Melbourne, Albert Park

27-29 March 2009

Lap Distance 5.303 Km

Race 58 Laps 307.574 Km

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello made it a dream start for the new Brawn GP team by scoring a 1-2 finish in a dramatic Australian GP. The race finished with the safety car pulling in on the last lap after a collision between 2nd and 3rd placed Vettel and Kubica. Both crashed as a result but were classified 14th and 15th. Jarno Trulli and Lewis Hamilton benefited taking 3rd (see revision at bottom) and 4th. Timo Glock and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 6. The race started with Button streaking into the lead but Barrichello's car faltered on the line dropping him to 7th. There was contact in the first corner involving Barrichello, Webber and Heidfeld the latter 2 pitting for repairs. Button established a good lead despite pressure from Vettel with Massa and Kubica 3rd and 4th. Drama came on lap 18 as Nakajima hit the wall in the Williams bringing out the safety car. Button and Barrichello pitted with Rubens having a new nose cone fitted. the order at this point was Button, Vettel, Massa, Kubica, Piquet, Fisichella. As the safery car pulled in Piquet spun out at the first corner with brake problems. Lap 43 saw Raikkonen spin and hit the wall, then to compound the Ferrari woes Massa retired on Lap 46. Button retained his lead after a slow second pit stop but Vettel was right on his tail with Kubica closing fast on prime tyres. This was a great battle and in the closing stages inevitably the pair clashed as Kubica tried to pass. Nico Rosberg finished 7th after a strong performance, falling back at the end as his tyres went off. A great debut from Sebastian Buemi with 8th place ahead of Sebastien Bourdais and Adrian Sutil who were the other top ten finishers. Finally a word on Lewis Hamilton who did well to finish 4th after starting from last on the grid. Hamilton was third but there was an issue with Trulli under the safety car, this could potentially be investigated by the stewards.

Revision - It was confirmed post race that Trulli was given a 25 second penalty by the race stewards for passing under the safety car, dropping him to 12th place, and that Vettel received a 10 place grid penalty for the Malaysian GP following the collision with Kubica, along with a $50,000 dollar fine for driving a damaged car.
Revision 2 - Further FIA review concluded that Hamilton and McLaren had provided misleading information to the Stewards and as a result the Team and Driver were disqualified and excluded from the results.

Nico Rosberg kicked off the 2009 season in fine form at Melbourne today. The German driver was fastest in both sessions with team mate Kazuki Nakajima 2nd in P1 and 7th in P2 to the delight of the Williams team. The Brawn GP cars of Barrichello and Button also performed well, underwriting their fine form in pre season testing, ending the final session in 2nd and 5th places respectively. Rumour has it that tomorrow will see Virgin announced as a team sponsor. Toyota drivers Trulli and Glock also shone in Oz ending the final session 3rd and 6th fastest. Mark Webber completed the top 6 mix by setting 4th fastest time in the Red Bull. Elsewhere the problems abounded with notably McLaren and BMW struggling badly, and Ferrari not faring much better. Hamilton and Kovalainen ended the final session 18th and 17th, Heidfeld and Kubica 14th and 15th and Massa and Raikkonen 10th and 11th. The drivers looked to be struggling to handle the new cars with lots of minor off track excursions but no hard contact. Vettel had a fraught day with hydraulic woes in session one and spinning out after 1 hour in session 2. Another factor affecting the handling today was the low track temperatures resulting from the sessions being run later in the day than normal, this is also likely to impact qualifying and the race to some extent. Join us again tomorrow for Practice 3 and Qualifying.

Brawn GP has rocked the establishment to its core in Melbourne today, with Jenson Button taking a superb pole position and Rubens Barrichello locking out the front row for the team in 2nd place just a whisker behind. Barrichello set the fastest time overall in Q2 with a 1m 24.783s, needless to say Button was second fastest overall with a 1m 24.855s lap, no other driver could get in to the 1m 24's. Sebastian Vettel secured 3rd place on the grid with Robert Kubica 4th, Nico Rosberg 5th and Timo Glock 6th. The Ferraris of Massa and Raikkonen made it into the final shoot out, but were unable to match the pace of the front runners ending 7th and 9th fastest. Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber were the other top ten finishers in 8th and 10th places. Fernando Alonso was eliminated in Q2 narrowly missing out on the shoot out and finishing in 12 place. McLaren struggled badly with Hamilton and Kovalainen making it to Q2, but then disaster struck for Hamilton as his car lost drive to the gearbox and he had to sit out the whole of the Q2 session, Kovalainen could only manage 14th. Hamilton will start the race from 15th, however if his car needs a gearbox change he will be penalised further. So all in all a fascinating start to the season and all set for an intriguing race tommorrow.

