Formula One news

FIA releases car weights

Governing body the FIA has released the starting weights of the twenty cars following qualifying on Saturday afternoon at Sepang. The procedure is standard practice in 2009 and allows fans, as well as rivals, to know how much fuel each car is carrying at the start and therefore gives them the ability to calculate pit stop strategies.

All cars which reached the final shootout in qualifying must remain in Parc Fermé over night, and cannot be refuelled before the start of the race. The other half of the grid, however, are able to add (or remove) fuel from their cars before the starting weights are taken by the FIA.

One of the key pieces of data available for Malaysia shows that pole man Jenson Button's Brawn GP car is heavier than the majority of the top ten although, if the race takes place in normal dry circumstances, Nick Heidfeld is most likely to pit last with 692 kilogrammes of petrol onboard. This is likely to mean that the German is starting the race on the harder, more durable tyres in order to cope with a longer first stint.


Post-qualifying car weights:

1 - Jenson Button / Brawn = 660kg
2 - Jarno Trulli / Toyota = 656.5kg
3 - Timo Glock / Toyota 656.5kg
4 - Nico Rosberg / Williams = 656kg
5 - Mark Webber / Red Bull = 656kg
6 - Robert Kubica / BMW = 663kg
7 - Kimi Räikkönen / Ferrari = 662.5kg
8 - Rubens Barrichello / Brawn = 664.5kg
9 - Fernando Alonso / Renault = 680.5kg
10 - Nick Heidfeld / BMW = 692kg
11 - Kazuki Nakajima / Williams = 683.4kg
12 - Lewis Hamilton / McLaren = 688kg
13 - Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull = 647kg
14 - Heikki Kovalainen / McLaren = 688.9kg
15 - Sébastien Bourdais / Toro Rosso = 670.5kg
16 - Felipe Massa / Ferrari = 689.5kg
17 - Nelson Piquet / Renault = 681.9kg
18 - Giancarlo Fisichella / Force India = 680.5kg
19 - Adrian Sutil / Force India = 655.5kg
20 - Sébastien Buemi / Toro Rosso = 686.5kg


Note: Race entrants are displayed in provisional grid order

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