World Champion Jenson Button Tops the Final Practice Session of 2009

After a promising show yesterday in practices one and two, it was really lovely to see Jenson sticking himself up there to top the last practice sheets of his Championship year.

However, McLaren were strong throughout all three sessions and Lewis would almost certainly have beaten Jenson if he had had a couple more laps at the end to bring his tyres up to a decent temperature.

Raikkonen opened the proceedings and was followed out by various drivers to complete their sighter laps. Jens and Rubens were both out within about five minutes of the session's start.

The first time of the day was set by Fisichella (1:48:028), but he was quickly toppled by Raikkonen.

Rubens’s first time of 1:47:437 put him in P15 of 15 with about 38 minutes left. Both Brawns were out on the super soft tyres to get a good race balance. This might suggest that Brawn GP are going to go aggressively this weekend and try to use the softies for two stints on Sunday.

Jenson’s first time of 1:45:377 put him P15 of 17, whilst Rubens improved and got himself up to P9.

Jenson stole Rubens’s P9 on his second run before climbing to P1 with a 1:42:397. The current Champion didn’t stay on top for long though as his predecessor soon knocked him back down to P2.

With just under 30 minutes left, Jenson was P4, Rubens, P14 and Hamilton was still P1 on a 1:41:270.

Jens got back up to P2 with a pretty quick time but he was losing out in the middle sector to Hamilton’s KERS.

Rubens was lapping around P11 at this time and I think he was going for heavy runs. With 15 minutes left, Jens had fallen to P11 and Rubens was now P14.

I thought they were going to stay around these positions but with literally two minutes left Jenson got up to P7 and then P1 with a 1:40:625. Rubens, too, was going very quickly and after getting to P4 he was looking as if he would pip his team mate right at the end. He pushed hard but finished up in P3 just behind Hamilton.

When Brawn GP were asked if Jenson was driving better because the pressure was off, the team answered that that reason could explain 50 percent of their speed. The other 50 percent comes from a car really liking the circuit.

Whilst this is probably encouragingly true, I think the McLarens may well run away with it this weekend; but Jenson and Rubens will sure give em hell!

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps

1 22 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:40.625 21

2 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.627 0.002 18

3 23 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:40.907 0.282 20

4 12 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:40.934 0.309 22

5 6 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:41.241 0.616 18

6 2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.263 0.638 20

7 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:41.310 0.685 23

8 5 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:41.322 0.697 20

9 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:41.372 0.747 22

10 4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:41.373 0.748 23

11 15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:41.403 0.778 19

12 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:41.478 0.853 22

13 10 Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 1:41.499 0.874 24

14 21 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:41.675 1.050 20

15 14 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:41.682 1.057 15

16 7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:41.897 1.272 19

17 17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:42.156 1.531 21

18 8 Romain Grosjean Renault 1:42.213 1.588 19

19 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 1:42.351 1.726 23

20 11 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari No time 0