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Summary
Rubens Barrichello made clear Sunday that he will push his Brawn GP team-mate championship leader Briton Jenson Button all the way to the wire in this year's title race when he won the Italian Grand Prix. The 37-year-old Brazilian produced a beautifully measured drive from fifth on the grid to grab his second win of the season. Barrichello's 11th victory in a long 284-races career was one of his happiest as he came home 2.8 seconds ahead of Button to turn the title race into an almost-certain fight for glory between just the two of them. The Brawn pair look certain to deliver the constructors championship to their eponymous team-chief Ross Brawn in the outfit's first season. Defending world champion Briton Lewis Hamilton, who started from pole, looked certain to come home third for McLaren Mercedes, but crashed heavily at the Curva di Lesmo on the final lap and failed to finish. This left local hero Finn Kimi Raikkonen to take the third podium place for Ferrari ahead of German Adrian Sutil of Force India, two times champion Fernando Alonso, who was fifth for Renault, and Finn Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren.
