Dream front row lock-out for Brawn GP
Brawn GP’s fairytale debut weekend continued on Saturday as Jenson Button took a superb pole position for the Australian Grand Prix and Rubens Barrichello completed a remarkable grid 1-2 for the reborn team.
On the day that Richard Branson confirmed a sponsorship deal with Ross Brawn’s outfit, its two drivers proved the BGP001’s sensational testing pace was 100% genuine by turning the battle for pole into a private duel.
Button prevailed by 0.3s with a superb final Q3 lap to seal his first pole position in three years and the fourth of his F1 career.
Sebastian Vettel showed unexpectedly strong pace for Red Bull Racing to take third on the grid ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.
Nico Rosberg couldn’t match his dominant free practice form but fifth was still a morale-boosting result for him and the Williams team, while Timo Glock was the Toyota standard-bearer in sixth.
Underscoring the degree to which the rules shake-up has shuffled the pecking order this year, the best Ferrari could manage was seventh for Felipe Massa and ninth for Kimi Raikkonen, sandwiched by the second Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
But the Scuderia fared much better than its perennial arch-rival McLaren.
World champion Lewis Hamilton only just scraped through a frenetic first knock-out session in 15th place, and then played no part in Q2 after his MP4-24 developed a drivetrain gremlin.
In the event that the problem necessitates a change of gearbox, Hamilton will be demoted five places to the very back of the grid.
Meanwhile Heikki Kovalainen was slowest of the Q2 runners and will line up 14th on the grid.
A full report follows...
Provisional Australian GP grid
1. BUTTON Brawn
2. BARRICHELLO Brawn
3. VETTEL Red Bull
4. KUBICA BMW
5. ROSBERG Williams
6. GLOCK Toyota
7. MASSA Ferrari
8. TRULLI Toyota
9. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
10. WEBBER Red Bull
11. HEIDFELD BMW
12. ALONSO Renault
13. NAKAJIMA Williams
14. KOVALAINEN McLaren
15. HAMILTON McLaren
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso
17. PIQUET Renault
18. FISICHELLA Force India
19. SUTIL Force India
20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
Source: itv.com/f1
Brawn GP’s fairytale debut weekend continued on Saturday as Jenson Button took a superb pole position for the Australian Grand Prix and Rubens Barrichello completed a remarkable grid 1-2 for the reborn team.
On the day that Richard Branson confirmed a sponsorship deal with Ross Brawn’s outfit, its two drivers proved the BGP001’s sensational testing pace was 100% genuine by turning the battle for pole into a private duel.
Button prevailed by 0.3s with a superb final Q3 lap to seal his first pole position in three years and the fourth of his F1 career.
Sebastian Vettel showed unexpectedly strong pace for Red Bull Racing to take third on the grid ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.
Nico Rosberg couldn’t match his dominant free practice form but fifth was still a morale-boosting result for him and the Williams team, while Timo Glock was the Toyota standard-bearer in sixth.
Underscoring the degree to which the rules shake-up has shuffled the pecking order this year, the best Ferrari could manage was seventh for Felipe Massa and ninth for Kimi Raikkonen, sandwiched by the second Toyota of Jarno Trulli.
But the Scuderia fared much better than its perennial arch-rival McLaren.
World champion Lewis Hamilton only just scraped through a frenetic first knock-out session in 15th place, and then played no part in Q2 after his MP4-24 developed a drivetrain gremlin.
In the event that the problem necessitates a change of gearbox, Hamilton will be demoted five places to the very back of the grid.
Meanwhile Heikki Kovalainen was slowest of the Q2 runners and will line up 14th on the grid.
A full report follows...
Provisional Australian GP grid
1. BUTTON Brawn
2. BARRICHELLO Brawn
3. VETTEL Red Bull
4. KUBICA BMW
5. ROSBERG Williams
6. GLOCK Toyota
7. MASSA Ferrari
8. TRULLI Toyota
9. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
10. WEBBER Red Bull
11. HEIDFELD BMW
12. ALONSO Renault
13. NAKAJIMA Williams
14. KOVALAINEN McLaren
15. HAMILTON McLaren
16. BUEMI Toro Rosso
17. PIQUET Renault
18. FISICHELLA Force India
19. SUTIL Force India
20. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
Source: itv.com/f1
Last edited by Ross on 28th March 2009, 09:25; edited 1 time in total
