MOTOR SPORT MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX:JENSON BUTTON claimed his second straight victory for Brawn GP, albeit for half points, as yesterday's Malaysian Grand Prix was abandoned after just 31 laps when torrential rain swamped the Sepang circuit.

Button launched himself to the front of the championship standings with a win scored under the safety car in Australia last week and after officials ruled that conditions were too dangerous to continue at the Sepang circuit yesterday Button joked: “I’ve won two races now and I’ve yet to see a chequered flag.”

The early stop to the monsoon-hit race is just the fifth time in Formula One history that half points have been awarded, a scoring system employed when less than 75 per cent of the race has been completed. The last time half points were awarded was at the 1991 Australian Grand Prix when similarly impossible conditions forced the abandonment of the race after 14 laps, making it the shortest race in modern F1 history.

The race began in dry conditions, with Button repeating his pole position from Australia. This time though the Brawn GP driver got away badly and was passed by a fast-starting Nico Rosberg on the run down to turn one. By the time the field exited the corner, Button was down to fourth, chasing down Fernando Alonso’s third-placed Renault and, ahead, Jarno Trulli’s Toyota.

By the end of the first tour Button has brushed Alonso aside and began to pursue Trulli and Rosberg with Alonso left to bottle up the rest of the field during the opening phase.

Button’s battle towards the front should have defined the stint before the first round of pit stops but overhead the sky was becomingly ominously dark.

The Briton managed to reclaim the lead in that first stop, the Brawn driver running slightly heavier than Rosberg and Trulli and using the extra laps available to him to up the pace and claw back the necessary time.

“My start was pretty bad,” Button said afterwards. “I had a lot of oversteer in the car and I don’t think I got heat into the rear tyres.

“I went back to fourth, got back up to third and eventually got back to the front and I was pretty happy, it was looking good.”

Behind, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was gambling, pitting to take on full wet weather tyres as the rest stayed on slicks, despite the fact the rain had yet to arrive. It was a risky move and ultimately fruitless. The rain held off for two more laps and during that time the Finn lost close on 40 seconds and dropping to 14th on the wrong tyres for the conditions.

But then, eventually, the skies opened, first in intermittent blasts that forced the field to alternate between full wet and intermediate tyres, but then, after the order had been comprehensively turned on its head, in sheets.

Toyota’s Timo Glock, though, like Raikkonen, was gambling and this time the bet paid off. As the rain began to fall the German opted to leave the full wet tyres in their blankets and instead risked taking on intermediates. It proved to be an inspired choice.

Glock was able to lap almost 10 seconds faster than his rivals and carved through the pack to slot into second place which became first when Button went to intermediates.

“I saw the clouds and asked for the estimated time of the rain, because we were so close to the pit stop,” said Glock. “I decided on inters. We went for it and in the end it paid off. The last two laps behind the safety car, my engineer told me, you’re leading the race, but then I saw Jenson come by.”

Seeing the pace of the Toyota, Button had chosen to take on the intermediates too. It was a fortunate piece of timing. Button enjoyed just a single lap on the intermediates before the real downpour spilled down and the circuit was pitched into near darkness as black clouds swooped low over the track. But in that time he was able to reel in and pass Glock to claim back the lead.

“I saw Timo flying up behind me on the inter so we put the inter on,” Button said. “Just as he came by I saw his tyres were bald. It was raining out the back (of the circuit) so he had to pit himself. I was then able to get one lap in at reasonable pace before I had to pit again and was able to get back out in front.”

Conditions rapidly became impossible. Alonso spun but hung on grimly. Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella scythed off the track and out of the race, swiftly followed by the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

On lap 31 the safety car was finally deployed and before the field even had time to form up behind the Mercedes, the red flags were out.

That was the signal for half an hour of confusion as the cars were hauled back to the grid in anticipation of a restart. It never came.

As the darkness deepened and the rain continued to hammer down, the decision eventually arrived that the race had been abandoned.

In such circumstances, the result is recorded from the end of the last full lap run and on that score Glock was suddenly dropped to third. Nick Heidfeld claimed the second spot on the podium after opting to not take on intermediate tyres as the rest of the field did, the German staying on the full wet tyres he had taken during his first fuel stop.

Button now sits on 15 points, five clear of team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who managed only fifth yesterday. The Brazilian finished behind Trulli who now sits third in the drivers’ standing on 8.5 points after claiming 2.5 points for fourth yesterday.