01 N Rosberg
1m 26.687s
02 K Nakajima
1m 26.736s
03 K Raikkonen
1m 26.750s
04 R Barrichello
1m 27.226s
05 H Kovalainen
1m 27.453s
06 J Button
1m 27.467s
07 F Massa
1m 27.642s
08 T Glock
1m 27.710s
09 A Sutil
1m 27.993s
10 F Alonso
1m 28.123s
11 N Heidfeld
1m 28.137s
12 J Trulli
1m 28.142s
13 R Kubica
1m 28.511s
14 G Fisichella
1m 28.603s
15  S Buemi
1m 28.785s
16 L Hamilton
1m 29.042s
17 M Webber
1m 29.081s
18 N Piquet
1m 29.461s
19 S Bourdais
1m 29.499s
20 S Vettel
1m 32.784s
 

01 J Button
1m 26.202s
02 R Barrichello
1m 26.505s
03 S Vettel
1m 26.830s
04 R Kubica
1m 26.914s
05 N Rosberg
1m 26.973s
06 T Glock
1m 26.975s
07 F Massa
1m 27.003s
08 J Trulli
1m 27.127s
09 K Raikkonen
1m 27.163s
10 M Webber
1m 27.246s

Eliminated Q2
11 N Heidfeld
1m 25.504s
12 F Alonso
1m 25.605s
13 K Nakajima
1m 25.607s
14 H Kovalainen
1m 25.726s
15  L Hamilton
1m No Times

Eliminated Q1
16 S Buemi
1m 26.503s
17 N Piquet
1m 26.598s
18 G Fisichella
1m 26.677s
19 A Sutil
1m 26.742s
20 S Bourdais
1m 26.964s
 

01 N Rosberg
1m 26.053s
02 R Barrichello
1m 26.157s
03 J Trulli
1m 26.350s
04 M Webber
1m 26.370s
05 J Button
1m 26.374s
06 T Glock
1m 26.443s
07 K Nakajima
1m 26.560s
08 S Vettel
1m 26.740s
09 A Sutil
1m 27.040s
10 F Massa
1m 27.064s
11 K Raikkonen
1m 27.204s
12 F Alonso
1m 27.232s
13 G Fisichella
1m 27.282s
14 N Heidfeld
1m 27.317s
15  R Kubica
1m 27.398s
16 S Bourdais
1m 27.479s
17 H Kovalainen
1m 27.802s
18 L Hamilton
1m 27.813s
19 N Piquet
1m 27.828s
20 S Buemi
1m 28.076s
 

01 N Rosberg
1m 25.808s
02 J Trulli
1m 25.811s
03 J Button
1m 25.981s
04 F Massa
1m 26.020s
05 K Nakajima
1m 26.078s
06 R Barrichello
1m 26.348s
07 M Webber
1m 26.355s
08 T Glock
1m 26.410s
09 R Kubica
1m 26.514s
10 N Heidfeld
1m 26.555s
11 H Kovalainen
1m 26.652s
12 L Hamilton
1m 26.714s
13 S Vettel
1m 27.009s
14 A Sutil
1m 27.062s
15  S Bourdais
1m 27.152s
16 S Buemi
1m 27.192s
17 F Alonso
1m 27.357s
18 G Fisichella
1m 27.492s
19 N Piquet
1m 27.739s
20 K Raikkonen
1m 28.801s
 

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01 J Button
02 R Barrichello
03 J Trulli
04 T Glock
05 F Alonso
06 N Rosberg
07 S Buemi
08 S Bourdais
09 A Sutil
10 N Heidfeld
11 G Fisichella
12 M Webber
13 S Vettel
14 R Kubica
15 K Raikkonen

Retired
L01 H Kovalainen
L18 K Nakajima
L25 N Piquet
L46 F Massa

Disqualified
L Hamilton

Fastest Lap
N Rosberg
1m 27.706s L46