2009 Australian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Australian Grand Prix
Track: Albert Park Circuit

Weather: dry, warm, sunny

Jenson BUTTON won his 2nd F1 World Championship race at the 2009 Australian F1 GP, the fairytale start to the Brawn GP season after Ross Brawn had bought Honda F1 for a symbolic £1 during the 2008-2009 winter and turned it into F1s pre-season pace-setter. The Brawn GP driver started from pole and won at Albert Park by 0.807 seconds from teammate Rubens Barrichello for a Brawn GP 1-2 on the teams F1 debut. It was Brawn GPs 1st F1 win.

Brawn GP debut, pole and front-row lockout

Melbourne on 29 March 2009 opened the season with an F1 revolution. Honda had withdrawn from F1 in December 2008, and Ross Brawn bought the team for a token £1, keeping most of the staff. The BGP001 car featured a controversial "double diffuser" and was pace-setting from the opening test. Jenson Button took pole with a 1:26.202 lap for Brawn GP, Rubens Barrichello second for a Brawn GP front-row lockout. Vettel third for Red Bull, Kubica fourth for BMW Sauber. Ferrari and McLaren, unable to legally introduce the double diffuser mid-season, were nowhere.

Race day: Button leads all 58 laps, Brawn GP 1-2 on debut

Jenson Button led every one of the 58 laps at Albert Park in a lights-to-flag victory. Barrichello second at 0.807 seconds for a Brawn GP 1-2, one of the greatest debut days in F1 history. Trulli third for Toyota (originally 4th after Hamiltons disqualification). Hamilton was excluded post-race for misleading the stewards during the race. Glock fourth for Toyota (later fifth after DSQs), Alonso fifth for Renault, Rosberg sixth for Williams. Rosberg set the fastest lap on lap 48 with a 1:27.706.

Championship: Button 10, Barrichello 8

Brawn GP led both championships after one race. The 2009 season would prove to be a Brawn GP fairytale.

Classification 2009 Australian F1 GP

Pos	#	Driver	Team	Time	Laps	Grid	Pts
1	22	Jenson Button	Brawn	1:34:15.784	58	1	10
2	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn	1:34:16.591	58	2	8
3	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:34:17.388	58	20	6
4	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:34:20.219	58	19	5
5	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:34:20.663	58	10	4
6	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams	1:34:21.506	58	5	3
7	12	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	1:34:21.788	58	13	2
8	11	Sébastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso	1:34:22.082	58	17	1
9	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India	1:34:22.119	58	16	0
10	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:34:22.869	58	9	0
11	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India	1:34:23.158	58	15	0
12	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+1 lap	57	8	0
13	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Collision	56	3	0
14	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	Collision	55	4	0
15	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	Differential	55	7	0
DNF	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Suspension	45	6	0
DNF	8	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Renault	Spun off	24	14	0
DNF	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams	Accident	17	11	0
DNF	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren	Collision	0	12	0
DSQ	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	Disqualified	58	18	0

Fastest lap: 1:27.706 min. by Nico Rosberg

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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