Daily Update Formula1 News

Jenson Button claimed his third win in four races as he took Brawn back to the front in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Delays behind slower cars cost Sebastian Vettel dear and the Chinese GP winner had to settle for second for Red Bull, with pole-sitter Jarno Trulli (Toyota) third and Lewis Hamilton taking the best result of his title defence so far with fourth for McLaren.

A second lap pass on Hamilton proved critical to Button's victory. As the Toyotas led away, Hamilton had used his McLaren's KERS advantage to blast past both Button and Vettel off the line, with the Red Bull and the Brawn swapping places as Vettel tried to fight back against Hamilton.
Trulli lost out to team-mate Timo Glock into the first corner, and was also briefly passed by Hamilton - again thanks to KERS - further around the lap before reclaiming second place.
Button then drafted Hamilton on the pits straight and managed to out-brake the McLaren into Turn 1. This allowed the championship leader to lurk behind the lighter Toyotas throughout the first stint, while Vettel fell ever further behind due to his inability to pass Hamilton's slower McLaren.
Glock had led confidently in the early stages, but fell back into traffic when he pitted on lap 11 and also struggled with the medium tyres in his second stint, ending his chances of victory.
Trulli ran two laps further and then lost time having a spectacular battle with the yet-to-stop Fernando Alonso, all of which helped Button to pull out ahead when he rejoined after his first stop on lap 15.
Vettel ran right through to lap 19 before pitting, and although this vaulted him clear of Hamilton, it was not sufficient to get ahead of Trulli.
The Red Bull emerged from the pits right behind the Toyota, but with Trulli losing a second per lap to new leader Button while using medium tyres in the middle stint - and Vettel unable to get past the Italian - Button's position became ever more secure and he duly resumed his winning habit after the mild disappointment of China.
It was not until the final stops that Vettel managed to pass Trulli, and by that time he was 12s adrift of Button - and in any case Trulli proved faster in the final stint having saved a set of the preferable super-soft tyres for the end. He shadowed Vettel to the flag, before settling for third.
Hamilton dropped away from this contest but still took an encouraging fourth.
Rubens Barrichello came through to fifth in the second Brawn despite his three-stop strategy causing him a great deal of traffic frustration. He just pulled out enough of a margin before his final stop to beat Kimi Raikkonen, who finally opened Ferrari's points account for 2009, and Glock, who probably would have beaten Raikkonen had the Ferrari not activated KERS as they diced after their last pit visits.
Alonso beat Williams's Nico Rosberg to the final point, with Renault's second driver Nelson Piquet showing much better form to complete the top ten, resisting late pressure from Mark Webber as the Red Bull driver tried to recover from his qualifying frustrations.
The first few laps saw some ferocious three- and four-abreast racing in the midfield - and predictably a lot of damage.
All those involved managed to keep going, but Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and both BMWs all needed new front wings, and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen fell to the back of the field and also had to pit early to replace a flat-spotted tyre.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Bahrain Grand Prix
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain;
57 laps; 308.238km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1h31:48.182
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 7.187
3. Trulli Toyota (B) + 9.170
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 22.096
5. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) + 37.779
6. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 42.057
7. Glock Toyota (B) + 42.880
8. Alonso Renault (B) + 52.775
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 58.198
10. Piquet Renault (B) + 1:05.149
11. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:07.641
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1:17.824
13. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1:18.805
14. Massa Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
15. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
18. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap
19. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap


Fastest lap: Trulli, 1:34.556

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 49

World Championship standings, round 4:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Button 31 1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 50
2. Barrichello 19 2. Red Bull-Renault 27.5
3. Vettel 18 3. Toyota 26.5
4. Trulli 14.5 4. McLaren-Mercedes 13
5. Glock 12 5. Renault 5
6. Webber 9.5 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
7. Hamilton 9 7. BMW Sauber 4
8. Alonso 5 8. Williams-Toyota 3.5
9. Heidfeld 4 9. Ferrari 3
10. Kovalainen 4
11. Rosberg 3.5
12. Buemi 3
13. Raikkonen 3
14. Bourdais 1
ref[AS]
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Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock claimed Toyota's first ever Formula 1 front row sweep as the Japanese manufacturer dominated Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.
The result was Toyota's first pole since the 2005 Japanese GP, and came after increasingly impressive progress from the team in the opening rounds of the season.
Trulli and Glock held first and second after the early runs of Q3, and although Jenson Button (Brawn) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) briefly pushed them down the order - fleetingly making it an all-British front row - the Toyota duo moved back to the top with their final runs.

