Hamilton and Massa must be properly good friends, alway looking out for each other. Whenever Hamilton is having a bad time in the press Massa does his best to shield his mate. He did so today by not getting his seeminlgy strong Ferrari past Q1 and ending up 16th on the grid.

Button went on to prove that BrawnGP didn’t just fluke Australia (unless the diffuser is deemed illegal, but that’s another story)

A couple of grid penalties affect the final grid, Vettel down ten places from his third position thanks to hugging Kubica in Australia, and Barricello down five from 4th due to a new gearbox.

The McLaren team never made it past Q2, as expected and Beumi let his frustration known to the world as he went out despite on the way to posting a Q1 busting time.

No rain happened as feared and the Toyota’s continued their good-looking pace finishing a net 2nd/3rd.

The three world champions on the grid didn’t bother the top six, with kimi 8th, Alonso 9th and Hamilton down in 12th

GRID POSITIONS

Pos   Driver                             Q1        Q2        Q3

1.    Button
      (Brawn-GP)                         1:35.058  1:33.784  1:35.181
2.                     Trulli
                       (Toyota)          1:34.745  1:33.990  1:35.273
3.    Glock
      (Toyota)                           1:34.907  1:34.258  1:35.690
4.                     Rosberg
                       (Williams)        1:35.083  1:34.547  1:35.750
5.    Webber
      (Red Bull)                         1:35.027  1:34.222  1:35.797
6.                    Barrichello*
                      (Brawn-GP)         1:34.681  1:34.387  1:35.651
7.    Kubica
      (BMW-Sauber)                       1:35.166  1:34.562  1:36.106
8.                    Raikkonen
                      (Ferrari)          1:35.476  1:34.456  1:36.170
9.    Alonso
      (Renault)                          1:35.260  1:34.706  1:37.659
10.                   Heidfeld
                      (BMW-Sauber)       1:35.110  1:34.769
11.   Nakajima
      (Williams)                         1:35.341  1:34.788
12.                   Hamilton
                      (McLaren)          1:35.280  1:34.905
13.   Vettel**
      (Red Bull)                         1:34.935  1:34.276  1:35.518
14.                   Kovalainen
                      (McLaren)          1:35.023  1:34.924
15.  Bourdais
     (Toro Rosso)                        1:35.507  1:35.431
16.                   Massa
                     (Ferrari)           1:35.642
17.  Piquet
     (Renault)                           1:35.708
18.                   Fisichella
                      (Force India)      1:35.908
19.  Sutil
     (Force India)                       1:35.951
20.                   Buemi
                      (Toro Rosso)       1:36.107

*  demoted 5 places for gearbox change
** demoted 10 places for thwacking Kubica in Australia