A visibly deflated Rubens Barrichello was left pondering why things always seem to go wrong on his side of the Brawn G🅰P garage after posting the ex-Honda F1 outfit's first retirement of the 2009 campaign in the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul at the weekend, on a day when Ross Brawn contended the experienced Brazilian 'would have had a great race'.

After lining up third on the starting grid, Barrichello encountered a clutch problem when the lights went out - not for the first time this season - that dropped him ten places down the order. Worse still, he subsequently lost seventh gear too, which consigned him to havin😼g to try and fight his way back 🐎through the field again.

There were spirited battles - as well as a spin - along the way with the KERS-equipped McLaren-Mercedes' of Heik💞ki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, Force India's Adrian Sutil and compatriot Nelsinho Piquet in th🏅e Renault...but ultimately little progress.

Still lying outside the top ten, the S?o Paulista pulled into his pit box and retirement with eleven laps remaining - seeing him fall a full 26 points adrift of world championshi🐬p-leading team-mate Jenson Button in the title standings with seven rounds now completed. After the race, the disappointment was acute.

"It appears to have been a gearbox problem," the 36-year-ꩲold mused of the issue that had finally ended his challenge. "[It was] the one that I had at the start - the same as in Australia. When I dumped the clutch, the anti-stall kicked in, so it was the wrong calculation for the clutch - once aga✅in on my side.

"With the anti-stall I couldn't get going, and then to complicate things I was on the limiter halfway down the straight, which didn't make my life any easier because I was competing against cars with KERS. I had to force my way past, and that's just how the race went. It's frustrating, because it's been happening too muc🏅h on my side."

"Rubens had a problem with the clutch at the start, which over-torqued the gearbox," confirmed the Brackley-based concern's team principal Brawn. "He then had some problems with tജhe gearbox in the race, and it was disappointing that we had our first retirement of the 👍year. He would have had a great race, for sure."