Pole ultimately went to Trulli by 0.3 seconds, with his team-mate Glock enjoying the same margin back to third-placed Sebastian Vettel, whose excellent qualifying form for Red Bull continued.
Championship leader Button had to settle for fourth, ahead of Hamilton and Rubens Barrichello in the second Brawn.
Fernando Alonso claimed seventh for Renault, with the Ferraris in eighth and 10th - Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen split by Williams's Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton's progress actually knocked his McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen outside the Q3 cut-off, leaving him 11th, alongside Kazuki Nakajima, who was closer to Williams team-mate Rosberg than at recent races but still not quick enough for the top ten.
The BMWs will share row seven after another disappointing performance, while Renault's Nelson Piquet finally reached Q2 for the first time in 2009, only for his error at the final corner to leave him 15th.
Last week's third-place qualifier and second place finisher Mark Webber is set to start from the back row of the grid in Bahrain - but through no fault of his own.
The Red Bull was on course to easily make the Q2 cut when Webber was impeded by Adrian Sutil's at the entry to the final corner, leaving the Australian in the bottom quarter of the grid along with the Force Indias and Toro Rossos.
Sutil managed a season-best 16th, although this will be in jeopardy if the stewards opt to issue any penalties over the Webber incident.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.779 1:32.671 1:33.431
2. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.165 1:32.613 1:33.712
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.680 1:32.474 1:34.015
4. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:32.978 1:32.842 1:34.044
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.851 1:32.877 1:34.196
6. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:33.116 1:32.842 1:34.239
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.627 1:32.860 1:34.578
8. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:33.297 1:33.014 1:34.818
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.672 1:33.166 1:35.134
10. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.117 1:32.827 1:35.380
11. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.479 1:33.242
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.221 1:33.348
13. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.495 1:33.487
14. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.377 1:33.562
15. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.608 1:33.941
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.722
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.753
18. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.910
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.038
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.159
[AS]
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The final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix provided a mix of emotions for Timo Glock, who set the fastest time of the weekend so far and then promptly stopped out on track with a technical problem.
The German's final flier on super-softs, a 1m32.605s, was enough to topple Lewis Hamilton's best up until that point by more than 0.3 seconds.
But on the following lap, with five minutes of the hour long session left to go, Glock's car appeared to suffer some kind of electrical fault and he was forced to coast to the side of the backstraight.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa improved to second fastest in the last minutes of the session, eclipsing this year's free practice star Nico Rosberg in the process.

Hamilton, who was fastest for much of the session, eventually tumbled down to fourth, while Kimi Raikkonen - who set the early pace - was fifth.
Nelson Piquet, who appears to be having a stronger weekend than of late, was sixth quickest ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima. Jarno Trulli didn't seem to go for a low-fuel run and ended up ninth, while Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.
There were few incidents in the session, Heikki Kovalainen, who ended the session 12th behind Sebastian Vettel, had a throttle sensor problem early on.
Sebastien Bourdais also found himself pit-bound for much of the second half of the hour and ended practice in last place.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock Toyota (B) 1:32.605 16
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:32.728 + 0.123 20
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:32.906 + 0.301 18
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.975 + 0.370 16
5. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.986 + 0.381 18
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.176 + 0.571 19
7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.195 + 0.590 13
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.302 + 0.697 17
9. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.397 + 0.792 19
10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.415 + 0.810 14
11. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.443 + 0.838 16
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.478 + 0.873 12
13. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.482 + 0.877 13
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.534 + 0.929 17
15. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:33.586 + 0.981 17
16. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:33.686 + 1.081 17
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.720 + 1.115 15
18. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.726 + 1.121 14
19. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:33.962 + 1.357 15
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.990 + 2.385 7
ref[AS]
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World championship leader Jenson Button believes that the Brawn team is in better shape after Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix than it was in China last weekend.
The 29-year-old is cautiously optimistic that he will be able to fight for victory in Sunday's race despite the team not having updated the car since the start of the season.
"It was good," said Button of the team's progress. "The first session was not the best and we struggled a bit for balance with the heat. But the afternoon was much better.

