2009 Chinese Grand Prix

2009 Chinese Grand Prix
Previous←	2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
Round	3 of 2009
Next→	2009 Bahrain Grand Prix
The Shanghai International Circuit.
Race Details
Date	19 April, 2009
Race Number	806
Official Name	2009 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix 2009年中国大奖赛 2009 Zhōngguó dàjiǎng sài
Location	Shanghai International Circuit Jiading, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.451 km (3.387 mi)
Distance	56 laps, 305.256 km (189.677 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:36.184
Fastest Lap
Driver	Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes
Time	1:52.592 on lap 42
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel
Second	Mark Webber
Third	Jenson Button
Lap Leaders
No race-code specified

The 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, formally known as the 2009 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix (alternately the 2009年中国大奖赛 or 2009 Zhōngguó dàjiǎng sài in Chinense), was the third round of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, staged at the Shanghai International Circuit near Shanghai, China, on 19 April 2009. The race would be significant as the first race victory for Red Bull as a constructor, as Sebastian Vettel led teammate Mark Webber to the chequered flag.

Ahead of the race the FIA dismissed appeals by seven teams against the "double diffuser" designs used by Brawn-Mercedes, Toyota and Williams-Toyota, meaning those three were free to use the solution for the rest of the season. Renault and McLaren-Mercedes duly revealed their first iterations of the design on their cars in China, with Fernando Alonso running it on his car for the first time during qualifying.

The update to Alonso's car worked beautifully, for the Spaniard would claim second on the grid in between the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber. It was Vettel who was the faster of the two, two tenths faster than Alonso to secure Red Bull's maiden pole position, while Championship leader Jenson Button claimed fifth behind his Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello.

Heavy rain on raceday ensured that the race would start behind the Safety Car, with the entire field starting on full wet tyres. The conditions proved so poor that the safety car remained out until lap eight, with Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg and Alonso deciding to make their first stops during the procession.

When the race did get underway Vettel was able to establish a small lead, leaving teammate Webber to fend off the early attentions of the two white Brawns. Indeed, once the Australian escaped their attentions Button would make a move on Barrichello for third, as behind Lewis Hamilton climbed up to fifth, before spinning all on his own and dropping back to tenth.

Webber was the first of the lead group to stop on lap fourteen, with Vettel following him in a lap later to leave Button and Barrichello at the head of the field. The two Brawns would lead until the safety car appeared for a second time, caused by a collision between Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica.

As the SC signs were deployed Vettel almost found himself out of the race, for in avoiding a limping Trulli the German youth received a whack from Sébastien Buemi. Miraculously, however, it was the Swiss racer who received front wing damage and was forced to pit, while Vettel managed to continue and retook the lead ahead of a rejoining Button.

Vettel duly escaped at the restart, while Button tried to go with him, before a mistake at the hairpin saw the #22 Brawn run wide and gift second to Webber. With that the two Red Bulls were away, and would only lose the lead to the Brawns again when they made their second stops on lap 37 and 39.

Once Button and Barrichello stopped the race was effectively over, with the only action in the closing stages seeing Hamilton slip down the field with a series of errors, while Adrian Sutil crashed heavily at turn five. There was some surprise that Sutil's accident did not trigger a safety car, as an errant wheel from the Force India bounced right across the track in front of Nick Heidfeld, who immediately dropped behind Timo Glock and Buemi when trying to avoid it.

Out front, meanwhile, Vettel cruised through the final laps to claim victory, with teammate Webber ensuring that there were two maiden wins for constructors in the opening three rounds of 2009. Behind, Button claimed a lonely third ahead of Barrichello, with Heikki Kovalainen, Hamilton, Glock and Buemi claiming the remaining points.

Background

Jenson Button extended his Championship lead as a result of the Malaysian Grand Prix, leaving Sepang with fifteen points to his name and two race wins. Rubens Barrichello had likewise retained second on ten points, while Jarno Trulli was third and the first driver with half a point, leaving Malaysia on 8.5 points. Timo Glock was half a point behind in fourth, while Nick Heidfeld had moved into fifth.

In the Constructors Championship Brawn-Mercedes had retained their advantage at the head of the pack, leaving Malaysia on 25 points. Toyota had remained in second, 8.5 points behind, while BMW Sauber had leapt into third on four points. Elsewhere, McLaren-Mercedes were on the board with a single point, while Force India-Mercedes and Ferrari were the only constructors yet to score.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
1	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-24	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
2	Heikki Kovalainen	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-24	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
3	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F60	Ferrari	056 2009 2.4 V8	B
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari	F60	Ferrari	056 2009 2.4 V8	B
5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber	F1.09	BMW	P86/9 2.4 V8	B
6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber F1 Team	BMW Sauber	F1.09	BMW	P86/9 2.4 V8	B
7	Fernando Alonso	ING Renault F1 Team	Renault	R29	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
8	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	ING Renault F1 Team	Renault	R29	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
9	Jarno Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota	TF109	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
10	Timo Glock	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota	TF109	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
11	Sébastien Bourdais	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR4	Ferrari	056 2008 2.4 V8	B
12	Sébastien Buemi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR4	Ferrari	056 2008 2.4 V8	B
14	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB5	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB5	Renault	RS27 2.4 V8	B
16	Nico Rosberg	AT&T Williams	Williams	FW31	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
17	Kazuki Nakajima	AT&T Williams	Williams	FW31	Toyota	RVX-09 2.4 V8	B
20	Adrian Sutil	Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM02	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM02	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
22	Jenson Button	Brawn GP F1 Team	Brawn	BGP 001	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn GP F1 Team	Brawn	BGP 001	Mercedes	FO 108W 2.4 V8	B
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault		13	1:36.565		1	1:35.130		1	1:36.184	1
2	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault		11	1:36.443		7	1:35.803		2	1:36.381	2
3	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault		3	1:35.751		2	1:35.173		3	1:36.466	3
4	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes		2	1:35.701		3	1:35.503		4	1:36.493	4
5	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes		1	1:35.533		4	1:35.556		5	1:36.532	5
6	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota		9	1:36.308		5	1:35.645		6	1:36.835	6
7	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota		5	1:35.941		8	1:35.809		7	1:37.397	7
8	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari		6	1:36.137		9	1:35.856		8	1:38.089	8
9	1K	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes		4	1:35.776		6	1:35.740		9	1:38.595	9
10	12	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		8	1:36.284		10	1:35.965		10	1:39.321	10
11	6K	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber		12	1:36.525		11	1:35.975				11
12	2K	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes		14	1:36.646		12	1:36.032				12
13	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari		7	1:36.178		13	1:36.033				13
14*	10	Timo Glock	Toyota		10	1:36.364		14	1:36.066				19
15	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota		15	1:36.673		15	1:36.193				14
16	11	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		16	1:36.906							15
17	8	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	Renault		17	1:36.908							16
18	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber		18	1:36.966							17
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes		19	1:37.669							18
20	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes		20	1:37.672							19
Source:

