Sao Paulo, Interlagos

16-18 October 2009

Lap Distance 4.309 Km

Race 71 Laps 305.909 Km

Mark Webber scored his second Formula One victory for Red Bull at Interlagos this afternoon but the bigger prize today went to Brawn GP and Jenson Button with Button taking the World Drivers title with a hard fought 5th place finish and Brawn the Constructors title. The race started in dramatic fashion with carnage on the first lap after a clash between Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso with all eliminated. Alonso was an innocent party being hit by Sutil's out of control Force India after the impact with Trulli. There was more drama in the pitlane as Kovalainen left his pit box with the fuel line still attached spraying fuel over the following Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen which spectacularly ignited, engulfing the Ferrari in a ball of flame that fortunately immediately burnt itself out. The on track incident resulted in a safety car deployment after which Rubens Barrichello led away as he had done from the starting grid with Mark Webber in second place. Barrichello looked strong at the front until after his first pit stop after which he seemed to struggle, losing the lead to the hard charging Webber who held on to the flag. Barrichello struggled later in the race pitting from P3 in the closing stages with a suspected puncture. It was too late for him to recover the lost ground and he had to settle for a disappointing 8th place at what is definitely his bogey track. The ill fortune suffered by his team mate played into the hands of a hard charging Jenson Button who had made some impressive passes on Nakajima and Kobayashi, the latter who put up a big fight. Button was a solid performer throughout the race and finished 5th at the flag having done enough to take the drivers title. Robert Kubica drove a great race to take second place for BMW Sauber making up for a blunder for team mate Nick Heidfeld who ran out of fuel out on track. Another great drive by Lewis Hamilton saw him jump from 18th on the grid to score a podium place for 3rd after benefitting from a swap to a one stop strategy early on. Sebastian Vettel recovered well from his disastrous qualifying result to finish 4th with Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top six for Ferrari. Sebastian Buemi did a great job to score 2 points for Toro Rosso in 7th with the luckless Barrichello grabbing the last point for 8th. Heikki Kovalainen and Kobayashi closed out the top ten. So Button fulfilled his dream with one race to spare as the teams move on to Abu Dhabi for the season finale.

Fernando Alonso ended the first day of free practice for the Brazilian GrandPrix after a dry, wet, dry first session topped by the Red Bull of Mark Webber. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi led the way for most of the second session but was pipped at the end by Alonso. Rubens Barrichello was third fastest at his home circuit with Mark Webber fourth. Championship leader Jenson Button was next up in fifth with Jarno Trulli rounding out the top six fastest in the final session. Sebastian Vettel clinging to a slim chance of snatching the title was seventh with Nico Rosberg eighth, Adrian Sutil ninth and Lewis Hamilton rounding out the top ten.

In a dramatic rain delayed on-off qualifying session it was Rubens Barrichello that delivered the goods big time in front of his delighted partisan fans. Barrichello drove flawlessly and timed it to perfection as he guided his Brawn car to pole position on a wet but drying track that he knows like the back of his hand. The same cannot be said for his wannabe World Champion team mate Jenson Button who struggled with the handling of his car and decidedly missed his opportunity to switch to intermediate tyres resulting in him splashing out in Q2 with a lowly 14th place on the grid. Mark Webber was second fastest and will join Barrichello on the front row. Webber's team mate Sebastian Vettel faired even worse than Button losing out in Q1 on a soaking wet track and finishing 16th fastest. Force India's Adrian Sutil secured a second row place on the grid with 3rd fastest time in stark contrast to his old team mate Giancarlo Fisichella who spun out in the rain finishing 20th and last in Q1. Jarno Trulli was 4th for Toyota with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Buemi rounding out the top six. In a rapidly changing last few minutes Nico Rosberg dropped down into 7th ahead of Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber and Kazuki Nakajima's Williams. Fernando Alonso closed out the top ten. Another big name splashing out early on was Lewis Hamilton way down in 18th place. Team mate Heikki Kovalainen was marginally better, but only just in 17th place on the grid. So it's all to do for Jenson Button and all set for local hero Rubens Barrichello, who just needs his luck to change at his home race and who knows the title may beckon after all.

