FORMULA ONE
2009 Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying Report
Melbourne was bathed in sunshine as the F1 Circus rolled into Australia for the start of the 2009 season.
Flying high was the brand new Brawn GP team. Pole position went to British driver Jenson Button as he sped his way around the Albert Park track. Second was Brazillian Rubens Barricello in the sister Brawn GP car.
All in all it was a magnificent debut for Brawn GP.
The BGP 001 cars ran at the front of the field throughout qualifying with the team?s two drivers vying for position at the top of the timesheets. Rubens took the honours in Q1 and Q2, posting the fastest lap of qualifying in the second session. In the pole position shoot-out, both drivers completed two runs with Jenson taking pole in the dying seconds of the session.
Button beamed, "To put the car on pole at our debut race is a fantastic achievement and I have to give so much credit to Ross, Nick and everyone at the factory in Brackley. The last four months have been incredibly tough for the team and to go from a situation where you don?t even know if you are going to be racing to achieving pole at the first race of the season is just incredible. Tomorrow is obviously the most important day of the weekend and there is a lot of work to be achieved to come away with a successful result however we have to remember where we have been and really enjoy this moment.?"
Team-mate Barricello was also in buoyant mood, "t has been a great day and I want to congratulate the team for an outstanding job. I was hoping that I could put the car on pole and it was looking good in the first two sessions but in Q3 I developed some understeer in the car which comprised my final runs. However the first row for both cars is a real credit to the team and gives us a great chance in the race tomorrow. We have a really good car which everyone deserves credit for and I am just so happy to be racing at the front again."
Team principal Ross Brawn was elated at his teams performance, "?Watching our two cars top the timesheets throughout qualifying capped an excellent day for the team which began with the announcement of our new partnership with Virgin this afternoon. The track conditions were more favourable than we experienced yesterday and we found that the tyres worked in a more conventional way. In addition, the changes that we had made following yesterday?s practice sessions proved positive and both drivers had a well-balanced car which allowed them to concentrate on maximising the lap times. Whilst this is a great achievement and gives both drivers an excellent opportunity in the race tomorrow, the job is only half done and our full focus is now on getting the best result possible in the race. I would like to pay credit to Jenson, Rubens and the whole team, both here and at our factory, for their achievement today and to Mercedes-Benz for their invaluable support over the past few months.?
The seond row of the grid saw Sebastien Vettel take third spot while BMW driver Robert Kubica claimed fourth on the grid.
Polish driver Kubica said, “I’m quite happy with fourth on the grid. Looking at the first practice sessions of the weekend, this was more than we expected. We made progress with the car, and I was able to put in some really good laps. In particular, my lap in Q2 was very good. Unfortunately on my second run in Q3 Nico Rosberg went wide in front of me in corner 14 and put some dust on the track. As a consequence my tyres lost massive grip in the final corners of that lap. Most probably I could have finished third, but still I’m satisfied with my performance.”
Kubica's team boss, Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director) said, “Robert had a fantastic Qualifying and was up with the front-runners with both low and heavy fuel loads on his car. His fourth on the grid is more than we could have expected after the free practice sessions. Unfortunately Nick missed Q3 by a small margin. However, this gives us more opportunities for the race strategy, because from eleventh on the grid you are free to choose the amount of fuel for the race. Both cars ran without any technical problems. On top of this, our new pit crew did a great job.”
Fastest man on the Friday practice sessions, Nico Rosberg came home in fifth while 2008 world championship runner-up, Felipe Massa in the Ferrari finished in sixth place thanks to the stewards decison on the Toyota car (See separate news story 'Toyota demoted to the rear of the grid').
Nico Rosberg was a little disappointed, "I think it is a good thing to be a bit disappointed with fifth place! Our qualifying session itself was consistent with everything else I have experienced so far and the car has been nice to drive all weekend. From the work we have done today, we are in a good position to start the race, perhaps better than we would have imagined when we arrived here. We are among the fastest cars but it will be interesting to see what fuel load everybody is running. The start tomorrow of course will be important, but thankfully we will don’t have too many cars running KERS close by us and possibly challenging us off the line. The big factor tomorrow will be tyres, but I think we have a good strategy and positive reliability, so we have all the tools to do a good job in the race."
2007 world champ, Kimi Raikkonen qualified for the grand prix in seventh place, while Ozzie hope Mark Webber made it into eighth, ninth was the second BMW of Nick Heidfeld and rounding off the top ten was Renault driver Fernado Alonso.
2009 Australian Qualifying Positions
| 1 Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1min26.202s |
| 2 Rubens Barricello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1m26.505s |
| 3 Sebastien Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1m26.830s |
| 4 Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1m26.914s |
| 5 Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1m26.973s |
| 6 Felipe Masssa | Ferrari | 1m27.033s |
| 7 Kimi Raikonnen | Ferrari | 1m27.163s |
| 8 Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1m27.246s |
| 9 Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1m25.504s |
| 10 Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1m25.605 |
| 11 Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1m25.607s |
| 12 Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren- Mercedes | 1m25.726s |
| 13 Sebastien Buemi | Torro-Rosso-Ferrari | 1m26.503s |
| 14 Nelson Piquet | Renault | 1m26.598s |
| 15 Giancarlo Fischella | Force India-Mercedes | 1m26.677s |
| 16 Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1m26.742s |
| 17 Sebastien Bourdais | Torro-Rosso-Ferrari | 1m26.964s |
| 18 Lewis Hamilton* | McLaren- Mercedes | N/A |
| 19 Timo Glock* | Toyota | N/A |
| 20 Jarno Trulli* | Toyota | N/A |
* = Stewards moved these cometitors to the back of the grid, McLaren had to change the gearbox on Lewis Hamilton's car and the Toyota cars were moved to the rear of the field as the 'rear wing of the TF109 has been found to demonstrate "extreme flexibility".'
All results subject to FIA confirmation
Simon McBride
Thanks to Brawn GP, Toyota, Force India, Williams and BMW F1 teams for suppling the images.