Daily Update Formula1 News

Race Resul GP Turkey
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1h26:24.848
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 6.714
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 7.461
4. Trulli Toyota (B) + 27.843
5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 31.539
6. Massa Ferrari (B) + 39.996
7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 46.247
8. Glock Toyota (B) + 46.959
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 50.246
10. Alonso Renault (B) + 1:02.420
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1:04.327
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:06.376
13. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1:20.454
14. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
16. Piquet Renault (B) + 1 lap
17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap

Fastest lap: Button, 1:27.579

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 49
Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 5

World Championship standings, round 7:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Button 61 1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 96
2. Barrichello 35 2. Red Bull-Renault 56.5
3. Vettel 29 3. Toyota 32.5
4. Webber 27.5 4. Ferrari 20
5. Trulli 19.5 5. McLaren-Mercedes 13
6. Glock 13 6. Williams-Toyota 11.5
7. Rosberg 11.5 7. Renault 11
8. Massa 11 8. BMW Sauber 8
9. Alonso 11 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5
10. Hamilton 9
11. Raikkonen 9
12. Heidfeld 6
13. Kovalainen 4
14. Buemi 3
15. Kubica 2
16. Bourdais 2

Jenson Button remained unstoppable in the Turkish Grand Prix - taking his sixth win from seven races in 2009 and extending his championship advantage to a mammoth 26 points.

Pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel lost the lead to Button on the opening lap and could only finish third behind his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, while Button's Brawn team-mate - and closest title rival - Rubens Barrichello had a disastrous afternoon and eventually retired.

The race fell into Button's hands on the opening lap. While Vettel stayed in front into the first corner, Barrichello stuttered off the line and tumbled back to 13th place.

That removed one of Button's main rivals from contention, and then Vettel ran wide in the Turn 9/10 chicane, allowing Button to take the lead and start charging away with relative ease.

The Briton soon had a four-second lead, which he maintained through the first pitstops. But Vettel then came back at him, moving to a three-stop strategy and benefiting from his much lighter fuel lead to charge back up behind the Brawn.

There was no way past, though, and after 13 fruitless laps in Button's wake, Vettel had to make his second stop, dropping him to third behind Webber and ought of contention.

Button duly cruised away to seal yet another win, while Vettel closed up on Webber in the final laps before the team radioed to inform him that Webber had pace in hand and he should back off and conserve his car. Vettel's speed barely decreased, but he dutifully came home in formation behind Webber.

Jarno Trulli took fourth for Toyota, losing the place to Williams's Nico Rosberg at the first stops but reclaiming it at the second pit sequence, although fifth was still a good result for Rosberg given his frustrations at earlier races.

Ferrari was never in the hunt, and Felipe Massa had to settle for a distant sixth rather than a fourth consecutive Istanbul win. Kimi Raikkonen lost ground on lap one, damaged his front wing slightly running into Fernando Alonso, and ended up ninth.

BMW's Robert Kubica finally opened his 2009 points account by beating Timo Glock (Toyota) to seventh, as the German came through the field using a very long first stint. Kazuki Nakajima did likewise for Williams, but fell back to finish 12th thanks to a slow second pitstop.

Short early stints dropped Alonso's Renault into traffic and left him 10th, while back in the midfield McLaren split its strategies but could not get the one-stopping Lewis Hamilton higher than 13th or two-stopper Heikki Kovalainen above 14th.

Most of the entertainment in an underwhelming race came from Barrichello's spirited early attempts to make up the ground lost at the start. Wheel to wheel action with Kovalainen's KERS-shod McLaren eventually ended in contact at Turn 9 and a quick spin for the Brawn, which then broke its front wing clashing with Adrian Sutil's Force India.

The consequent very early stop put paid to Barrichello's recovery charge, and he was firmly in the midfield when he eventually pulled out with a gearbox problem 11 laps from home.
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Button Next Schumacher

Jason Button Dominated F1 GP This 2009 with new debut team Brawn GP. Ross Brawn the head of this Team Says "I worked with Michael for 15 years and this is only my second year with Jenson, so it is very difficult to make comparisons," said Brawn.

