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2009 Chinese Grand Prix
Race 3 of 17 in the 2009 Formula One World Championship
Race details
Date	April 19, 2009
Official name	VI Chinese Grand Prix
Location	Shanghai International Circuit Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.451 km (3.387 miles)
Distance	56 laps, 305.066 km (189.559 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1.36.184

The 2009 Chinese Grand Prix is a Formula One motor race scheduled to be held on April 19, 2009 at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. It will be the third race of the 2009 Formula One season.

The Chinese Grand Prix moves from the end to the beginning of the season for 2009. Lewis Hamilton secured the race victory last year for McLaren, with his predecessor as World Champion Kimi Räikkönen securing victory for Ferrari in 2007. Renault's Fernando Alonso and Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello are the other former race winners in the field. To date, the Chinese GP has never been won by the same driver twice.

Background

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 legalised the diffuser designs used by cars of Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota teams. 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 only for the first time on Saturday.

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, will 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 be using the KERS for the first time this season during the Friday practice session. Kubica did not use the system in first two races as there were concerns that the additional weight might 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.

Qualifying

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Pos	No	Name	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:36.565	1:35.130	1:36.184	1
2	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:36.443	1:35.803	1:36.381	2
3	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:35.751	1:35.173	1:36.466	3
4	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:35.701	1:35.503	1:36.493	4
5	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:35.533	1:35.556	1:36.532	5
6	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:36.308	1:35.645	1:36.835	6
7	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:35.941	1:35.809	1:37.397	7
8	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:36.137	1:35.856	1:38.089	8
9	1‡	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.776	1:35.740	1:38.595	9
10	12	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:36.284	1:35.965	1:39.321	10
11	6‡	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:36.525	1:35.975		11
12	2‡	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.646	1:36.032		12
13	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:36.178	1:36.033		13
14	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:36.364	1:36.066		19
15	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:36.673	1:36.193		14
16	11	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:36.906			15
17	8	Nelson Piquet, Jr.	Renault	1:36.908			16
18	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:36.966			17
19	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.669			18
20	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.672			20

• Template:FnbTimo Glock was issued a 5 place grid-penalty for changing a gearbox during Saturday practice.

‡ denotes cars fitted with KERS

References

1. "Chinese Grand Prix Preview". Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
2. "Jenson Button and Brawn GP claim victory in diffuser row". Times Online. Times Newspapers Ltd. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
3. "Renault set to join Brawn after failing to beat them". Guardian.co.uk. Guardian Newpapers and Media Ltd. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
4. Holt, Sarah (2009-04-16). "Renault & McLaren change diffuser". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
5. Noble, Jonathan (2009-04-18). "Renault fits interim diffuser for Alonso". autosport.com. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
6. "Motor racing-Struggling Ferrari alter pit personnel". Reuters UK. Thomson Reuters. 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
7. Noble, Jonathan (2009-04-13). "Baldisserri gets factory role in reshuffle". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
8. "Ferrari abandon Kers for China GP". BBC Sport. BBC. 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
9. "Teams differ on KERS use". Sky Sports. 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
10. Noble, Jonathan (2009-04-18). "More teams ditch KERS for China". autosport.com. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
11. "5-place grid penalty for Glock". GP Update. GP Update. 2009-04-18. Retrieved 2009-04-18.

• Current events
• 2009 Formula One race reports
• Chinese Grand Prix
• 2009 in China