2009 Brazilian Grand Prix

8th March 2023 bounty100 0 Comments

. Report

Background

Local favourite Felipe Massa won the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton picked up the World Championship for McLaren by overtaking Timo Glock on the last corner of the race for 5th. Massa also won the race in 2006, and was runner-up to team-mate Kimi Rikknen in 2007 as the Finn took the World Championship. The World title has been won at Interlagos for the previous 4 years, with Hamilton, Rikknen and Fernando Alonso (twice) taking the title. Alonso has never won the Brazilian GP, however, with Juan Pablo Montoya and Massa winning the 2005 and 2006 races respectively. Another former Brazilian Grand Prix winner lining up was Giancarlo Fisichella, who won in 2003.

The race has a history of home success, with Massa, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet Sr, Carlos Pace and Emerson Fittipaldi winning. Rubens Barrichello aimed for his first win at Interlagos, hoping to improve on his previous best placing of 3rd in 2004. Massa had targeted a return after injuries sustained in an accident in qualifying in the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, but this was not possible. Massa instead was given the honour of waving the chequered flag at the end of the race.

Championship leader Jenson Button needed to finish within four points of team-mate Barrichello to seal the 2009 drivers’ title. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel needed to finish first or second in order to stay in the running for the title fight. In the constructors’ standings, Brawn GP required just half a point to be declared champions, while Red Bull Racing needed to finish first and second in both Brazil and Abu Dhabi with Brawn not scoring in either round to take the title for themselves.

GP2 driver and Toyota test driver Kamui Kobayashi replaced Toyota’s Timo Glock after tests revealed that he had cracked a vertabrae in his qualifying accident at the previous race at Suzuka.

Qualifying

Qualifying was dominated by a tropical storm that would interrupt the session for over an hour, and made the session last 2 hours and 41 minutes, the longest qualifying session in the history of F1.. The first session saw the elimination of both McLaren cars and championship contender Sebastian Vettel; Nick Heidfeld joined them as the fifth and final car eliminated. The rains set in after the first session, delaying qualifying until the circuit could be declared safe. Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets with a lap time of 1:22.828.

When the weather had cleared and the cars eventually re-emerged, Rosberg would once again come out on top. The session was almost immediately red-flagged with Vitantonio Liuzzi crashing heavily at the first corner. Unable to set a time, he was subsequently eliminated. Q2 also saw the elimination of championship leader Jenson Button down in fourteenth and behind Jaime Alguersuari, Kamui Kobayashi and Romain Grosjean, the three least-experienced drivers in the field.

For the first time since the knockout qualifying system was introduced, the third and final ten-minute session was contested by drivers from nine of the ten teams, the only exclusion being McLaren, with both Hamilton and Kovalainen having been knocked out in the first session; Williams were the only team to field two cars in the final session. Jenson Button’s closest championship rival and team-mate Rubens Barrichello took pole on a drying circuit with a 1:19.576, but the release of the post-qualifying car weights revealed him to be the lightest car on the grid.

Race

The opening lap was dominated by three separate incidents. Heikki Kovalainen made contact with Sebastian Vettel coming out of the Senna ‘S’, and while Vettel emerged unscathed, Kovalainen ran out of road and very nearly collected Fisichella, who was forced to go the long way around. The second incident took place just two corners later when Jarno Trulli tangled with Adrian Sutil while trying to make a pass coming out of the fifth corner. Both the Toyota and the Force India were eliminated, with Sutil taking out Fernando Alonso in the process when the Renault driver was unable to avoid his out-of-control Force India, an incident which caused the deployment of the safety car. The third and final incident took place in the pit lane; after his encounter with Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen pitted, followed closely by Kimi Raikkonen, the latter having damaged his front wing after light contact with Mark Webber. Kovalainen was released from his pit while the fuel hose was still attached, taking it with him and with it, a spray of fuel. Raikkonen’s exhaust ignited the spilt fuel in a fireball, but no one was injured and both drivers were able to continue once Brawn mechanics extricated the McLaren fuel hose from Kovalainen’s car.

