Graham Rahal on Saturday became the youngest IndyCar Series pole winner as he posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 02.4110 seconds on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg circuit.
Rahal, the defending winner of Sunday’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, is 20 years, 90 days old. Marco Andretti was 21 when he captured the pole at the Milwaukee Mile on May 31, 2008.
“It doesn’t get any sweeter,†Rahal said. “Growing up as a Rahal, any day you can beat an Andretti … Details
Brawn GP’s Jenson Button knows he will start Sunday’s Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix from pole position but is less certain about how his car will perform in the rain forecast for the event.
The British driver followed up his pole in Australia last weekend with another strong performance around the Sepang circuit Saturday, setting a best time of 1 minute, 35.181 seconds—more than half a second ahead of last year’s pole time.
Button will start ahead of the Toyota pair of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, with Williams’ Nico Rosberg in fourth. That grid again illustrated the advantage of the three teams whose contentious diffuser designs will be ruled on by the sport’s authorities later this month… Details
In case you missed it, the Formula 1 racing season officially started last weekend with the running of the Australian Grand Prix. Being a longtime F1 fan, I’m filled with a wide range of emotions after witnessing the 2009 season opener.
Let’s start with the biggest news, the absolute domination of the entire weekend by the brand new Brawn GP team. First they sweep the front row for qualifying then take the top two podium spots in the race. You have to go back over 40 years to find the last time a new team accomplished what Brawn did this weekend. What makes it even more amazing is that this team was only put together a month ago and they were using a car that was built around another engine and transmission package then what they used in the race. Simply amazing… Details