic job putting it into action," said Brawn. "Michael and Rubens had to wait patiently in the first part of the race, when they were behind cars that had a potentially slower pace than they did. Once they had a clear track ahead of them, they both knew what to do and did it perfectly.

"The middle stint was very exciting as Michael and Rubens duelled, aware of the different fuel loads they had on board. It might have cost them a bit of time to their rivals, but isn't this what the crowd wanted to see? We now need to find out exactly what happened to Rubens after his second stop. We were hoping he could get second, but he went off track losing a few precious seconds."