Monza (Italy): Brazilian Rubens Barrichello won the Italian Grand Prix in a Brawn one-two on Sunday while Germany's Adrian Sutil finished fourth, collecting his first points of the season and handing Force India their second scoring finish in two races.
Barrichello trimmed team mate Jenson Button's Formula One championship lead to 14 points with four races left.
Button returned to the podium for the first time in six starts with second place, 2.8 seconds behind the veteran, in a race that made the title chase look even more like a private battle between the two.
Finland's Kimi Raikkonen was gifted third place for Ferrari after McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton crashed on the last lap.
Hamilton had started on pole position but is now mathematically out of the championship chase.
Button has 80 points to Barrichello's 66 with Red Bull's German driver Sebastian Vettel and Australian Mark Webber on 54 and 51.5 respectively and looking effectively out of the running. Hamilton has 27.
"On the lap after the chequered flag I had no words," said Barrichello, Formula One's oldest driver at 37, who had started the race with concerns about the reliability of his car's gearbox.
"It just feels great. I'm going to give my best. It's going to be a good and healthy fight," he said of the battle ahead.
Firm response
Button's finish, with Mercedes-powered Brawn's fourth one-two of the year, was a firm response to critics who had expressed concern that he might be buckling under the pressure.
"It's nice to be back up here," he said. "I'd like to be where Rubens is sat but he did a better job today. I've lost two points to Rubens but gained seven on Vettel.
"We're going to take it I'm sure right down to the wire...for me it was a great result."
The victory, in an enthralling strategic battle played out between those on one-stop and two-stop strategies at Formula One's fastest track, was Barrichello's second of the season and 11th of his career.
The Brawns, who have now won eight of 13 races and two of the last three, made just the one stop. They have 146 points in the constructors' standings to Red Bull's 105.5 and third-placed Ferrari's 62.
Raikkonen and Hamilton, who was in third place when he caught the curve at the first Lesmo corner and hit the wall at the second, pitted twice.
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Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso took four points for Renault, a team rocked by race-fixing allegations, while Finland's Heikki Kovalainen was sixth ahead of BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.
Vettel finished eighth, while Webber was pitched out on the first lap by BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica.
"I haven't had any points in the last three races. I am going to struggle if I am not scoring points. I have had a good little run at the championship but we have to keep going," said the Australian.
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who had finished second for Force India in Belgium last month, was ninth on his Ferrari debut as a replacement for the team's struggling stand-in Luca Badoer in the absence of injured Brazilian Felipe Massa.
Force India's Adrian Sutil reacts on finishing fourth
Force India's Adrian Sutil refused to get carried away with his first points of the season at Sunday's Italian Grand Prix and was already looking forward to the next race.
Rather than jumping for joy at finishing fourth at Formula One's quickest track, the German displayed the growing confidence at former also-rans Force India following their stunning second place at Spa last month.
"It feels good, the pressure for the next race goes down a bit," he told reporters after producing his best Formula One result and scoring for the first time since the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.
"I hope our cars will be similarly quick on other circuits."
Sutil posted the quickest lap of the race and could have finished higher had he not been on a two-stop strategy.
Third-placed Kimi Raikkonen also used his KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) button to generate extra power and keep Sutil at bay.
"At the start we knew it would be really difficult to defend our position against Kimi and his KERS button and then I was stuck behind him the whole race," added Sutil, who started second on the grid.
Vitantonio Liuzzi, making his debut for Force India after Spa runner-up Giancarlo Fisichella moved to Ferrari, was looking accomplished in sixth before a driveshaft problem ended his race.
"Everything was perfect until we were in a great position but that's racing unfortunately," said the Italian.
Barichello says nice guys win too
Italian Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello promised on Sunday that his Formula One title battle with Brawn team mate Jenson Button would not turn nasty.
"There's that old saying that you can only win in Formula One if you're tough," said the Brazilian after beating the championship leading Briton in a Brawn one-two in Ferrari's backyard.
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"We're both nice guys so this is the end of it. I think the best thing in life is respect."
Barrichello's second win of the season trimmed Button's lead to 14 points with four races remaining. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel is third overall, but a massive 26 points behind the Englishman.
Button, who has been the 37-year-old Brazilian's team mate since 2006, tried jokingly to be confrontational when asked whether they could continue to be friends.
"I don't know. I've put on a brave face lately but I absolutely hate this guy. He doesn't know his arse from his elbow when it comes to racing cars," he said. "Is this more fun?,"
"We've got a good relationship and we've been team mates for many years now. We're working together, we've had to pull our car to the front, we will see how it goes from here," added the 29-year-old.
"But I think we're still going to be sharing information because there's always the possibility that the Red Bulls will be strong, you never know, and we might have some bad luck.
"When we go on the circuit we're obviously fierce rivals. We're not going to give up until the end. I've obviously got the advantage of 14 points; it's got smaller at the last couple of races but Rubens is going to be a very tough rival."
Caged Tiger
Button won six of the first seven races of the season in a dream start for a driver whose Formula One career had looked in danger of stalling after Honda pulled out in December, leaving the team fighting for their survival.
But a management buyout under the leadership of Ross Brawn, and the arrival of Mercedes engines, transformed their fortunes and took Barrichello from the brink of retirement to race winner.
Before this season he had not won a race since he was at Ferrari in 2004 in the shadow of Michael Schumacher.
The Brazilian played the role of sidekick to the German, forced to play second fiddle and even hand over victory in Austria in 2002.
Brawn have given him the chance to shine again with assurances of equal treatment. Barrichello said he could also be a tough nut under the smiling, friendly exterior.
"I think that Michael might have had more skill than I had, but if you threw both of us into a jail with a tiger I might get out alive and I'm not so sure about him.
"That's life. You learn, you learn by your mistakes, you learn by everything," he said.
"I didn't say this to criticise because I had fun, I really had fun at Ferrari. It made me a better driver as well, so everything that's happening now is because of all the times that I had in Formula One."
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