Brawn GP's Jenson Button secured his third pole position of the season atthe Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today in qualifying for Sunday'sSpanish Grand Prix.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello put his Brawn-Mercedes caron the second row of the grid after a closely-fought qualifying hour andwill start from third place. Jenson and Rubens both used the Bridgestone Potenza prime tyre for theirfirst run in Q1 before switching to the softer option tyre for the remainderof the hour. The pair were closely matched throughout qualifying with Rubenshaving the advantage over the low fuel runs in Q1 and Q2, posting thefastest lap of the day at the end of Q2. After crossing the line for his final flying lap in Q3 with just two secondsto spare, Jenson put in a fantastic lap on his race fuel load to snatch poleposition from Sebastian Vettel. Rubens rounded off a great result for theteam with his third place.
JENSON BUTTON
"An unexpected but very pleasing pole position today and it is probably mymost satisfying pole of the season. Rubens been really quick all weekend andI was able to benefit from that by looking at his set-up to overcome some ofthe issues that we faced in practice yesterday. My final lap in Q3 was byfar the best lap that I've had this weekend but it was a bit close crossingthe line with just two seconds to spare! The upgrades that we have on thecar here are performing well and it is certainly a good step forward for usalthough we haven't got the most out of the package yet. The team has done agreat job with the developments and I hope that everyone at the factory inBrackley and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth enjoyedthe pole today. It's really important to start from the front here asovertaking can be difficult but we do have Felipe behind us with KERS so agood start will be crucial tomorrow."
RUBENS BARRICHELLO
"We have had a really good weekend so far here in Spain and I'm happy to bestarting from third position on the grid tomorrow. Of course it is a littledisappointing not to be on pole after a great Q2 however my final lap in Q3was good. We may have gone out slightly too early for the final run andmissed an opportunity there. However I'm happy with our strategy and we arewell placed for the race. We will need to get off the line cleanly and stayahead of the Ferrari down to the first corner to make the most of ourpotential."
ROSS BRAWN
"Congratulations to Jenson for his third pole position of the season andanother great job from Rubens to secure third place. After some hard workfrom the team overnight, we were able to resolve the issues which Jensonencountered with our upgrade package yesterday and were greatly helped inthat process by the input from Rubens. The developments on the car haveenabled us to make good progress over the weekend and whilst we are still tofully maximise their impact on performance, the signs are encouraging.Rubens was very quick in the first two sessions on low fuel today withJenson having the edge on the heavier fuel loads in Q3. Today's result putsus in a good position and we look forward to a very exciting race."
