Jenson Button recorded his finest pole position with an impressive final lap in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The championship leader had appeared to be struggling to match his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello in terms of outright pace for most of the weekend, but come Q3, Button was able to recover with a dramatic last-gasp lap that netted the Briton his third pole position this season.
With only a few seconds to spare, Button crossed the start/finish line to begin his last lap just as the chequered flag fell, and proceeded to snatch top spot away from Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel by 0.133 seconds.
As for Barrichello, the Brazilian initially held provisional pole before his Brawn GP team-mate and Red Bull rival improved, leaving him in third.
Thanks to the new aero updates on the Ferrari in particular the double diffuser, Felipe Massa was able to demonstrate better form with a fine fourth place. Massa even set the fastest time in the final practice session leading up to qualifying.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said to his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn had a disastrous session no thanks to a poor first lap in Q1, which was 0.8 seconds slower than his team-mate.
To witness the Scuderia making the same mistake again by not opting for a second run to improve lap times, in a bid to save tyres for the race, Kimi and Ferrari suffered the consequence of being knocked out as others improved… The ‘Iceman’ will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix down in a disappointing P16.
Fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen also got caught out in Q1 complaining of a lack of balance in the McLaren. Heikki will start the race in a frustrating P18.
As for his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the world champion was unable to maintain that good performance in Bahrain and will line up P14 on the grid. The new aero kit didn’t improve the speed in the MP4-24.
Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber will start fifth ahead of the Toyota pair of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli – sixth and seventh respectively.
Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso could only manage eighth for Renault with Friday’s pace-setter Nico Rosberg ninth for Williams and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.
Nelson Piquet Jr had his best qualifying performance of the season and was on course for a top ten start until the final seconds of Q2, when other drivers’ improvements edged the Renault driver back down to P12, in-between the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima and Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber.
Formula One rookie Sebastian Buemi again outperformed his Toro Rosso team-mate Sebastian Bourdais as they took P15 and P17 on the grid, while the Force Indias remained on the back row, Adrian Sutil half a second quicker than Giancarlo Fisichella this time round.
Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix could be fascinating. Not only will Jenson Button be seeking for another victory to extend his championship lead. But hopefully the new 2009-spec rules will make the race more interesting in terms of offering the chance for overtaking on this difficult circuit. The possibility of light rain might play into the hands of Sebastian Vettel or even wet-weather specialist Rubens Barrichello. Let’s find out on race day whether Button can continue the Brawn supremacy in Formula One.
Qualifying times from the Circuit de Catalunya:
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:20.527
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:20.660
3. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:20.762
4. Massa Ferrari 1:20.934
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:21.049
6. Glock Toyota 1:21.247
7. Trulli Toyota 1:21.254
8. Alonso Renault 1:21.392
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:22.558
10. Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:22.685
11. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:20.531
12. Piquet Renault 1:20.604
13. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:20.676
14. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.805
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.067
16. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:21.291
17. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.300
18. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.675
19. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:21.742
20. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 1:22.204
The top three views taken from Autosport.com.
Jenson Button said he did not expect to secure pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix after an stunning late effort put him on top of the times.
The Brawn driver left it very late in the session to score his third pole in five races, and the fifth of his Formula 1 career.
Button left the pits with just enough time to complete his out lap, crossing the finish line to start his last run with just two seconds left.
The Briton admitted his team had got lucky.
“It could have gone very, very wrong,” said Button. “We timed it quite well but I had Kubica who I thought was on an out lap and I had to let him past.
“The guys said you had four seconds less than a proper lap time to get across the line in time. I got across the line just with a couple of seconds to spare – it was more luck than judgement.
“It was the best lap of my weekend. I had been having some trouble with this guy low fuel but I got the lap on the high fuel.
“I am very happy and it is a bit of a surprise in a way, when I heard Shov’s voice on the radio it felt pretty good.”
Button conceded it is likely to be a very close fight for victory tomorrow, with Sebastian Vettel having finished just over a tenth behind.
“I am not sure it is an amazing advantage being on pole by half a tenth,” he said. “This package is a step forward. We still need to work with it a bit more, we haven’t got the maximum out of it, hope we haven’t anyway, but everyone at Brackley should he happy with what we’ve done.
“Over the weekend we tried lots of things and were happy with the direction. I am happy with performance.
“I don’t know what lap Seb is stopping on, but it will be a nice feeling to be back here. The last two races I wasn’t near the press conference. It’s a good position to start from tomorrow. The Ferrari was surprisingly quick in Q2 and they have KERS.
“I am excited and didn’t think I would be in this position.”
Sebastian Vettel was happy with his performance in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, despite just missing out on pole position.
The Red Bull Racing driver was beaten by Brawn rival Jenson Button, who put on superb last-gasp effort to emerge on top just when it looked pole belonged to Vettel.
The German said second place was great nonetheless.
“We have a very strong car and also this weekend it seems to work pretty well, so I am pleased with that,” said Vettel. “In the first run in Q2 I felt pretty comfortable. I thought that lap time was good but not good enough to beat Jenson.
“I wished to have the pole, but at the last minute he took it away. Second position is great.
“We had a good recovery from yesterday where we were struggling. We fixed it and from this morning we did another adjustment of car which seemed to work.
“We only needed one run in Q1 on the hard tyre and one run in Q2 with soft tyre. So a great job and compliments to the whole crew because some of the parts arrived at the last minute.”
Vettel admitted he was surprised to be Button emerge on top, after the Briton had been slower in the first two sectors of his lap.