Ross Brawn has taken his hat off to the Michael Schumacher-type qualities that have helped Jenson Button emerge as the dominant force in Formula 1 this year.

With Button taking a brilliant last-gasp pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, Brawn says that although the world championship leader has a different personality to Schumacher, they are showing remarkable similarities in their approach to the job in hand.

"I worked with Michael for 15 years and this is only my second year with Jenson, so it is very difficult to make comparisons," said Brawn.

"They are different types of character, but both are obviously highly talented. And I think this opportunity that Jenson has got has made him focus very hard on what is happening, what it is and why it is happening - so he is similar [to Michael] in that respect."

Brawn acknowledges that Button has upped his work ethic this year – with the Briton claiming earlier this weekend that success has turned him into a 'boring bastard'.

"Any competitive sportsperson, if he gets an opportunity, focuses on that opportunity," explained Brawn. "Of course it is like all of us – when you are at the sharp end and thinking about things, then it is in your thoughts all the time.

"Probably last year to be honest he was glad to forget about it, whereas this year he is enjoying thinking about it. I think both drivers do spend a lot of time discussing things with their engineers away from the track, so it is nice to hear – but it doesn't surprise me because last year he would be glad to forget what is going on. This year is different."

Brawn admitted he thought his team had lost the chance of pole position in the closing stages of qualifying – but that Button once again shocked him with his late effort.

When asked by AUTOSPORT if Button kept surprising him, Brawn said: "He does in a way. He kind of portrays an air of not going to do it, and then he does it. That is the thing that keeps surprising me.

"He just keeps doing it, and up until final qualifying I thought maybe first/second row of the grid, but the car did not look bad in race spec, so we could have an interesting race."

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POLE POSITION GP MONTECARLO MONACO 2009
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:15.210 1:15.016 1:14.902
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:15.746 1:14.514 1:14.927
3. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:15.425 1:14.829 1:15.077
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:15.915 1:14.879 1:15.271
5. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:15.340 1:15.001 1:15.437
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:15.094 1:14.846 1:15.455
7. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.495 1:14.809 1:15.516
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:15.260 1:14.825 1:15.653
9. Alonso Renault (B) 1:15.898 1:15.200 1:16.009
10. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:15.930 1:15.579 1:17.344
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:15.834 1:15.833
12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:16.013 1:15.837
13. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:16.063 1:16.146
14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.120 1:16.281
15. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:16.248 1:16.545
16. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:16.264
17. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:16.264
18. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:16.405
19. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:16.548
20. Glock Toyota (B) 1:16.788

Jenson Button took his fourth pole position of the season in a frenetic qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The championship leader kept a relatively low profile for most of the hour, then charged to the front with his final Q3 lap, beating surprise front row man Kimi Raikkonen to the top spot by 0.025 seconds.

But there was disaster for last year's winner Lewis Hamilton, who had been tipped as a dark horse contender for pole given McLaren's faith in its Monaco package. The world champion crashed in Q1 and will start 16th.

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) both held provisional pole early in Q3, before Raikkonen showed Ferrari's resurgent form by producing a 1m14.927s in the closing seconds.

But even as the Finn completed the lap, Button was going even faster, crossing the line a few seconds later to snatch pole away and further strengthen his championship prospects.

His Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello will start third, with Vettel and Rosberg falling back to fourth and sixth, split by Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was fortunate to escape a spin at the start of Q1 that saw him break his front wing as he swiped the Swimming Pool barriers.

Heikki Kovalainen salvaged some McLaren pride with seventh place, ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, Renault's Fernando Alonso, and Williams's Kazuki Nakajima, the latter making his first Q3 appearance of the year.

Hamilton spun into the Mirabeau barriers on his fifth lap in Q1, smashing his McLaren's right rear suspension and causing a brief halt to the session. Seventh on the timing screens at the time, he tumbled to 16th on the grid by the end of the segment.

