Jenson Button has continued to set the early-season pace by taking pole position for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
The Englishman clocked a time of one minute 35.181 seconds around the 5.543-km track in his Brawn GP to qualify ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli.
Button, who won the season-opener in Melbourne after also taking pole, said he owed the performance to improvements made to his car overnight following Friday’s practice sessions.
“Yesterday I was really struggling with the balance of the car. I had a lot of rear locking and instability, and when I have that it’s not my forte really because I find it difficult to drive it around,” he said.
“So we changed it around overnight and it’s improved it a lot and I feel very comfortable in the car, so it makes it exciting for tomorrow.”
Jarno Trulli says he aims to take the fight to Jenson Button and Brawn GP in the Malaysian Grand Prix after putting his ‘perfect’ Toyota on the outside front row spot.
Following his chaotic and controversial Melbourne weekend, Trulli is keen to show what he can really do at Sepang.
“I hope to do a good race and have a good fight, because this is what we are looking for,” he said.
“It will be a nice race, hopefully, the car is pretty good.”
“I didn’t expect to be here because yesterday I was struggling with what was probably the track, but I really wasn’t comfortable,” said Trulli.
Jarno Trulli will line up alongside Button on the front row of the grid after finishing second with a lap of 1min 35.273sec in the closing seconds.
Timo Glock recorded only the fifth best time in final qualifying but will be third on the grid in his Toyota as a result of penalties handed out to Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who earned pole here last year, was eliminated in the first session of qualifying and will start 16th.
The penalties for Vettel and Barrichello promoted Toyota’s Timo Glock to third—his best starting position for a grand prix—with Williams’ Nico Rosberg moving up to fourth.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber will begin in the fifth spot, sharing the third row with BMW’s Robert Kubica. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who won here last year, will begin seventh, ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso.
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