Pole-sitter Barrichello controlled the first phase of the race, though Mark Webber and Robert Kubica stayed in touch, just two and a half seconds adrift. Aided by the first-lap incidents and the safety, Button was placed ninth at the end of the first lap. He proceeded to take Grosjean around the outside at Turn 6 and then Nakajima at the first corner once green-flag conditions resumed, before being held up by debutant Kamui Kobayashi. He was heard on the team radio voicing his displeasure at the newcomer’s tactics in defending his line. When he finally cleared the Toyota driver, Button was able to build a lead of three and a half seconds on him in a single lap.

Barrichello was unable to sustain the pace needed to maintain his lead over Webber, and in the first round of pit stops, the home town driver was passed by the Australian before coming under fire from Robert Kubica. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton having started seventeenth had pitted on the first lap and removed the softer tyre compound as his team switched him to a one-stop strategy. Other incidents early in the race saw Nick Heidfeld run out of fuel after his fuel-rig malfunctioned, whilst Kobayashi’s blocking tactics removed fellow countryman Kazuki Nakajima’s front wing, and the Williams driver crashed heavily at the fourth corner. His team mate Nico Rosberg had succumbed to gearbox troubles a few laps earlier.

The second stage of the race saw Button leading a group of four one-stopping drivers, with their ultimate success or failures having consequences on the championship standings given Barrichello’s position. Both Hamilton and then Vettel successfully leap-frogged Button after Button’s second stop and the Briton was caught behind Kovalainen, though a fading Rubens Barrichello was in a position such that had the race ended there and then, Button would still be declared World Champion. Button inherited sixth position when Kovalainen pitted, while Hamilton managed a pass down the inside of Barrichello into the first corner that inadvertently damaged the Brazilian’s tyre, causing a puncture and forcing him to pit. He resumed in eighth, with Vettel’s fourth placing meaning that, barring a dramatic turn in events, Button would be the 2009 World Champion even if he retired.

Mark Webber, who had led unchallenged since the first stops, went on to win the race, with Robert Kubica securing BMW Sauber’s first podium since Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton’s pass on Barrichello was good enough to net him third place and see McLaren overtake Ferrari for third in the constructors’ standings. Sebastian Vettel was fourth when he needed to be first or second to continue the championship fight in Abu Dhabi, while Button’s fifth place from fourteenth on the grid was enough for him to secure the 2009 World Championship, becoming the tenth British champion and the first British champion to succeed another since 1969, when Jackie Stewart succeeded Graham Hill as World Champion. Button used only one chassis over the course of the season (most drivers change chassis several times), having driven it in every practice and qualifying session and race. This means that he won the World Championship in the oldest car on the grid.Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastien Buemi and Rubens Barrichello rounded out the minor points placings.

Felipe Massa was the chequered flag waver in this Grand Prix. The podium trophies were of an unusual three-pronged design and matt-turquoise in colour. They were designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer and were constructed of recycled plastic bottle tops, collected on site over the course of the grand prix weekend, and remoulded at the site’s plastic recycling plant. The initiative is to highlight sponsor Petrobras’ green credentials.

Classification

Qualifying

Cars that use the KERS system are marked with “”

Pos

Driver

Constructor

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Grid

Rubens Barrichello

Brawn-Mercedes

1:24.100

1:21.659

1:19.576

Mark Webber

Red Bull-Renault

1:24.722

1:20.803

1:19.668

Adrian Sutil

Force India-Mercedes

1:24.447

1:20.753

1:19.912

Jarno Trulli

Toyota

1:24.621

1:20.635

1:20.097

Kimi Rikknen

Ferrari

1:23.047

1:21.378

1:20.168

Sbastien Buemi

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

1:24.591

1:20.701

1:20.250

Nico Rosberg

Williams-Toyota

1:22.828

1:20.368

1:20.326

Robert Kubica

BMW Sauber

1:23.072

1:21.147

1:20.631

Kazuki Nakajima

Williams-Toyota

1:23.161

1:20.427

1:20.674

Fernando Alonso

Renault

1:24.842

1:21.657

1:21.422

Kamui Kobayashi

Toyota

1:24.335

1:21.960

Jaime Alguersuari

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

1:24.773

1:22.231

Romain Grosjean

Renault

1:24.394

1:22.477

Jenson Button

Brawn-Mercedes

1:24.297

1:22.504

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Force India-Mercedes

1:24.645

No time

201

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull-Renault

1:25.009

Heikki Kovalainen

McLaren-Mercedes

1:25.052

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren-Mercedes

1:25.192

Nick Heidfeld

BMW Sauber

1:25.515

Giancarlo Fisichella

Ferrari

1:40.703

Source:

