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Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets on Saturday morning as rain disrupted the penultimate day of this week’s Formula 1 test at Barcelona in Spain.

Although the day started off dry, and Rosberg was able to complete a series of low fuel short runs to set a best time of 1m20.686s on his final effort, everyone’s programme at Barcelona was hit as rain soaked the track shortly before 11am.

Rosberg’s short runs offered the first glimpse of the ultimate pace of his Mercedes GP car, with the team having so far limited its running to longer stints during this week’s preparations.

The 1m20.686s was just a few hundredths slower than Fernando Alonso’s benchmark effort for Ferrari from Friday, when he set a best lap of 1m20.637s during his low fuel runs prior to focusing on a race simulation.

Rosberg switched his programme onto longer runs once it became clear that track conditions would not improve.

All the best times of the morning were set before the rain fell, with second fastest Sebastien Buemi in the Scuderia Toro Rosso laying down his 1m21.413s during morning qualifying simulation work.

Adrian Sutil was third fastest for Force India with a best time of 1m22.951s, ahead of Felipe Massa in the Ferrari and Rubens Barrichello in the Williams – who spun off in the wet at Turn 5 at one point in the tricky damp conditions.

Both Jarno Trulli and Kamui Kobayashi worked their way through race simulation work, despite the damp conditions, while Jenson Button had a frustrating morning – stopping on track on his installation lap with the updated McLaren and then not running when the track was at its best.

Neither Timo Glock nor Sebastian Vettel completed flying laps as the conditions hit their programmes too.

Pos  Driver              Team         Time       Gap        Laps
1.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes     1m20.686s             56
2.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso   1m21.413s  + 0.727s   21
3.  Adrian Sutil        Force India  1m22.951s  + 2.265s   22
4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari      1m23.490s  + 2.804s   37
5.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams     1m23.976s  + 3.290s   40
6.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus        1m25.059s  + 4.373s   61
7.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber       1m26.216s  + 5.530s   77
8.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault      1m26.346s  + 5.660s   23
9.  Jenson Button       McLaren      1m36.667s  + 15.981s  21

Autosport UK

Nico Hulkenberg topped the times for Williams on the second day of this week’s final pre-season Formula 1 test at Barcelona on Friday.

The German toppled local hero Fernando Alonso from the top of the timesheets early in the afternoon during some qualifying simulation work – with a performance that once again shows how hard the formbook is to predict this season.

Hulkenberg had spent the morning on some short runs prior to embarking on a race-type simulation. He completed that without problems – doing 19 laps and then another 27 laps before the lunch break.

In the afternoon, while most other teams focused on race distance simulations, Williams went the other way and embarked on a series of qualifying simulations.

His best time of 1m20.614s was set on the second flying lap of a stint, with rival drivers not able to dislodge him as they focused on race runs for the afternoon.

“We’ve had a good test here,” Hulkenberg said. “P1 today is nice but means nothing, to be honest. We’re not in Bahrain yet! It’s positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do, though.

“We did a lot of set-up work today and have found some interesting things so I feel ready and confident to go to Bahrain now.”

Although Hulkenberg’s effort denied his Ferrari rival the top time as he rounded off his own pre-season preparation, Alonso will have been far from unhappy about how his day went.

The Spaniard, whose opening day efforts had been disrupted by an electrical problem, completed a varied programme with the F10 to leave his team’s rivals in no doubt that Ferrari is in strong shape for the first race in Bahrain.

With Ferrari having brought a raft of aerodynamic updates to the car for this week’s test, including a shark-fin engine cover, Alonso spent this morning working through qualifying simulations.

He steadily improved his pace to set a best effort of 1m20.637s on his final low-fuel run – comfortably quicker than Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber had managed on the opening day of the test when his best was 1m21.487s.

Although differing fuel loads and improved track conditions make it hard to judge a true comparison between the ultimate pace of the two title-favourite cars, Alonso’s performance will have been a big boost for him.

After spending most of the morning working on those low fuel runs, Alonso did a longer stint before lunch – and then rounded off his effort with a race distance simulation in the afternoon.

He completed that without drama – despite a few red flags caused by rival drivers – but his day came to an early end when he stopped on track with just a couple of minutes of the session remaining.

