2009 Malaysian Grand Prix – Button Takes Pole as Rain Stays Away…
Apr 4th, 2009 by Haas
Jenson Button produced another immaculate performance to seize pole position for the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix. The Briton looked like he would not be able to repeat his Australian pole, with Ferrari, Reb Bull, Toyota and Williams looking very strong in earlier practice sessions. But Brawn GP topped the time sheets when it mattered most and took top honors.
Q1
First session of qualification saw times tumbling as driver after driver took the coverted P1. It was clear that the soft tyre was the choice of all the teams for qualification. With the threat of rain looming, most runners did early runs to get times on the card before the rain came. But the rain was never meant to disrupt qualification and in the squabble Fillepe Massa lost out majorly not choosing to do a final run and watching himself drop into elimination.
Nelson Piquet once again failed to outperform his team mate, even when Fernando Alonso was suffering an ear infection and clearly not at his best. The Force India cars will join the Renault driver at the back of the grid, along with Buemi. The latter failed to do a proper final run costing him entry into Q2
Eliminated cars:
16. Felipe Massa 1′35.642
17. Nelson Piquet Jnr 1′35.708
18. Giancarlo Fisichella 1′35.908
19. Adrian Sutil 1′35.951
20. Sebastien Buemi 1′36.107
Q2
The second session showed the clear poweress of the Brawn cars as Button topped the time sheets, producing the fastest lap of the weekend. The session also saw the McLaren cars fail to match the top times. The two silver arrow cars separated by just 0.019s, indicating that Hiekki has clearly upped his game since last season.
Nick Heidfeld could not match his team mate and finished the session 11th thanks mostly to a spirited Fernando Alonso putting in an impressive lap to push the Renault to Q3. Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Bourdais were the other cars eliminated in this round
Eliminated Cars:
11. Nick Heidfeld 1′34.769
12. Kazuki Nakajima 1′34.788
13. Lewis Hamilton 1′34.905
14. Heikki Kovalainen 1′34.924
15. Sebastien Bourdais 1′35.431
Q3
With the Renault looking clearly out of sorts, Fernando Alonso elected to run just a single lap. The Renault ended the session 10th looking like it was carrying a fair amount of fuel. The Spaniard clearly will be hoping for some rain tomorrow.
Trulli looked strong making two runs with his soft tyres and taking P1 by just 0.004s. But it was Button who took his second consecutive pole in style at the end of the session. Vettel and Barichello followed the top two, the duo will start 13th and 9th after their penalties. Glock, Rosberg, Kubica, Webber and Raikonnen benefiting mostly from the duo’s penalties will start two places higher than their qualifying position.
1. Jenson Button 1′35.181
2. Jarno Trulli 1′35.273
3. Sebastian Vettel 1′35.518
4. Rubens Barrichello 1′35.651
5. Timo Glock 1′35.690
6. Nico Rosberg 1′35.750
7. Mark Webber 1′35.797
8. Robert Kubica 1′36.106
9. Kimi Raikkonen 1′36.170
10. Fernando Alonso 1′37.659