"We got a much better balance for the car over the longer runs. Over a single lap we've still got a bit of work. I'm much happier with the balance here than I was in China on Friday.
Button added that he was unsure of where he stood compared to his main rivals, and expects Williams, Toyota and Red Bull to all be strong contenders.
"Williams normally run with less fuel than us on Friday. Red Bull, I'm not so sure. I think they are competitive, but who knows where they stand. Same with Toyota.
"The McLaren looks quicker. I think they were on more fuel than probably the Williams and they're going to be quite competitive also."
Button also underlined the need for the team to take another strong points haul from this weekend, as for the next race in Spain in two weeks the competitive order could be shaken up by most teams bringing in major car updates.
"Hopefully we can have another good weekend here and go back to Europe with some good points," said Button. "Then it all starts getting very serious because a lot of people are going to improving there cars when we get to Barcelona and Monaco. So we've got to get the points on the board now.
"We'll have an update in Barcelona. We've just got to hope it's enough because a lot of teams are going to be updating their cars when they get back to Europe."
[AS]
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Lewis Hamilton set the pace in first free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday.
The world champion was comfortably fastest for most of the session and even a late charge from BMW drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica on the super-soft tyres was not enough to topple the Briton.
After the now seemingly obligatory 20-minute silence following the installation laps on Friday morning, Sebastien Bourdais was the first to lap the circuit properly. But very quickly his time was eclipsed by Nico Rosberg who put in a sequence of laps that culminated in a 1m34.363s best.

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in first free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday.
The world champion was comfortably fastest for most of the session and even a late charge from BMW drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica on the super-soft tyres was not enough to topple the Briton.
After the now seemingly obligatory 20-minute silence following the installation laps on Friday morning, Sebastien Bourdais was the first to lap the circuit properly. But very quickly his time was eclipsed by Nico Rosberg who put in a sequence of laps that culminated in a 1m34.363s best.
That was good enough to keep the German at the top of the times until just beyond the halfway mark when Hamilton moved ahead.
The McLaren man appeared to benefit from the latest modifications to the MP4-24 to produce a 1m34.189s lap time.
An interesting characteristic of the Bahrain circuit though was that it took drivers several laps to get the best out of the Bridgestone medium slicks - and so it was that Hamilton then improved again to go 0.716s faster than the Williams.
His 1m33.647s lap was not bettered by anyone for the rest of the session, but Rosberg would succumb to the soft-rubbered BMWs late-on. The Williams driver might have improved himself but for yellow flags at Turn 8 when Sebastian Buemi's Toro Rosso stopped on the exit of Turn 8 late-on.
Behind the top four, was world championship leader Jenson Button who struggled early in the session with an upshift problem in his gearbox.
Heikki Kovalainen was sixth for McLaren ahead of the second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello.
Felipe Massa and Mark Webber were next up, while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was lucky to complete the session in tenth. The Finn was one of several drivers to have a moment, but his involved a lurid slide that saw him just miss the barriers at Turn 2 right at the start of practice.
Turn 10 saw more than its fair share of action as well, with Kovalainen, Fernando Alonso, Buemi, Fisichella, Heidfeld just some of the drivers to run wide at the tricky tight left-hander.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.647 + 19
2. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.907 + 0.260 17
3. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.938 + 0.291 17
4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:34.227 + 0.580 24
5. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:34.434 + 0.787 15
6. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:34.502 + 0.855 24
7. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:34.531 + 0.884 18
8. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:34.589 + 0.942 17
9. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.827 + 1.180 21
10. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:34.827 + 1.180 19
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:34.880 + 1.233 24
12. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:34.938 + 1.291 21
13. Piquet Renault (B) 1:34.974 + 1.327 21
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:35.021 + 1.374 18
15. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:35.036 + 1.389 22
16. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:35.042 + 1.395 16
17. Glock Toyota (B) 1:35.333 + 1.686 20
18. Alonso Renault (B) 1:35.348 + 1.701 24
19. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:35.353 + 1.706 22
20. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:35.369 + 1.722 15
ref[AS]
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"Bahrain is a technically interesting circuit. The layout means a lot of braking and a lot of accelerating out of low speed corners. Maximising traction out of the corners is the key to a good lap time, but if a car has less than ideal traction, additional unwanted heat can be created, and this will make matters more difficult for competitors. There is a lot of heavy braking here too, and it will be interesting to see how the different braking characteristics between the KERS and non-KERS cars affects lap times, and also the racing. Tyre management and minimising unnecessary tyre heat in what could be very hot conditions are very important considerations here. We have the medium and super soft tyres and we expect the medium tyre to be very durable. The super soft should present more of a challenge in terms of durability than the medium, however the data from the Bahrain pre-season tests show that this tyre can be managed well on this track if the correct set-up is found."
Hirohide Hamashima
ref[formula1.com]

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