China Qualifying and Press Conference

Qualifying showed the new diffuser on the Renault made a difference. It also demonstrated Red Bull are going to be hard to beat when they get a diffuser, as their fast enough now to win by the looks of it!

Qualifying finished like this:

1. VETTEL Red Bull
2. ALONSO Renault
3. WEBBER Red Bull
4. BARRICHELLO Brawn
5. BUTTON Brawn
6. TRULLI Toyota
7. ROSBERG Williams
8. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
9. HAMILTON McLaren
10. BUEMI Toro Rosso
11. HEIDFELD BMW
12. KOVALAINEN McLaren
13. MASSA Ferrari
14. NAKAJIMA Williams
15. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
16. PIQUET Renault
17. KUBICA BMW
18. SUTIL Force India
19. GLOCK Toyota*
20. FISICHELLA Force India

* five-place penalty for gearbox change

Here is the Post-Qualifying Press Conference organised by the FIA at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix. With Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Mark Webber (Red Bull).

It will be interesting to see the weights of the cars and see how lightly the teams are fueled. I suspect the Red Bull's are light and the Renault lighter to get their graining soft tyres out of the way in a quick early stint. No doubt the Brawn GP's will move up the field during the first stops. As will Kimi Raikkonen who traditionally fuels heavy.