All five Q1 departures were big names. Given the team's weekend-long struggle, it was not a big surprise to see the BMW Saubers sharing row nine, but Toyota's 19th and 20th places were a greater shock. Jarno Trulli blamed Fernando Alonso for blocking him at the final corner, while Timo Glock spun at the Swimming Pool on his last run.

That meant a host of underdogs could celebrate reaching Q2 - in particular Force India, which finally achieved its aim of progressing in qualifying with both cars.

Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will start 13th and 15th, while Toro Rosso also enjoyed a good session with Sebastien Buemi and Sebastien Bourdais taking 11th and 14th, despite the latter having to rely on a very last minute effort to squeeze through to Q2.
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PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS GP Catalunya 2009
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1h37:19.202
2. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) + 13.056
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 13.924
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) + 18.941
5. Alonso Renault (B) + 43.166
6. Massa Ferrari (B) + 50.827
7. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 52.312
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:05.211
9. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
10. Glock Toyota (B) + 1 lap
11. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap
12. Piquet Renault (B) + 1 lap
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
14. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap

Great GP Catalunya 2009 Spanish, GP Catalunya start in Sunny Weather circuit it will make the race very nice.
GP Catalunya In pole Jason Button, Vettel and Barichelo. From this pole we know Brawn GP will win ini GP Catalunya 2009 and it happen this day. Great start from Brawn GP Barichello leading the race follow by button and vettel. While all eyes were on Massa's KERS-shod car at the start, it was actually Barrichello who made the best getaway, sweeping around the outside of Button into Turn 1 as Massa squeezed past Vettel to take third.
GP Catalunya 1st lap some accident happen STR ferarri crash, safety car out and still brawn GP in 1st and 2nd. Further back, Jarno Trulli jinked to avoid Nico Rosberg in the first complex and ended up running wide into the gravel and spinning back across the circuit. The Toyota speared into Adrian Sutil's Force India, with the two Toro Rossos violently tangling in the background as Sebastien Buemi slowed in avoidance and was collected by team-mate Sebastien Bourdais.

This led to a four-lap safety car period, after which Barrichello and Button pulled away from Massa, Vettel and Webber in unison through the opening stint.
Although Button was the lighter car this stage, at the stops he took on a very large fuel load, while Barrichello stuck to a three-stop plan.
That meant the Brazilian rejoined with a clear lead - but now had to mount a charge to pull out enough of an advantage over his team-mate.
Barrichello proceeded to lap 0.7-1.1s quicker than Button, but the 12-lap run to his second stop was not sufficient, and he rejoined 8s behind.
There was another chance to try and strike back during the final pit sequence, when Button would be first to go onto the slower hard compound tyres. However Button had managed to pull 12s clear of Barrichello, who in any case stopped only two laps later.
Massa and Vettel pitted in unison at both their stops, and on each occasion Ferrari managed to stay ahead of the Red Bull. Having run close behind Button for most of the race, they lost touch with the Brawns - and get jumped by the late-stopping Webber - thanks to making relatively early final stops and then having to spend a long time on the hard tyres.
The Brawns and Webber were able to lap 2s quicker as they continued on softs, leaving Massa and Vettel a distant fourth and fifth.
Vettel finally made it ahead of Massa with four laps to go as the Ferrari had to back off and save fuel, too little having been delivered at its final stop. He eventually fell back to sixth.
Fernando Alonso (Renault) did well to take a quiet fifth given his light fuel load, passing the slowing Massa on the last lap. He had been involved in a wild battle with Webber at the restart that saw the Renault squeeze past the Red Bull using its KERS advantage, only for Webber to dive back ahead under braking at Turn 1.
BMW's Nick Heidfeld used a long middle stint to beat Williams's Nico Rosberg to seventh. The second BMW of Robert Kubica was only 11th after losing ground on lap one.
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) dropped to last avoiding the first corner crash, then made good progress in the middle of the race before severe tyre wear saw him fall off the pace. He eventually beat Timo Glock to ninth, the Toyota never recovering from falling into the midfield thanks to an earlier first stop than most.
Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen's poor weekends failed to improve in the race. Both gained several places amid the first lap chaos until for their cars to crawl into retirement early in the race.