• ^K Indicates a driver was equipped with KERS during the session.
• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Glock was awarded a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox.

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Sebastian Vettel	2
	______________	Fernando Alonso
Row 2	3	______________
	Mark Webber	4
	______________	Rubens Barrichello
Row 3	5	______________
	Jenson Button	6
	______________	Jarno Trulli
Row 4	7	______________
	Nico Rosberg	8
	______________	Kimi Räikkönen
Row 5	9	______________
	Lewis Hamilton	10
	______________	Sébastien Buemi
Row 6	11	______________
	Nick Heidfeld	12
	______________	Heikki Kovalainen
Row 7	13	______________
	Felipe Massa	14
	______________	Kazuki Nakajima
Row 8	15	______________
	Sébastien Bourdais	16
	______________	Nelson Piquet, Jr.
Row 9	17	______________
	Robert Kubica*	18
	______________	Adrian Sutil
Row 10	19	______________
	Timo Glock*	20
	______________	Giancarlo Fisichella

• * Kubica and Glock would start the race from the pitlane.

Race

Report

On the podium, there was confusion when "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem was played for winning constructor Red Bull instead of "Land der Berge, Land am Strome", the Austrian national anthem. Red Bull Racing is based in the UK, but is registered with the Austrian national racing authority, reflecting its Austrian ownership. When Vettel recorded Red Bull's second win at the 2009 British Grand Prix, the Austrian anthem was played.

Results

The full results for the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	1:57:43.485	1	10
2	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	56	+10.970s	3	8
3	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	56	+44.975s	5	6
4	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	56	+1:03.704	4	5
5	2K	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+1:05.102	12	4
6	1K	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+1:11.866	9	3
7	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	56	+1:14.476	19	2
8	12	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	+1:16.439	10	1
9	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	56	+1:24.309	2
10	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	56	+1:31.750	8
11	11	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	+1:34.156	15
12	6K	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	56	+1:35.834	11
13	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	56	+1:46.853	17
14	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	55	+1 Lap	20
15	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	55	+1 Lap	7
16	8	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	Renault	54	+2 Laps	16
17*	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	50	Accident	18
Ret	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	43	Transmission	14
Ret	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	20	Electrical	13
Ret	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	18	Damage	6
Source:

• ^K Indicates a driver was equipped with KERS during the session.
• * Sutil was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

• Sebastian Vettel secured the first pole position for Red Bull as a constructor.
  • Also the twentieth pole for a car using #15 as its race number.
• Second career victory for Vettel.
• Red Bull claimed their first victory as a constructor.
  • This was also Red Bull's maiden one-two finish.
  • 116th win for Renault as an engine supplier.

Standings

Jenson Button retained his lead in the Championship after the third round of the season, leaving China with a six point advantage. Rubens Barrichello had likewise retained second, moving onto fifteen points, while Sebastian Vettel had rocketed up to third with his victory. Timo Glock had remained in fourth ahead of Mark Webber, with thirteen drivers on the board after three races.

In the Constructors Championship Brawn-Mercedes remained at the head of the field, and had ensured that they had a fair advantage of sixteen and a half point. Red Bull-Renault, meanwhile, had been the big winners in China as they shot into second on 19.5 points, with Toyota one of a handful of teams to make way for the Austro-Anglo-French combination. McLaren-Mercedes had also moved up the field into fourth, while Ferrari and Force India-Mercedes had once again failed to score.

World Championship for Drivers Pos. Driver Pts. +/- 1 Jenson Button 21 — 2 Rubens Barrichello 15 — 3 Sebastian Vettel 10 ▲12 4 Timo Glock 10 — 5 Mark Webber 9.5 ▲4 6 Jarno Trulli 8.5 ▼3 7 Nick Heidfeld 4 ▼2 8 Fernando Alonso 4 ▼2 9 Heikki Kovalainen 4 ▲11 10 Lewis Hamilton 4 — 11 Nico Rosberg 3.5 ▼4 12 Sébastien Buemi 3 ▼4 13 Sébastien Bourdais 1 ▼2

World Championship for Constructors Pos. Team Pts. +/- 1 Brawn-Mercedes 36 — 2 Red Bull-Renault 19.5 ▲5 3 Toyota 18.5 ▼1 4 McLaren-Mercedes 8 ▲4 5 BMW Sauber 4 ▼2 6 Renault 4 ▼2 7 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4 ▼1 8 Williams-Toyota 3.5 ▼3

Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.

References

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