Jenson Button Terminates Competition in Friday Practice One

Today was dubbed "the most important day yet of the 2009 season."  As Friday practice opened the European stint of the season.  Most of the teams tested heavily revised aerodynamic packages for the first time, and with no out of race track testing allowed this season it will be time to see how reliable those computer predictions were!

Brawn, enter the weekend clear leaders, but apprehensive and praying their BGP001 alterations will keep them at the front. 

As Ross Brawn stated "The team had to make a tremendous effort simply to have two cars on the grid for the first race in Melbourne,” Whilst this worried me in some ways (as I’m not sure whether the team has the financial momentum to keep up).  In other ways I can see the determination and passion of Brawn being enough to carry it to the end.

This belief was enforced by Ross’s further comments when he said “Whilst we have been away racing over the past few weeks, the factory has been working extremely hard on our upgrade package for the BGP 001 and we look forward to seeing the results of our development work on track in Barcelona this weekend."

Jenson Button was cautiously optimistic when he spoke to the press.  He stated that, “although the team only completed four days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in March this year, I know the track inside out and it feels very familiar to be heading back there for the start of the European season this weekend…I visited the factory last week to join the team for a small celebration of our successes to date and catch up on the progress with our latest developments. We know that we have a real fight on our hands from here to maintain our lead in the championships but I am confident that we are well prepared for the challenges ahead."

However, whilst today will be very important, topping the time sheets will not necessarily mean much as most teams concentrate on perfecting their modifications rather than headline grabbing poles.  The Brawns were advertising Christian Bale’s upcoming movie….but could Rubens or Jens terminate the rest of the pack on Friday morning? 

Friday Practice, 8 May 2009

Practice One: 10:00am - 11:30am, local time (09:00am - 10:30am, British time) 

The Brawn drivers were amongst the last to put in their first sighter laps ten minutes into the session.  Then followed the period in which the teams fiddle with and tweak the cars to prepare them for the proper testing to follow.  

With an hour remaining the teams started to re-surface.  The first time of the session was set by Bourdais, who put in a time of 1:29:551.  At this stage we saw pictures of a relaxed Rubens having a chat with the team. 

Was Brawn’s relaxed style for show or justified?  The Toyotas then began to put in strong times and blitzed past the first time set by a Torro Rosso.

Rubens eventually put in a time with 44 minutes remaining.  He put in a 1:26:742, which saw him seventeenth.  Jenson was out, but didn’t complete his lap and returned to the pits (Jenson was now the only driver not to set a time).

On a non-Brawn related point, it took him 84 minutes but the Friday specialist (Rosberg) finally put in a pole position time of 1:23:122 (unfortunately for Niko, Friday morning was not as successful as it has been.  What is the story at Williams!?) 

Rubens managed to make his way up the grid a little on his second run, when a time of 1:24:397 put him in P13.  As for Jens, well, with 41 minutes left, he put in his first time. 

The Championship leader clocked in a time of 1:24:478 (P17).  With about 40 minutes left then, Rubens was P16 and Jenson P17.  Fear not Brawn fanatics, this wasn’t bad news.  The Brawns simply hadn’t completed many laps at this stage.

Sure enough, with Jenson’s next effort, he was elevated to P4 with a time of 1:23:312. It was at this stage that we began to hear reports of the changes on the BGP001.  For the Spanish GP the car has a new front wing and significantly, new side-pods which will really help the car with its cooling. 

Soon after hearing this news Rubens was up to P2 (1:23:035).  So good stuff was now being produced from the Brawn boys who began to put in positive times; (Jenson P3 with 1:23:023 and Rubens with a faster time of 1:22:859, which kept him second).

With just over half an hour to go Jens was in P4 and Rubens P2.  Before returning to the pits for a while, Jenson put in a low fuel run (with six laps worth of fuel).  The British ace stormed around Spain for three laps and lifted himself to P1 with a great time of 1:22:626. 

Both Brawn cars then went back to the pits to evaluate their performances and prepare for heavy fuel testing.

With 17 minutes left Jenson re-joined the session (probably carrying a fair bit of fuel).  He was quick, but couldn’t beat his pole time.  The track was getting better by the second as more rubber was laid down. 

With 12 minutes left Trulli stuck his Toyota on top with a 1:22:552.  Toyota had been playing with tyre set up throughout the session and were looking good on the hard compound with a relatively heavy car. 

Jenson put in a faster time but remained second overall.  Rubens seemed to be rather quiet towards the end of the session, but with just a few seconds remaining, it was Jenson who stole the morning. 

He fitted the soft tyres and smashed out a time of 1:21:799 (the only driver to be in the 1:21s).  And so Jenson finished the first morning session of what is arguably the new season on top.  Great stuff!

1 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes         1:21.799

2 Jarno Trulli          Toyota                         1:22.154

3 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber                 1:22.221

4 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber               1:22.658

5 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota               1:22.659

6 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota               1:22.667

7 Nelsinho Piquet   Renault                        1:22.753

8 Timo Glock            Toyota                        1:22.828

9 Felipe Massa    Ferrari                        1:22.855

10 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes        1:22.859

11 Kimi Räikkönen    Ferrari                        1:22.873

12 Mark Webber   RBR-Renault               1:22.934

13 Sebastian Vettel   RBR-Renault               1:22.959

14 Lewis Hamilton   McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.077

15 Sebastien Bourdais   STR-Ferrari               1:23.088

16 Giancarlo Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes      1:23.089

17 Fernando Alonso     Renault                         1:23.157

18 Sebastien Buemi     STR-Ferrari               1:23.185

19 Heikki Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.522

20 Adrian Sutil            Force India-Mercedes        1:23.536