Pedro de la Rosa signed of his build-up to the new season with another solid day for BMW Sauber. Having focused on the low fuel runs in the morning to set his best lap of 1m20.973s, he completed a race type run – getting down in the 1m22s region towards the end of the stint.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was another driver to complete a race distance for Force India in the afternoon, having spent the morning concentrating on low-fuel analysis to set the fourth quickest time.

Sebastian Vettel improved on team-mate Webber’s best time during his first day in action at Barcelona, but the day ended with a mechanical problem while he was undertaking a race simulation in the afternoon.

During morning low-fuel runs Vettel’s best had been 1m21.258s, while in the afternoon he did two stints – one of 29 laps and then another 33 before his car stopped on track. His fastest time during these race simulations was in the 1m23s.

Former world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton had fairly low-key outings as they focused on longer runs throughout the day to end the day seventh and eight overall respectively.

Schumacher got to try out a raft of aerodynamic updates to the W01, but opted against chasing low fuel times over the course of the day – a similar tactic adopted by Hamilton.

Robert Kubica was another driver who never made an impression on the timesheets, as he completed 53 laps for Renault to end the day ninth overall on the timesheets. The team had hoped to complete a race distance in the afternoon but abandoned it due to limited running.

In the battle of the new teams, Jarno Trulli ended the day just ahead of the Virgin Racing car of Timo Glock – despite causing two red flags late in the day.

Although Glock ended the day at the bottom of the timesheets, he and his team will have been happy to have got plenty of mileage under their belts.

The team had lost track time on Thursday after Lucas di Grassi’s accident but, having flown new spare parts in, it resumed running early in the morning to complete a total of 52 laps.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
1.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:20.614   99
2.  Alonso        Ferrari              (B)  1:20.637  134
3.  de la Rosa    BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:20.973  114
4.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:21.056   90
5.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.258  125
6.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.571  104
7.  M.Schumacher  Mercedes GP          (B)  1:21.689   85
8.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:22.152   93
9.  Kubica        Renault              (B)  1:24.912   53
10.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth       (B)  1:25.524   70
11.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth      (B)  1:25.942   52

Source: Autosport UK

Mark Webber produced the star performance on the opening day of this week’s pre-season test at Barcelona on Thursday with the fastest lap overall – and strong long-run times to boot.

The Red Bull Racing driver set his best lap of 1m21.487s during the morning session, when he focused exclusively on short blasts of a few laps that went some way to showing the potential of his RB6 on low fuel.

His best effort, set shortly before 12.30pm, was not matched by any other driver – and in fact he had a further eight laps that would have been good enough for him to head the timesheets.

In the afternoon, Webber completed a long 26-lap run, which showed encouraging consistent improvement throughout the stint, before his car stopped on track and brought out a red flag.

Despite that hiccup, the fact that Webber ended the day just less than one second faster than his nearest rival – on an aerodynamic track that plays to the strengths of his car – will have been a big boost to the team that has seen early testing with its car disrupted by poor weather.

Webber’s nearest challenger was Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg, whose best effort of 1m22.407s came right near the end of the day as he reeled off a sequence of qualifying simulations in the FW32.

That performance edged him ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes GP W01, who had spent most of his day working through long run simulations – apart from a brief flurry of short stints before the lunch break.

Rosberg appeared to be trying a race simulation in the afternoon, getting through 24 laps before a stop for new tyres. However, shortly after he resumed his car came to a stop at Turn 10 – bringing out one of the day’s many red flags.

Pedro de la Rosa continued BMW Sauber’s steady progress in testing to set the fourth best time of the day, putting in his best effort of 1m23.144s late on.

Jenson Button was another driver saving his best until the end, with his best lap of one minute 23.452s coming on the 11th lap of a 14 lap run that came to a end when his car stopped just before Turn 10 – to bring out a red flag that resulted in the day’s proceedings being brought to a halt a few minutes before its scheduled cut off point.

Vitantonio Liuzzi made steady progress in the Force India, which also included him working on pit-stop scenarios with his team, to set the sixth best time, while Fernando Alonso ended the day seventh overall in the Ferrari.

