Formula One news

Button with lightest car in top six

Jenson Button is carrying less fuel onboard his Brawn car than any other in the top six, FIA car weights reveal. The Englishman will therefore be pitting before his closest rivals, leaving him with less flexibility in the first stint. Felipe Massa's Ferrari is the heaviest car on the front three rows and, with KERS onboard, could lead early on in the Spanish Grand Prix.

As always this year, governing body the FIA revealed the weights of each car after the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. Those outside the top ten have declared their weights and cars will be refilled on Sunday morning, whereas top ten qualifiers cannot adjust fuel loads between qualifying and the start of the race.

Unsurprisingly, Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari is significantly heavier than that of his team-mate's as the Finn will be presented with less strategic decisions from 16th on the grid. The McLaren of Lewis Hamilton is the lightest car on the grid, however, and will be the last man to visit the pits for fuel in the race. The man with the smallest amount of fuel onboard is Fernando Alonso, who will be looking to make the most of KERS and a lighter car in order to slice through from eighth at the start.


- Lightest car: Fernando Alonso / Renault - 8th - 645.0kg
- Heaviest car: Lewis Hamilton / McLaren - 14th - 683.0kg


Post-qualifying car weights:


1 - Jenson Button / Brawn = 646.0kg *
2 - Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull = 651.5kg **
3 - Rubens Barrichello / Brawn = 649.5kg
4 - Felipe Massa / Ferrari = 655.0kg * 
5 - Mark Webber / Red Bull = 651.5kg ** 
6 - Timo Glock / Toyota = 646.5kg *
7 - Jarno Trulli / Toyota = 655.5kg
8 - Fernando Alonso / Renault = 645.0kg * 
9 - Nico Rosberg / Williams = 668.0kg *
10 - Robert Kubica / BMW = 660.0kg * 
11 - Kazuki Nakajima / Williams = 676.6kg
12 - Nelson Piquet / Renault = 677.4kg
13 - Nick Heidfeld / BMW = 676.3kg
14 - Lewis Hamilton / McLaren = 683.0kg
15 - Sébastien Buemi / Toro Rosso = 678.0kg
16 - Kimi Räikkönen / Ferrari = 673.0kg
17 - Sébastien Bourdais / Toro Rosso = 669.0kg *
18 - Heikki Kovalainen / McLaren = 657.0kg * 
19 - Adrian Sutil / Force India = 675.0kg
20 - Giancarlo Fisichella / Force India = 656.0kg *


* Lightest of the team's two cars (first to pit in normal circumstances)
** Identical fuel load to team-mate 

Note: Race entrants are displayed in provisional grid order

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