BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – Britain’s two Formula One drivers continued to occupy opposite ends of the spectrum this weekend with Jenson Button maintaining his dream start as Lewis Hamilton sweats his way through a never-ending nightmare.

Brawn GP dominated yet another race in Barcelona on Sunday, leaving commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone a relieved man after his plan to have the title awarded with an Olympic-style medals system was killed off before the season started.

Had Eccelstone’s directive gone through, Brawn driver Button could have wrapped up the championship before the August holiday break after the 28-year-old romped to a fourth win in five races at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Even under the points system in place, the chances are that this championship will be over well before November’s final race in Abu Dhabi.

Button again scored more points in one afternoon than McLaren’s suffering world champion Hamilton, who drew a blank, has managed all season.

Despite receiving only half-points for his Malaysia victory when the race was cut short by rain, Button has pulled away from the pack on 41 points with Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello 14 adrift in second.

To put it all into perspective, the Briton has on his own scored only 1.5 points less than champions Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BMW-Sauber, Williams, Toro Rosso and Force India combined.

As a team, Brawn have scored more points than second-placed Red Bull and third-placed Toyota together.

“It’s a dream come true so far this season,” Button said after Brawn’s second one-two of the year. “Even when times are tough, we seem to be able to get the wins.

“When it is going well, it goes well doesn’t it? And it was the same last year. When it was going bad, it went really bad. I do feel like I am on top of the world at the moment.”

HAMILTON DISMAY
The first race of the season in Europe did little to boost the spirits of the struggling elite who have found themselves plunged from their previous heights in dramatic fashion.

Brawn set the pace with Red Bull still their closest challengers. Champions Ferrari showed signs of improvement but continued to be tormented by a lack of reliability. McLaren were nowhere.

“What can I do? I drove my heart out, as I always do,” Hamilton told the BBC after fighting his way to ninth. “It’s just that the car is not good. I just had no grip.

“It’s just a shame they haven’t given me a car to defend the championship with. The car is that bad. I’m driving the socks off it. There’s just no hope.”

“At the moment, for sure we don’t have the car to win the championship, but the team have done a fantastic job and every weekend they do a fantastic job,” the 24-year-old added.

“We have great reliability and the morale in the team is high. It’s just a shame they’ve not given me a car to defend the championship with.”

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa effectively threw in the towel, saying Brawn and Button were now too far ahead to be caught by the Brazilian and his team, but McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh refused to concede the game was up.

“This was going to be a very difficult weekend but there are positives to take out of it,” he told reporters.

“We are going to keep pushing. I’d love to have the Eureka moment but I think you’ve just got to grind away …. We are fighters, we are racers and we’ve got to keep fighting.