“I was very, very happy with the car in Q2,” he said. “It was a great effort from Jenson, he is doing a great job and deserves to be there, it came as a surprise.
“I had a good lap. It may have been a bit early on the track and that is the only missed opportunity. The lap was good, well within the limits. We have a good car for the race.
“I am still fighting, Jenson is really doing well this minute and I just have to try harder to try and get him.”
Rubens Barrichello admitted that he was surprised to see his Brawn team-mate Jenson Button snatch pole for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Barrichello had looked like the faster of the two Brawn drivers until the final seconds of qualifying at Catalunya, when Button jumped from a provisional eighth on the grid to first place with an astounding last-gasp run.
“I was very, very happy with the car in Q2, and it came to me as a surprise,” said Barrichello of Button’s pole run.
“It was a great effort from Jenson, he is doing a great job and deserves to be there.”
The Brazilian was the first of the main contenders to complete his final flying lap, and suspected that Button’s ultra-late effort – the championship leader crossing the line just two seconds before the chequered flag fell – played into his hands.
“I had a good lap, I may have been a bit early on the track and that is the only missed opportunity,” Barrichello said.
“The lap was good, well within the limits.”
He remains confident that he can take the fight to Button in tomorrow’s grand prix.
“We have a good car for the race,” he said. “I am still fighting. Jenson is really doing well at this minute and I just have to try harder to try and get him.”
What about the two champions, Hamilton and Raikkonen? Lets find out, courtesy of Autosport.com.
Lewis Hamilton is aiming for a point in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix after his worst qualifying performance since the season-opening race in Australia.
The defending world champion could only put his McLaren 14th on the grid at Barcelona – missing out on a space in Q3 by over four tenths of a second.
But afterwards he was philosophical and declared his intention to add to the nine points he currently has in the championship standings.
“At least it’s not last,” the British driver told BBC TV. “It’s a long race for everyone and a lot can happen during 60-something laps here. If we can get a point, then that would be great.”
Hamilton, who does not believe McLaren’s updates to the MP4-24 since the Bahrain Grand Prix have made a difference to its overall pace, said that he could not have qualified any higher up the field, despite going seventh quickest in the morning practice session.
“I guess it’s a bit of a disappointing qualifying session for us, but we did the best we could,” he added.
“It [the lap] was actually very close to getting to Q3, although I don’t think my tyres were in the best shape for the beginning of the lap. We’d hoped to have been a bit higher up certainly.”
Hamilton’s Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen fared even worse, keeping up his record of not qualified in the top 10 all season. He will start the race 18th – ahead only of the two Force Indias.
Kovalainen said that he had been “blocked a little bit” by one of the BMW Saubers on his final flying lap of Q1, but does not believe the time lost would have made any difference to his inability to progress to the next segment of qualifying.
“It was only in some slow corners, so I didn’t lose that much [time],” Kovalainen said. “It was not the deciding factor today.
“There was just not enough pace. It [the car] is just lacking grip. I didn’t have the confidence to push any harder. The balance otherwise is not so bad, but the biggest problem is not to have the grip – we just didn’t find that extra bit today.”
Kimi Raikkonen is confident that Ferrari is now closing on the frontrunners, despite the misjudgement that left him mired in 16th on the Spanish Grand Prix grid.
The former world champion – who won at Catalunya last year – had a poor first lap in Q1 and then decided against a second run, believing that even his disappointing initial time would be sufficient to reach Q2.
But instead he was pushed back to 16th and eliminated from the session.
“I thought that we were going to get through,” Raikkonen said. “It was maybe a bit tight on the time, but we didn’t want to waste laps.
“But we didn’t get through. It was a silly mistake because the car was much better here than before. But that’s how it goes.”
He said it had been partly his own decision not to go out again.
“I wasn’t keen to go. I knew that the lap wasn’t very good but I that maybe we should get through still,” said Raikkonen. “In the end it doesn’t matter whose mistake it was, it was just a silly mistake and we paid the price for it.
“In the morning we were much faster. I just didn’t get a very good lap. If I’d done a better lap we wouldn’t be in this situation, but it’s too late now.
“(The media) can blame me if they want, I don’t mind. It’s a mistake and we can’t take it away. We’ll just try to do the best job we can tomorrow and try not to do the same at the next race.”
Raikkonen explained that his main frustration was that he had not been able to show how much the Ferrari had improved since Bahrain.
“I’m more disappointed because the car is much stronger here than before and we would have had a good chance to fight for a good position,” he said. “But we’ll try to do the best we can.
“Of course here it’s not very easy to overtake so it all depends on what happens at the start and how the first few laps go. We’ll do what we can and hopefully we can still score some points.”
With his team-mate Felipe Massa fourth on the grid, Raikkonen believes it is only a matter of time before Ferrari is fighting for victory again.
“We are still a bit behind, I would say, but it’s much stronger than it was before,” he said.
“It’s more or less what we expected, but other people have also gone forward. It’s only the first step, so we can get some more for the next races. After that, for sure we can catch them up even if it takes a little while.
“If we just look at what happened today, for sure the car now has the potential to score much better results and we’re going in the right direction.
“So we still have a little way to go to catch up to the front guys, but we can catch them and definitely challenge them.
“I don’t know if we can tomorrow or not, but in the later races we can definitely fight for wins, podiums and good positions.”
Scintillating session !
For the first time this season we’ll have a KERS equipped car on the second row…….. A golden opportunity for Massa to snatch the lead at the first turn – he seem OK on pace, too; not the quickest but quick enough . With Barcelona being notoriously difficult to pass , now particularly so with his KERS , is he a good bet for snatching an unlikely win ?