1.^ – Vitantonio Liuzzi received a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Race

Cars that use the KERS system are marked with “”

Pos

Driver

Constructor

Laps

Time/Retired

Grid

Points

Mark Webber

Red Bull-Renault

1:32:23.081

Robert Kubica

BMW Sauber

+7.626

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren-Mercedes

+18.944

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull-Renault

+19.652

Jenson Button

Brawn-Mercedes

+29.005

Kimi Rikknen

Ferrari

+33.340

Sbastien Buemi

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

+35.991

Rubens Barrichello

Brawn-Mercedes

+45.454

Kamui Kobayashi

Toyota

+1:03.324

Giancarlo Fisichella

Ferrari

+1:10.665

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Force India-Mercedes

+1:11.388

Heikki Kovalainen

McLaren-Mercedes

+1:13.4991

Romain Grosjean

Renault

+1 Lap

Jaime Alguersuari

Toro Rosso-Ferrari

+1 Lap

Ret

Kazuki Nakajima

Williams-Toyota

Accident

Ret

Nico Rosberg

Williams-Toyota

Gearbox

Ret

Nick Heidfeld

BMW Sauber

Out of Fuel

Ret

Adrian Sutil

Force India-Mercedes

Collision

Ret

Jarno Trulli

Toyota

Collision

Ret

Fernando Alonso

Renault

Collision

Source:

1.^ – Heikki Kovalainen received a 25-second time penalty for an unsafe release from his first pit stop.

This was the second year in a row that a British driver clinched the championship in Brazil by finishing fifth, driving car number 22 for a British team with a Mercedes engine.

Standings after the Race

Drivers’ Championship standings

Pos

Driver

Points

Jenson Button

Sebastian Vettel

Rubens Barrichello

Mark Webber

61.5

Lewis Hamilton

Constructors’ Championship standings

Pos

Constructor

Points

Brawn-Mercedes

161

Red Bull-Renault

135.5

McLaren-Mercedes

Ferrari

Toyota

54.5

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

^ “Brilliant Button clinches title”. BBC Sport. 2009-10-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8313300.stm. Retrieved 2009-10-22.

^ “Brazilian Grand Prix: Jenson Button seals world title with brilliant drive”. Daily Mail. 2009-10-18. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-1221253/Brazilian-Grand-Prix-live-All-action-happens-Interlagos.html. Retrieved 2009-10-22.

^ “Massa given home race honour”. ITV F1 (ITV). 2009-10-08. http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=47131. Retrieved 2009-10-15.

^ Beer, Matt (2009-10-11). “Glock ruled out of Brazilian Grand Prix”. Autosport.com. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79383. Retrieved 2009-10-11.

^ “Qualifying – Barrichello rises to the challenge in Brazil”. Formula1. October 17, 2009. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/10/10106.html.

^ Collins, Sam (2009-10-18). “Brawn BGP-001: record breaker”. Racecar Engineering. http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/cars/427080/f1-jenson-button-s-winning-brawn-chassis-breaks-records.html. Retrieved 2009-10-20.

^ Jonathan Noble (2009-10-19). “Paddock Life: Interlagos edition”. Autosport. Haymarket Publishing. http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/79628. Retrieved 2009-11-22.

^ “2009 Brazilian GP Qualifying Results”. formula1.com (Formula One Association). 2009-10-17. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2009/822/6692/. Retrieved 2009-10-17.

^ “Liuzzi to get gearbox penalty after Q2 crash”. formula1.com (Formula One). 2009-10-17. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/10/10111.html. Retrieved 2009-10-18.

^ “2009 Brazilian GP Race Results”. formula1.com (Formula One Association). 2009-10-18. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2009/822/6693/. Retrieved 2009-10-18.

^ “2009 Brazilian Grand Prix – Document 48”. fia.com (Fdration Internationale de l’Automobile). 2009-10-18. http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_media/Documents/brz09_document_48.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-18.

^ “Formula One Championship Standings”. BBC Sport (BBC). 2009-10-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/standings/default.stm. Retrieved 2009-09-27.

External links

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2009 Brazilian Grand Prix Preview

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