It was a far from perfect day for Alonso, whose F10 stopped on track shortly before 10.25am with a suspected electronic problem, and he did not re-emerge until just before the lunch break. He was only able to complete 22 laps during the morning session.

In the afternoon, Alonso got his lap tally up to 74 as he focused on long runs – never bothering with the low fuel stints that would have moved him up the timesheets.

Behind Vitaly Petrov and Jaime Alguersuari, there was more frustration for Virgin Racing, which saw Lucas di Grassi hit the barriers at Turn 9 after spinning off the track shortly before the lunch break.

The rear of the VR-01 took the brunt of the impact, and the team was unable to get the damage repaired due to a lack of spare parts. The team hopes to be able to continue testing on Friday when new parts are flown out.

“We are continuing to debug the car hydraulics and making good progress in our understanding of the issue,” said technical director Nick Wirth.

“Unfortunately when we were running some experimental control settings on the car, which were adversely affecting its handling, this caught Lucas out on the entry to turn nine resulting in a spin and contact with the barrier.

“We’re going to need to spend the time before tomorrow replacing some broken suspension and wings. We should be back on track tomorrow morning when we hope to really start building up our mileage.”

Fairuz Fauzy ended his first proper day of testing in the Lotus at the bottom of the timesheets – just less than one second adrift of di Grassi’s best time.

Today’s times:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time     Laps
 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.487  109
 2.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth    (B)  1:22.407   81
 3.  Rosberg       Mercedes GP          (B)  1:22.514  107
 4.  de la Rosa    BMW-Sauber           (B)  1:23.144   73
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:23.452  100
 6.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:24.064   64
 7.  Alonso        Ferrari              (B)  1:24.170   74
 8.  Petrov        Renault              (B)  1:24.173   73
 9.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:24.869  111
10.  di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth      (B)  1:27.057   31
11.  Fauzy         Lotus-Cosworth       (B)  1:28.002   76

Source: Autosport UK

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Jenson Button has downplayed the advantage McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton will have this year, but the world champion admits he will need some time to adapt to his new team.

Button took his first world title in 2009 with the Brawn GP team, but decided to move to McLaren to partner Hamilton from this year.

Although some believe Button will have a hard time with the team Hamilton has been linked to for over a decade, the Briton reckons his team-mate advantage will not to that big.

“I’m not going to say he (Hamilton) starts with a big advantage,” Button told the Reuters news agency. “I will say that it is all new to me with this team.

“I’ve got to get to know a lot of people within the team and to know how they work and it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

He added: “For me, the important thing is that I’m confident in my ability and I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

“All I can say is that I’m excited about working with Lewis, because that is exactly what we are going to have to do to be competitive this year.

“Really it makes my life a lot easier because I’m in a much more relaxed position than people telling me that I was going to destroy my team-mate.”

“I can just focus on doing the best job I can and getting the best out of myself and also getting the best out of the team. In a way, I don’t think it’s a negative thing.”

Button acknowledged his motivation to retain his crown might not have been the same had he stayed at Brawn for another year.

“Maybe if I stayed where I was it would have been harder to get a second title. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so motivated. But moving to where I am now I think it has really motivated me,” he said.

“It is something that really excites me and something I am going to work really hard on achieving with the team this year.

“I am more motivated than ever to have a good season this year. I feel a lot more relaxed, a lot more confident in my ability and also the way that I work with the team.”

And the Briton says he is really looking forward to fighting against seven-time champion Michael Schumacher this year.

“I think it is amazing for the sport,” he added “I think having four world champions racing, and one of them who has achieved more than anyone else in the sport, is great.

“It’s an unusual decision by Michael but he’s obviously got his reasons… you’ve got to say fair play to [team boss] Ross [Brawn] for getting him on board. It’s great having him back on the grid and I look forward to the challenge this year with him.”

Autosport

Flavio Briatore intends to pursue legal action against the Piquet family now that his ban from international motorsport has been overturned by a French court.

The former Renault boss had announced he would sue Nelson Piquet Jr and his father when the Singapore ‘crashgate’ scandal first broke in September last year, but then parted company with Renault and was given an indefinite ban from involvement in motor racing by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.

That sentence was declared ‘irregular’ by the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris yesterday – although the FIA is investigating its appeal options.

