Felipe Massa

Q. You had nine more kilos of fuel than Brawn at the start, yet you came in very soon after them. Can you explain what happened there?

Felipe Massa: No. I don’t understand. Maybe the consumption. I don’t know.

Q. So you had to come in?

FM: Yeah.

Q. You couldn’t have gone any further?

FM: I don’t think so.

Q. After about 60 laps, you were 20 seconds behind, three tenths of a second behind. Is that more or less where Ferrari is?
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Jenson Button stretched his incredible run to a fourth win in five races by beating his Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Barrichello had vaulted into the lead at the start, but Button switched to a two-stop plan at the first stops and maintained a strong enough pace on heavy fuel to emerge ahead when the strategies had finished playing out.

Mark Webber completed the podium for Red Bull, as his front row starting team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s race was compromised by getting stuck behind Felipe Massa’s Ferrari off the line.

While all eyes were on Massa’s KERS-shod car at the start, it was actually Barrichello who made the best getaway, sweeping around the outside of Button into Turn 1 as Massa squeezed past Vettel to take third.
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PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;
66 laps; 307.104km;

Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h37:19.202
 2.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    13.056
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    13.924
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    18.941
 5.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    43.166
 6.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    50.827
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    52.312
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:05.211
 9.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     1 lap
10.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Barrichello, 1:22.762

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    18
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    8
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    1
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)    1

World Championship standings, round 5:
Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Button        41        1.  Brawn GP-Mercedes      68
 2.  Barrichello   27        2.  Red Bull-Renault       38.5
 3.  Vettel        23        3.  Toyota                 26.5
 4.  Webber        15.5      4.  McLaren-Mercedes       13
 5.  Trulli        14.5      5.  Renault                 9
 6.  Glock         12        6.  BMW Sauber              6
 7.  Alonso         9        7.  Ferrari                 6
 8.  Hamilton       9        8.  Williams-Toyota         4.5
 9.  Heidfeld       6        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      4
10.  Rosberg        4.5
11.  Kovalainen     4
12.  Massa          3
13.  Buemi          3
14.  Raikkonen      3
15.  Bourdais       1       

All timing unofficial

Q. Jenson Button said in the FIA press conference that there could be ‘mayhem’ at the first corner tomorrow, given the speed of your cars with KERS. How do you see that run down to the first corner unfolding? Could it be a bit awkward?

Felipe Massa: Well, overtaking three cars like this is not so easy. I am very happy to have the KERS for the start tomorrow, in a reasonably good position. I am on the dirty side as well, so it won’t be easy. Let’s see what is going to happen at the start. Let’s see how good our car can start, compared to the others. And the most important thing also is to think about the race. I think we can have a reasonable good pace in the race, and that for sure is a good boost and a good motivation for the race tomorrow.

Q. Has the improvement in the speed of the car this weekend given you a transformed feeling about the season ahead? Perhaps a feeling of fighting for podiums, wins and even the championship?
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Jenson Button beat Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix with a stunning late lap.

The championship leader had appeared to be struggling to match his Brawn team-mate Barrichello’s pace for most of the build-up, and fell as low as eighth as others completed their final runs in Q3.

But Button crossed the line to start his last lap just as the chequered flag fell, and proceeded to snatch pole away from Vettel (Red Bull) by 0.133 seconds.

Barrichello briefly held provisional pole before Button and Vettel improved, leaving the Brazilian third.

Felipe Massa showed Ferrari’s best form of the year to take fourth after being fastest in morning practice and Q1.
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Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:20.707  1:20.192  1:20.527
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.715  1:20.220  1:20.660
 3.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:20.808  1:19.954  1:20.762
 4.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:20.484  1:20.149  1:20.934
 5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:20.689  1:20.007  1:21.049
 6.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:20.877  1:20.107  1:21.247
 7.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:21.189  1:20.420  1:21.254
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:21.186  1:20.509  1:21.392
 9.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.745  1:20.256  1:22.558
10.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:20.931  1:20.408  1:22.685
11.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:20.818  1:20.531
12.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:21.128  1:20.604
13.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:21.095  1:20.676
14.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:20.991  1:20.805
15.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.033  1:21.067
16.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:21.291
17.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:21.300
18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:21.675
19.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:21.742
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:22.204

All Timing Unofficial