World Championship standings, round 5:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Button 41 1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 68
2. Barrichello 27 2. Red Bull-Renault 38.5
3. Vettel 23 3. Toyota 26.5
4. Webber 15.5 4. McLaren-Mercedes 13
5. Trulli 14.5 5. Renault 9
6. Glock 12 6. BMW Sauber 6
7. Alonso 9 7. Ferrari 6
8. Hamilton 9 8. Williams-Toyota 4.5
9. Heidfeld 6 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
10. Rosberg 4.5
11. Kovalainen 4
12. Massa 3
13. Buemi 3
14. Raikkonen 3
15. Bourdais 1
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Jenson Button beat Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix with a stunning late lap.
The championship leader had appeared to be struggling to match his Brawn team-mate Barrichello's pace for most of the build-up, and fell as low as eighth as others completed their final runs in Q3.
But Button crossed the line to start his last lap just as the chequered flag fell, and proceeded to snatch pole away from Vettel (Red Bull) by 0.133 seconds.

Barrichello briefly held provisional pole before Button and Vettel improved, leaving the Brazilian third.
Felipe Massa showed Ferrari's best form of the year to take fourth after being fastest in morning practice and Q1.
That made up for his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's disastrous session. The Finn had a poor first Q1 lap - 0.8s slower than team-mate Massa's session-topping effort - but still felt safe enough not to go for a second run. That proved complacent, for he was then pushed down to 16th and out of qualifying.
Mark Webber put the second Red Bull fifth on the grid, with late gains from Toyota's Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli pushing home crowd favourite down Fernando Alonso down to eighth for Renault.
Friday pace-setter Nico Rosberg was correct in his prediction that he would not challenge for pole. The Williams driver was only ninth, ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica.
Nelson Piquet had his best qualifying performance of the year and was on course for a top ten start until the final seconds of Q2, when other drivers' improvements edged the Renault drivers back to 12th, between Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Nick Heidfeld's repaired BMW Sauber.
McLaren fell back after its promising Bahrain weekend. Lewis Hamilton could only manage 14th, while Heikki Kovalainen fared worse still and was only quick enough for 18th position.
Sebastien Buemi again outperformed his Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastien Bourdais as they took 15th and 17th on the grid, and the Force Indias remained on the back row, Adrian Sutil half a second quicker than Giancarlo Fisichella this time.
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:20.707 1:20.192 1:20.527
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.715 1:20.220 1:20.660
3. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:20.808 1:19.954 1:20.762
4. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:20.484 1:20.149 1:20.934
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.689 1:20.007 1:21.049
6. Glock Toyota (B) 1:20.877 1:20.107 1:21.247
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:21.189 1:20.420 1:21.254
8. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.186 1:20.509 1:21.392
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.745 1:20.256 1:22.558
10. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:20.931 1:20.408 1:22.685
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.818 1:20.531
12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:21.128 1:20.604
13. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:21.095 1:20.676
14. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:20.991 1:20.805
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:21.033 1:21.067
16. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.291
17. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:21.300
18. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.675
19. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:21.742
20. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:22.204
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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."
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These drawings illustrate the position of the two holes (bottom left drawing - highlighted in bright yellow) in the underbody of the Brawn, in the vertical section where the reference and step planes meet. These boost the efficiency of the rear diffuser, but also need careful gearbox and suspension...
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Ross Brawn thinks it inevitable that Ferrari and McLaren will recover from their disastrous start to the campaign and soon start putting his dominant team under pressure.
Jenson Button has taken victory in the first two races of the year for Brawn GP, with last year's title front-runners McLaren and Ferrari having scored just one point between them.
And although people are hailing a 'new world order' in F1 this year, Brawn is convinced that the current formbook is not indicative of how things will pan out for the rest of the season.

