Button on pole in Spain

Brawn take top spot in final lap of qualifying session

By Simon Dilger   Last updated: 10th May 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Button on pole in Spain

Button: sixth career pole

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Jenson Button came from nowhere to snatch pole position for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

The British driver clocked 1min 20.527sec to top the grid ahead of German Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull and Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

As the seconds ran down in the final qualifying session it looked like Barrichello, the oldest driver in F1, had clinched pole with a time of 1min 20.762sec.

But the Brazilian was pipped in successive laps as the session drew to a close, first by Vettel who clocked 1min 20.660 and then by the Englishman.

Button's sixth career pole, and his third this season, is particularly significant at the Circuit de Catalunya, where it is notoriously difficult to overtake.

Disappointing

The last eight winners on the Barcelona track, and 13 of the last 14 overall, have all started on pole.

Felipe Massa was the first of the Ferraris in fourth and Australian Mark Webber was fifth in the other Red Bull.

Jarno Trulli was seventh for Toyota while Spain's two-time world champion Fernando Alonso will start in eighth for Renault.

German Nico Rosberg in a Williams and Poland's Robert Kubica in a BMW took ninth and 10th respectively.

British driver Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing qualifying session in the McClaren and will start the race in 14th place.

Positions: 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 1min 20.527secs 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:20.660 3 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:20.762, 4 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:20.934, 5 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:21.049, 6 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.247, 7 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:21.254, 8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.392, 9 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:22.558, 10 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.685, 11 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 1:20.531, 12 Nelson Piquet Jr (Bra) Renault 1:20.604, 13 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:20.676, 14 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:20.805, 15 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.067, 16 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:21.291, 17 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.300, 18 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 1:21.675, 19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:21.742, 20 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:22.204

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