2009 Chinese Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of China 2009 was held on 19 April at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai and was the third race of the Formula 1 2009 season.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
After the Malaysian Grand Prix Jenson Button led the Drivers' Championship with 5 points ahead of Rubens Barrichello and 6.5 points ahead of Jarno Trulli. Brawn -Mercedes resulted in the constructors' championship with 8.5 points ahead of Toyota with 21 points, ahead of Renault.
Ferrari and Renault did without KERS.
With Barrichello (2004), Fernando Alonso ( 2005), Lewis Hamilton (2008) and Raikkonen ( 2007) ( once each ) were four former winners of this Grand Prix.
Training
In the first free practice world champion Lewis Hamilton scored his first pole of the season. In second and third place followed by the Brawn drivers Button and Barrichello. In the second practice session on Friday to Button secured the fastest time ahead of Nico Rosberg and Barrichello. In the third free practice session Rosberg achieved the fastest lap in front of Jarno Trulli and Hamilton.
Qualifying
In the first qualifying section Button scored the fastest lap ahead of his teammate Rubens Barrichello. The Force India drivers, Kubica, Piquet and Bourdais dropped out. In the second segment, the Red Bull drivers were dominant and Sebastian Vettel posted the fastest lap ahead of Mark Webber. Nakajima, Glock, Massa, Kovalainen and Heidfeld dropped out. In the final qualifying section Vettel secured the second pole position of his career ahead of Fernando Alonso and Webber.
Race
The race was started due to heavy rain and wet track accordingly behind the safety car by 15 clock CNST. In the safety car phase, some drivers went to their box because they did not have enough fuel on board. At the end of the safety car period, after the end of the eighth round, there was a different from the starting line-up double leadership of the Red Bull cars because Alonso had lost by his pit stop in second place.
After the flying start, Hamilton moved to Kimi Raikkonen, who was temporarily off the track, past and overtook two laps later Trulli. The Red Bull drivers led the race to confidently and were followed by the Brawn drivers. After initially Barrichello had the third place, he had to hand off the track to his teammate this position after a trip. As previously Hamilton also overtook Sebastien Buemi Raikkonen and Trulli. A little later also attracted Massa past the two. In the back part of the field there was a collision between Heidfeld and Glock, but both were able to continue. After Hamilton had made a mistake, he fell behind Raikkonen and there were several changes of position between the two.
After Vettel and Webber had completed their first pit stop, there was a Brawn - double lead with a button at the top. However, the two Brawn drivers were not able to exploit the advantage of their heavy cars as the safety car came on track again after a collision of Trulli and Kubica. During the safety car phase use some pilots, including Button and Barrichello, the opportunity and did a pit stop. For Massa, who had advanced to third place, the race was stopped after 21 laps due to a technical defect.
In the middle of the race, Vettel was able to extend his lead ahead of Button. Button was overtaken within four rounds twice by Webber, who thus reached a double lead for Red Bull. The two Red Bull drivers could defend these two lead after the second pit stops against the Brawn drivers Button and Barrichello.
Force India driver Adrian Sutil had worked its way during the race up to seventh place and therefore had a good chance of scoring points. However, he lost without any external control of his car and retired. Sutil was uninjured. Although parts were on the track, the safety car did not come this time on the track. Finally, Vettel won the race ahead of his team-mate Webber and cared so for the first Red Bull win, who was also a double victory. Third place went to Button, who was able to hold out until the end of the race ahead of his team mate Barrichello. The other points were awarded to Kovalainen, Hamilton, Glock and Buemi.
At the award ceremony, there was a faux pas of those responsible, as instead of the Austrian national anthem for Red Bull Racing came the British.
Button increased his lead in the drivers' championship ahead of his teammate Barrichello further. Vettel improved to third place.
With Sebastian Vettel for the sixth time in a row won another driver.
Message list
Classifications
Qualifying
(K ) = race car with KERS
1 Timo Glock was set back due to a gearbox change to five places from 14 to 19.
Race
(K ) = race car with KERS
WM stands after the race
The first eight of the race were 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point (s).