Spanish GP: Button takes pole in dramatic style

Jenson Button on his fast lap to win pole

Jenson Button took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in dramatic style. 2nd behind his Brawn GP teammate at the time, he crossed the line to start his final flying lap just two seconds before the checkered flag came out. At that point his Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello was on pole, but he was bumped from that position by the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and then Button flashed across the line to take pole by a tenth of a second.

Ross Brawn on Friday likened today's F1 designers to Swiss watchmakers, and in the dying seconds of qualifying it appeared he had indeed used a very precise timepiece.

The Briton said the situation was "more luck than judgment", after he found Robert Kubica on an out-lap of the Barcelona layout.

Button had been struggling to match teammate Rubens Barrichello's pace this weekend, raising the prospect that he has taken a lighter fuel load for the race.

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But, even though Barrichello's Q2 lap was the fastest of the entire weekend, Brawn confirmed that the pair carried "very similar" fuel into parc ferme.

"All weekend this guy (Rubens) has been tremendous," said Button, clearly indicating that his own Q3 effort was even more impressive.

A disappointed Barrichello, third behind Sebastian Vettel and carrying new personal sponsorship by the battery brand Duracell, said: "Jenson is doing really well at the moment and I just need to try harder and harder to get him."

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was fourth in a clearly improved F60, but his teammate Kimi Raikkonen did not even make it out of Q1 when – despite not matching Massa's pace – he stayed in the pits rather than on the track to improve his time.

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