2009 Chinese Grand Prix

The 2009 Chinese Grand Prix (formally the 2009 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 19 April 2009 at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. It was the third race of the 2009 Formula One season, a change from previous years, when it took place towards the end of the season.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing won the race after starting from pole position. Both the race win and pole position were the first for Red Bull team. Mark Webber, also of Red Bull, finished second followed by the two Brawn GP's of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth, ahead of Toyota's Timo Glock and Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sébastien Buemi in seventh and eighth.

Heading into the event, Jenson Button of Brawn GP led the Drivers' Championship by 5 points from team-mate Rubens Barrichello and by a further 1.5 points from Jarno Trulli of Toyota. Brawn GP led Toyota by 8.5 points in the Constructors' Championship, with Renault and BMW Sauber a further 12.5 points behind.

Prior to the race, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) International Court of Appeal confirmed the legality of the diffuser designs on the Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota team cars. Following this ruling, Renault and McLaren decided to run an updated diffuser design on their cars during the race. It was a hurried move by both teams, with Renault fitting it to Alonso's car for the first time on the Saturday before the race.

Ferrari announced that its team manager Luca Baldisserri was taken off the track operations to be replaced by race engineer Chris Dyer. The reshuffle was undertaken after Ferrari failed to score a point in the first two races of the season. Ferrari also announced that both its drivers, Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa, would not use the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in the race, citing reliability and safety issues. BMW Sauber, on the other hand, declared that Robert Kubica would use KERS for the first time during the Friday practice session. Kubica had not used the system in the first two races as there were concerns that the additional weight would put him at a disadvantage. However, Kubica opted not to run the device any further after Friday practice, as did the Renault team, reducing the number of KERS-equipped cars to three.

Italian teams and drivers indicated their support for the victims of 2009 L'Aquila earthquake through charity initiative "Abruzzo nel cuore" (Abruzzo in my heart) led by Italian drivers Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella. Ferrari displayed the writing "Abruzzo nel cuore" on their cars while Trulli wore the logo on his overalls. The Toro Rosso cars had the message "Vicini All'Abruzzo" (All neighbouring Abruzzo) on their cars.

"The car instantly felt a bit better. I can feel more stability and downforce from the front. We've definitely made a step forward for this race. The car feels much stronger through the corners and I think we've got a very positive baseline for the rest of the weekend. My first run on the options felt quite consistent".

Three practice sessions were held prior to the race; two sessions on Friday April 17, 2009, each lasting 90 minutes, and one 60 minute session on Saturday April 18, 2009. World Champion Lewis Hamilton's McLaren was fastest at the end of the first practice session on Friday morning ahead of the Brawn GP cars of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was fourth fastest. Hamilton, whose McLaren MP4-24 car was fitted with a new interim diffuser and front wing, clocked his fastest lap of 1:37.334, around a tenth of a second clear of Button, around sixty minutes into the session. Red Bull's Mark Webber was fifth in the session, with Toyota's Trulli and Timo Glock sixth and eighth. Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Sébastien Bourdais completed the top ten lap times of the first session. Button was the fastest in Friday afternoon's second practice session, followed by Rosberg and Barrichello. Red Bull drivers Webber and Sebastian Vettel who headed the time-sheets during the initial phases of the session were eventually classified fourth and fifth fastest respectively. Toyota cars once again managed a competitive result as Trulli and Glock finished sixth and eighth with Williams' Kazuki Nakajima splitting them. The two McLarens could not recreate their results from the morning session with Kovalainen finishing ninth fastest and Hamilton 13th.