01 M Webber
1m 12.463s
02 R Barrichello
1m 12.874s
03 S Vettel
1m 12.932s
04 H Kovalainen
1m 12.989s
05 L Hamilton
1m 12.048s
06 K Nakajima
1m 13.067s
07 N Rosberg
1m 13.147s
08 J Button
1m 13.141s
09 A Sutil
1m 13.232s
10 K Raikkonen
1m 13.321s
11 J Trulli
1m 13.326s
12 N Heidfeld
1m 13.464s
13 S Buemi
1m 13.503s
14 R Kubica
1m 13.563s
15  G Fisichella
1m 13.619s
16 F Alonso
1m 13.787s
17 V Liuzzi
1m 13.829s
18 K Kobayashi
1m 14.029s
19 J Alguersuari
1m 14.04s
20 R Grosjean
1m 14.173s
 

01 R Barrichello
1m 19.576s
02 M Webber
1m 19.668s
03 A Sutil
1m 19.912s
04 J Trulli
1m 20.097s
05 K Raikkonen
1m 20.168s
06 S Buemi
1m 20.25s
07 N Rosberg
1m 20.326s
08 R Kubica
1m 20.631s
09 K Nakajima
1m 20.674s
10 F Alonso
1m 21.422s

Eliminated Q2
11 K Kobayashi
1m 21.96s
12 J Alguersuari
1m 22.231s
13 R Grosjean
1m 22.477s
14 J Button
1m 22.504s
15  V Liuzzi
1m 24.645s

Eliminated Q1
16 S Vettel
1m 25.009s
17 H Kovalainen
1m 25.052s
18 L Hamilton
1m 25.192s
19 N Heidfeld
1m 25.515s
20 G Fisichella
1m 40.703s
 

01 F Alonso
1m 12.314s
02 S Buemi
1m 12.357s
03 R Barrichello
1m 12.459s
04 M Webber
1m 12.514s
05 J Button
1m 12.523s
06 J Trulli
1m 12.605s
07 S Vettel
1m 12.611s
08 N Rosberg
1m 12.633s
09 A Sutil
1m 12.72s
10 L Hamilton
1m 12.749s
11 R Grosjean
1m 12.806s
12 R Kubica
1m 12.862s
13 K Kobayashi
1m 12.869s
14 K Nakajima
1m 12.929s
15  N Heidfeld
1m 12.948s
16 V Liuzzi
1m 12.95s
17 H Kovalainen
1m 12.992s
18 K Raikkonen
1m 13.026s
19 J Alguersuari
1m 13.041s
20 G Fisichella
1m 13.275s
 

01 N Rosberg
1m 23.182s
02 K Nakajima
1m 23.832s
03 J Button
1m 24.122s
04 F Alonso
1m 24.125s
05 A Sutil
1m 24.149s
06 R Grosjean
1m 24.389s
07 S Buemi
1m 24.443s
08 J Trulli
1m 24.859s
09 N Heidfeld
1m 24.867s
10 M Webber
1m 25.44s
11K Raikkonen
1m 25.508s
12H Kovalainen
1m 25.685s
13J Alguersuari
1m 26.224s
14R Barrichello
1m 26.53s
15S Vettel
1m 27.047s
16V Liuzzi
1m 27.341s
17L Hamilton
1m 27.798s
18G Fisichella
1m 29.285s
19R Kubica
1m 29.895s
20K Kobayashi
1m 30.259s
 

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01  M Webber
02  R Kubica
03  L Hamilton
04  S Vettel
05  J Button
06  K Raikkonen
07  S Buemi
08  R Barrichello
09  H Kovalainen
10  K Kobayashi
11  G Fisichella
12  V Liuzzi
13  R Grosjean
14  J Alguersuari

Retired
L1 A Sutil
L1 J Trulli
L1 F Alonso
L21 N Heidfeld
L27 N Rosberg
L31 K Nakajima

Fastest Lap
M Webber
1m 13.733s L25