When asked by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport if he was now planning to take action against the Piquets, Briatore replied: “That’s very likely. The bad that has been done to me won’t be forgotten in one day.”

Briatore also reiterated his insistence that the ban was influenced by personal disputes between himself and former FIA president Max Mosley.

“It was a case of vengeance from Mosley, who has always managed the FIA and the World Council as if it was private property,” he said.

“He had reassured me, telling me they understood I didn’t have anything to do with that story. Then came that verdict. It was an ignoble thing after 18 years of F1.

“First Mosley tried to make me lose titles, first with Schumi then with Alonso, and then to destroy me with this story.”

He expects to have a better relationship with the FIA under its new president Jean Todt.

“I’ve known Jean for years, I can bet on his honesty,” said Briatore. “This is an issue between me and Mr Mosley.”

He also doubts whether the FIA will be able to appeal against yesterday’s decision.

“I wouldn’t do it after such a verdict,” he said.

Briatore suggested yesterday that he had not yet decided whether to return to Formula 1, but he intends to resume his driver management activities – another area that was affected by the FIA ban.

“Except for [Heikki] Kovalainen and [Lucas] di Grassi, my relationship with the other drivers has never changed,” he said.

“In fact, now we’ll analyse the situation with the lawyers to see whether we should take legal action against anyone who has broken the contracts with us.”

Autosport UK

British Grand Prix fans have been promised a Silverstone track that will match, or even surpass, the greatness of its past when redevelopment work is finished in the next few years.

That is the view of one of the main architects behind the circuit upgrades – who thinks that new facilities and the revised Arena layout will bring a ‘freshness’ to Silverstone that has not existed for years.

“It will be a whole new life for the track, and maybe move it back to how Silverstone used to be – a really, really fast circuit,” John Rhodes, senior associate of architecture company Populous, told AUTOSPORT.

Rhodes heads up Populous’s motorsports team that is designing Silverstone’s new infield circuit for both MotoGP and F1, plus working on other improvements at the venue.

And with tweaks required for the arrival of MotoGP next year, Rhodes says his team is making the most of the opportunity to deliver further changes at Silverstone.

“We have looked at introducing much more topography and things like that, but it is very difficult because you have to go with what the site is – in essence it is an ex airfield,” he explained.

“I think we’ve got the right solution – and if we can really bring back the essence of what Silverstone is – a very, very fast circuit, smooth and flowing, it will be great.

“There are circuit tweaks relating to the FIM requirements that need doing, so there will be mild alterations here and there – like at Club.

“We are moving the barriers back in some areas but also moving the spectators closer in other areas, so that’s very exciting.

“Certainly, even in the short term, the spectator experience will be a lot better. Obviously we have the opportunity to relocate grandstands that have been there for an age and really shake the thing up a bit. It is not about creating something new but about bringing a freshness to focus on what it is all about.”

Rhodes acknowledges that Silverstone will never be able to enjoy the kind of financial input that venues like Abu Dhabi and China have had – but still thinks the track can be up there as one of the best in terms of facilities.

“It is crazy to think that Silverstone would ever get the investment that Abu Dhabi has got. It would be great if it did – but we’ve never had that, and never envisaged we would have that.

“The architecture is being driven by an incremental approach – that we can actually create a language over a period of time that will have a significant feel to it, but is also deliverable in the short term.”

Silverstone will decide early in the year whether or not this year’s F1 race will take place on the new Arena circuit – and Rhodes thinks it is still too early to say what will happen.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” he said. “I would be surprised if it happened [for F1 in 2010]. It is the MotoGP circuit, and from our point of view it is going to be finished by March and we have to deliver it now – that is the key thing. The programmes are coming up quickly now.”

Jenson Button clinched the 2009 Formula 1 world championship by coming through to fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Mark Webber took a comfortable victory for Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel made it up to fourth from 15th on the grid, but that was not enough to keep his title bid alive, while Button’s closest rival and Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello was only running fourth when he had to pit with a puncture eight laps from the end, ending his last remote hope of the championship.

The result also gave Brawn a remarkable Constructors’ Championship title in the team’s first year, less than 12 months after Honda’s departure left its staff facing an apparently bleak future.

Behind Webber, Robert Kubica (BMW) took his best result of the year in second, and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) came through from the tail of the field for third.