Instead, he believes that what is happening at the moment is simply the result of those teams who switched development onto their 2009 cars early having a head start on those that kept pushing with their 2008 machines until the end of the year.
"It is a reflection on what has gone on in the last year or two," said Brawn. "With such a big change in regulations, McLaren and Ferrari had a championship to fight and I can understand that it was very difficult for them to say, 'look we'll stop pushing this year and put our effort into next year'.
"For us it wasn't even a clever decision, it was a very easy one - we didn't have a very good car so why waste time on it? For them it was a much more difficult decision, but they are both very strong and fantastic engineering companies, so they will sort it out.
"I think they are just paying the price for winning the championship last year. Because normally you develop a car and, if you are fighting for the championship, that same car goes forward into the next championship, so you don't lose things.
"Everything they did last year for the championship was in the bin after the last race, so it was gone. We now have slick tyres and new aerodynamics, so everything they did at the end of last year they could virtually throw away."
Although Brawn is delighted by what his team has delivered in the first phase of the season, he admits the start to the year has been ‘difficult' off track – with the outfit needing to make 270 redundancies.
"It's a very unfortunate process," he explained. "Obviously it has been going on while I have been away so I have not been involved first hand in the process, but it is just very difficult.
"Especially with everyone at the factory having produced such a good car, to say to people 'We can't give you a future anymore' is very difficult. But we had over 700 people and that's not viable for us to continue at that level.
"We have treated everyone with respect and we have done everything that we can to give them a good chance of a future. We have all of our employees on the same terms and conditions as they would have got if Honda had closed the company.
"They were fairly reasonable, and certainly above statutory, but they deserved it. They have done a great job, it is just a shame that we can't justify keeping so many people.
"So it is a very difficult period. Just now try to look forward and put that side behind us and try and build the company for the future. I think in reality if we had kept 700 people we wouldn't have been around very long, it just was impossible."
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World championship leader Jenson Button has played down Brawn GP's chances of winning in Malaysia this weekend - saying Ferrari is the team to beat at Sepang.

Alhough his Brawn GP outfit was dominant in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and rivals have said he and Rubens Barrichello are untouchable, Button reckons the competitive picture has already changed at the second race of the season.

With Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa leading the way in Friday practice, Button believes his team is no longer favourite – especially as it does not have a KERS system

"I think we have got a lot more competition this weekend," said Button, who won from pole position in Melbourne.

"We are not there with the balance yet. I have a lot of areas to work on, where I am not happy. That is a good thing because I don't think our pace is as good as we would have hoped.

"I think if you look at the cars and their long runs, you can see the Ferrari is very quick and you can see the Red Bull is quick. Especially, the Ferraris are a lot quicker than I expected, so they are very competitive. I am not sure if we can do the same times as them, so we have to wait and see."

He added: "At the moment we are not in a position that I am happy with, with the car. I think Rubens is the same. There are areas where we really need to improve to be at the front, and you might think it sounds crazy or that I am trying to talk us down – but I think Ferrari is the team to beat if you look at the times at the moment. And that is not just over one lap; it is over the long runs.

"So if they are running a reasonably normal fuel load, which I think they probably are, they are very quick. They are going to be the cars that we have to beat."

Button is especially wary of Ferrari because it is one of the few teams running KERS – which will provide an advantage on Sepang's long straights and at the start.

"You cannot compete with KERS cars on the straights here," said Button. "I was behind [Fernando] Alonso here in practice and he was annihilating me on the straights. So they are gaining a lot on the straights, probably more than they have let on in previous tests and what have you. But that is an area where they are going to be strong.

"So even if I do qualify in front of them, it is going to be difficult to keep them behind. It is tough when you are racing against KERS cars, and when KERS cars are your main competitors, it is going to be very difficult."

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