Full Throttle

Continuing a run of good form - Jenson Button is having to get use to doing press conferences again - and he seems to be enjoying it.

The [Virgin] Brawn driver, who secured both pole and the win in Australia last weekend, edged ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli in second and teammate Timo Glock in third.

Fastest qualifying times:
1 - Button
2 - Trulli
3 - Vettel
4 - Barrichello
5 - Glock
6 - Rosberg
7 - Webber
8 - Kubica
9 - Raikkonen
10 - Alonso

Remember Barrichello has a 5 place grid penalty dropping him to 9th and Vettel with his 10 place grid penalty drops to 13th.

Toyota does not look shabby - maybe at long last the colossal investment is bearing fruit.

The biggest surprise was Felipe Massa, who will start near the rear of the field in 16th after failing to get his Ferrari through the first qualifying period. Felipe Massa was victim of a gamble which did not work out and did not go out for more laps in Q3 to save tires.

Lewis Hamilton was just shaded by Heikki Kovalainen - the Mclaren team mates languishing in 14th and 15th - signs the Mclaren simply does not have it’s customary pace under the new technical regulations - and probablt more than a little shell-shocked after the events this week.

UPDATE: Damn, I thought Mclaren had a pile of bodies under its “bus.” They got nothng on Ferrari, Massa tossed the entire Prancing Horse squad under the bus:

“I blame everybody. I blame me, I blame my engineer, I blame everybody who are working in the pit,” Massa said. “It was a huge wake-up call that now we need to use our tires, we need to use what we have because to pass through every session is very difficult.”