Sebastian Vettel delivered Red Bull Racing its first Formula 1 pole position with a brilliant last-gasp lap in China, as Jenson Button and Brawn GP’s early stranglehold on the 2009 season was shattered in qualifying.
Completing a new-look order at the head of the field was, totally unexpectedly, Fernando Alonso – Renault’s fortunes seemingly transformed by the introduction of an interim diffuser from Saturday morning’s final practice onwards.
Mark Webber completed RBR’s best ever qualifying session by claiming third in the second RB5 having held provisional pole going into the dying seconds. Auto Racing Daily
The German’s sole flying lap of Q3 - a 1m 36.184s - was enough to take the honours from team mate Mark Webber, whose 1m 36.466s had kept him ahead of championship leader Jenson Button who had taken his Brawn round in 1m 36.532s.
In the dying moments of Q3, however, Fernando Alonso pushed his Renault between the two Red Bulls with 1m 36.381s, as Rubens Barrichello pushed Brawn team mate Button down to fifth with 1m 36.493s.
Now we await the fuel weights to figure out who really was fast and who, if anyone, was just grandstanding. Formula 1
Pos Driver Team 1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 2 Fernando Alonso Renault 3 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 4 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 5 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 6 Jarno Trulli Toyota 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 8 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 9 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 10 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 11 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 12 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 13 Felipe Massa Ferrari 14 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 15 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 16 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 17 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 18 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 19 Timo Glock Toyota* 20 Giancarlo Fisichella McLaren-Mercedes
* five-place penalty for gearbox change
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