Ross Brawn has sought to placate a clearly sore Rubens Barrichello by insisting no team orders came into play during the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Brazilian finished second to team-mate Jenson Button but felt he should have won after superbly passing the pole-sitting Brit from third on the grid on the run down to the first corner.

However, Button was switched to a two-stop strategy while Barrichello was left on a three and that proved decisive as the championship leader claimed his fourth win of the season.

After Barrichello announced he would quit should he "get a whiff of team orders", Brawn responded: "I think you saw at the first corner there are no team orders as Rubens made a great start to get past Jenson.

"I'd love to see Rubens win a race and his crew win a race because it would be great for the team. But there's no priority being given."

It is the first bumpy patch for Brawn on what has so far been a very smooth ride throughout a dominant start to the season.

Button's win leaves him 14 points clear of Barrichello whose body language post-race spoke volumes as to his thoughts.

But then the likeable south American has never been slow in coming forward as he said: "I'm very experienced and...I won't follow any team orders any more. I'm making it clear now so everybody knows."

The real reason for Barrichello's demise was his third set of soft tyres after his second stop which lacked the pace of the first two.

As Brawn pointed out, if they had been up to speed then it would have been too close to call as to who would have taken the flag.

Button said: "We're all here to win. It went my way today and it may go his (Barrichello's) way in Monaco. That's the way it is.

"He had a problem on his stint, I didn't. I made it work and I won the race, but then it could swing around at the next one. That's the way we go racing, the way it should be, and the way it has been for most teams in Formula One."