Button and Vettel’s charges were immediately aided by a chaotic first lap. First contact with Vettel sent Heikki Kovalainen spinning into Giancarlo Fisichella, then the fast-starting Kimi Raikkonen broke his front wing on the back of Webber’s Red Bull as the Australian defended his line into the Descida do Lago.

Through the next kink Toyota’s Jarno Trulli went wide onto the grass – later accusing Adrian Sutil of putting him there – and spun back across into the Force India, which then collected Fernando Alonso’s Renault, putting all three out and prompting a safety car.

There was even more drama under the yellow, as Kovalainen took the McLaren fuel hose with him as he left the pits following repairs, resulting in a flash fire as fuel splashed out of the hose onto Raikkonen’s close-following Ferrari. Remarkably both were able to continue with minimal delay.

As the stewards began investigating all of those incidents, Button and Vettel found themselves ninth and 11th in the restart queue, with Barrichello leading the race over Webber, Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Kubica.

Both Button and Vettel immediately charged forward with some aggressive passes, before getting stuck behind Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota and Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams in seventh and ninth respectively.

It took until lap 24 – and several near-misses – before Button successfully dived inside Kobayashi at the Senna S. By that time his title prospects looked much better, for Barrichello had fallen from first to third at the first pitstops.

The Brawn had only managed to pull 2s clear of Webber, and when Barrichello stopped on lap 20 he emerged into the thick of the traffic and was further delayed being overtaken by Vettel. He not only lost out to Webber, but fell to third behind Kubica, with Rosberg losing a chance to also get involved in this fight when he retired on lap 26.

That settled the lead battle for the rest of the race. Webber ran a comfortable 5s ahead of Kubica, with Barrichello becoming an ever more distant third. His only hope of keeping the title fight alive was now that Button finished eighth or lower, but the Briton’s excellent progress continued as he moved up to second before making the first of his two stops on lap 29.

Vettel ran a similar strategy but pitted even later, which enabled him to jump Button at the final stops, but by that time they had moved up to fifth and sixth – not good enough for Vettel but perfectly adequate for Button.

Just to underline that Barrichello’s task was hopeless, he was passed for third by Hamilton ten laps from the end, then fell to eighth with a puncture – possibly thanks to a brush with the McLaren – two laps later.

Hamilton had pitted under the safety car to immediately get rid of his soft tyres, meaning he could run the rest of the race on a one stop strategy. He then had the pace to quickly move through the field, keeping up with the lighter cars, and emerging fourth behind Barrichello as others stopped.

Behind Vettel and the euphoric Button, Raikkonen recovered to sixth, with Sebastien Buemi scoring two points for Toro Rosso in seventh.

Kovalainen was ninth, with Kobayashi losing ground as others around him ran longer strategies, but muscling past Fisichella for 10th in the closing laps. Toyota’s rookie escaped a frightening incident with compatriot Nakajima – who he had already banged wheels with through the Senna S – that saw the Williams have its front wing swiped off on the rear of Kobayashi’s defensive Toyota as it came out of the pits. Nakajima lost control on the grass and speared into the Descida do Lago barriers, but was unhurt.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Brazilian Grand Prix
Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
71 laps; 305.909km;
Weather: Dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1h32:23.081
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     7.626
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    18.944
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    19.652
 5.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    29.005
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    33.340
 7.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    35.991
 8.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    45.454
 9.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    48.499
10.  Kobayashi     Toyota                (B)  +  1:03.324
11.  Fisichella    Ferrari               (B)  +  1:10.665
12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1:11.388
13.  Grosjean      Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:13.733

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)    31
Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)    28
Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)    22
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)    1
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    1
Alonso        Renault               (B)    1

World Championship standings, round 16:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Button        89        1.  Brawn-Mercedes        161
 2.  Vettel        74        2.  Red Bull-Renault      135.5
 3.  Barrichello   72        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       71
 4.  Webber        61.5      4.  Ferrari                70
 5.  Hamilton      49        5.  Toyota                 54.5
 6.  Raikkonen     48        6.  Williams-Toyota        34.5
 7.  Rosberg       34.5      7.  BMW Sauber             32
 8.  Trulli        30.5      8.  Renault                26
 9.  Alonso        26        9.  Force India-Mercedes   13
10.  Glock         24       10.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      7
11.  Kovalainen    22
12.  Massa         22
13.  Kubica        17
14.  Heidfeld      15
15.  Fisichella     8
16.  Sutil          5
17.  Buemi          5
18.  Bourdais       2

Rubens Barrichello claimed a crucial home pole as both his title rivals had disasters in a remarkable, wet and extremely long Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session, which lasted nearly three hours in total thanks to a string of rain-induced stoppages and delays.

