Kubica 8th, Hedifeld 19th in extremely chaotic qualifying

By BMW Sauber F1
October 18 2009

Pouring rain, thunder and spectacular lightning: Qualifying for the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix was held in extreme weather conditions. While Nick Heidfeld was on the losing side of Sao Paulo's weather gamble and finished 19th, Robert Kubica secured eighth in what was a true marathon qualifying session.

It took just 4:07 minutes before the first phase of qualifying at Sao Paulo was red-flagged: Ferrari's Giancarlo Fisichella spun in the "Senna-S" and came to a halt in the middle of the track. Moments earlier, Robert and Nick had gone out for the first time, but did not get the chance to put in a first lap time due to the red flag. After this incident race control decided to delay the re-start until conditions improved at the 4.309-kilometre track.

The session got underway again at 14:18hrs local time. Just a minute later both BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers were again out on the track. Over their first few laps, the pair set similar lap times. But while Robert was able to improve consistently, Nick had to make do with a personal best time of 1:25.515 minutes. When conditions worsened again in the dying moments of the session, there was just no chance for the 32-year-old to improve. He was eliminated and finished 19th. Robert, however, easily made it into "Q2" after setting a lap time of 1:23.072 minutes to come third on the timesheets. The Pole was just 0.244 seconds slower than Williams' Nico Rosberg, who was the fastest man in the turbulent session.

Eliminated: Sebastian Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld, Giancarlo Fisichella.

After "Q1" the start of the second session was delayed. Again dark clouds hung over the circuit, again heavy rain fell on the track. Nevertheless, "Q2" got underway at 14:57hrs local time - but just for less than three minutes. Under braking for the "Senna S" Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi was a victim of aquaplaning and crashed into the barriers. While the Italian was able to give the all clear to signal he was okay, the field again headed back into the pits. Once more the wait for better conditions began. This time it took over an hour, until the rain stopped and the session was re-started at 16:10hrs local time.

Robert went out on wet-weather tyres and moved into the top-ten thanks to a personal best time of 1:22.061 minutes, set on his fourth flying lap. Afterwards he pitted for Intermediates, as the track got drier from one minute to the next. The BMW Sauber F1 Team was rewarded for this decision: Robert improved by almost a second, finishing seventh with a 1:21.147-minute lap and advanced into the top-ten shootout. Rosberg again went quickest, posting a lap time of 1:20.368 minutes.

Eliminated: Kamui Kobayashi, Jaime Alguersuari, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Vitantonio Luizzi.

When Robert joined the action for "Q3" the BMW Sauber F1.09 was again fitted with Intermediates. With a 1:20.655-minute lap he temporarily took the lead, before pitting for a fresh set of tyres with three minutes to go. Again the 24-year-old improved his time to 1:20.631 minutes. But some of his rivals also managed to raise their game. At the end of the day Robert claimed eighth in the final classification. After 2 hours and 42 minutes the Brazilian fans were finally able to cheer the pole-sitter: it was local hero Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP) who set the fastest lap of 1:19.576 minutes.

Result: 1st Rubens Barrichello, 2nd Mark Webber, 3rd Adrian Sutil, 4th Jarno Trulli, 5th Kimi Räikkönen, 6th Sébastien Buemi, 7th Nico Rosberg, 8th Robert Kubica, 9th Kazuki Nakajima, 10th Fernando Alonso.