Jenson Button led Rubens Barrichello to another Brawn GP 1-2 at Saturday’s Grand Prix de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Saturday’s race also marked the fifth race this season, and closed the first third of what has been a thrilling year in F1. Between the dominance of the Brawns and Red Bulls, the rulings on Brawn’s trick diffusers, the liar-liar pants on fire McLaren boys and a hectic first two rounds, this one is for the history books.

This weekend’s race was pretty much standard fare. Button nabbed the pole from Vettel in the last few seconds of Q3 on Saturday, which left Vettel in second and teammate Barrichello in third. No surprises there. Spain 2009 marked the first time since 2007 that Kimi Raikonnen failed to make it out of the first qualifying session. The Finn could only managed 16th, worsening an already bad season for Ferarri.

That said, Felipe Massa was able to  make a solid effort for the fallen Italian team. Where Raikonnen was falling down, first in qualifying, then on lap 18 with electrical maladies, Massa was charging. Massa managed to keep Vettel’s Red Bull at bay for most of the race, showing that the prancing horse isn’t dead yet.

Massa wound up sixth behind hometown hero Fernando Alonso, having been ordered to slow down to conserve fuel. Had the back off order not come through, Massa may well have hung on to beat Vettel and Alonso.

The McLaren’s had a rough weekend, with Heikki Kovaleinen qualifying at the back of the pack and retiring during the race. Coupled to that was Lewis Hamilton, who found himself unable to charge the way he did in Bahrain. The world champ ended up ninth in front of Timo Glock. Glock’s teammate Jarno Trulli crashed his Toyota in the first corner, gathering up the Force India of Adrian Sutil and causing a five-lap caution.

The Spanish GP ended up looking pretty much like the rest of the season has, with last year’s underdogs dominating both qualifying and the race itself. The rule changes in 2009 are probably the culprit for Ferrari and McLaren’s downfall, as they had relied heavily on their aerodynamic wizardry and technological prowess in years past. Ferrari and McLaren have each shown improvement since the beginning of the season, but they still have a long way to go before they reach the Brawns.

As it stands, Button has 41 points, followed by Barrichello with 27 and Vettel with 23. Ross Brawn GP has 68 points in the coinstructor’s championship, a full 30 points more than second-best Red Bull.