World championship leader Jenson Button will start only 14th having stayed out too long on full wets as the track improved in Q2. But he at least has a large points lead to fall back on – whereas Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel qualified an even worse 16th and needs at least second place tomorrow to stay in the title hunt heading to Abu Dhabi.

Mark Webber joins Barrichello on the front row in the second Red Bull, ahead of another great qualifying effort from Force India’s Adrian Sutil in third.

Q1 was first red flagged after four minutes when Giancarlo Fisichella spun his Ferrari at the foot of the Senna S and stalled on the racing line, leaving him at the tail of the grid. With conditions near impossible, race control announced that the session would be halted until the weather relented at least slightly.

As the skies became a little lighter, the session was restarted following a 12 minute pause, and although the spray and standing water remained a major issue, the times were immediately 12s faster than the pre-red flag laps.

Vettel had been fastest by a full second among the seven cars that set times prior to the stoppage, but he was quickly pushed down the order to 16th – and could not improve. A trip off the road at Turn 5 did not help, and with the rain coming down harder he again he abandoned his final lap, leaving Vettel facing a near impossible task in tomorrow’s race as he strives to stay in title contention.

Both McLarens – running dry set-ups – also made shock Q1 exits, with Lewis Hamilton 18th behind Heikki Kovalainen having gone off at Turn 5 and spun through the sodden grass.

The five minute break before Q2 then stretched to 20 minutes as the officials hoped the rain would ease again – and then the red flags flew before any flying laps were completed as Tonio Liuzzi aquaplaned heavily into both the inside and outside barriers approaching the Senna S. The Force India was wrecked but Liuzzi was unhurt.

The subsequent stoppage lasted nearly an hour and a half as track inspection after track inspection reported no improvement in the circuit’s condition. But finally the skies cleared two hours after the session began, and Q2 was able to proceed.

Button soon found his initial run pushed back to 14th place, and then remained on full wets as others switched to intermediates. The Brawn driver failed to find any more time on the improving track and found himself eliminated in Q2 again. He will start behind rookies Kamui Kobayashi – making a fine debut for Toyota – Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) and Romain Grosjean (Renault).

With the track getting better and better, provisional pole then changed hands countless times through Q3 as all ten drivers pounded round making the best of the drying surface rather than doing the usual single flying laps.

Twice Barrichello took the top spot and twice he was pushed back down the order, before finally he took the chequered flag with a 1m19.576s, beating Webber by just under a tenth of a second to secure his first pole since 2004.

Sutil grabbed third from Toyota’s Jarno Trulli right at the end, with Kimi Raikkonen fifth for Ferrari.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was rapid throughout and took an excellent sixth, but there was disappointment for Nico Rosberg, who had been quickest in both Q1 and Q2 but could not maintain that pace as the track dried. He fell to seventh, with his team-mate Kazuki Nakajima ninth between Robert Kubica (BMW) and Fernando Alonso (Renault).

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:24.100  1:21.659  1:19.576
 2.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:24.722  1:20.803  1:19.668
 3.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:24.447  1:20.753  1:19.912
 4.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:24.621  1:20.635  1:20.097
 5.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:23.047  1:21.378  1:20.168
 6.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.591  1:20.701  1:20.250
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.828  1:20.368  1:20.326
 8.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.072  1:21.147  1:20.631
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:23.161  1:20.427  1:20.674
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:24.842  1:21.657  1:21.422
11.  Kobayashi    Toyota                (B)  1:24.335  1:21.960
12.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.773  1:22.231
13.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:24.394  1:22.477
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:24.297  1:22.504
15.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:24.645
16.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:25.009
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:25.052
18.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:25.192
19.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:25.515
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:40.703