Jenson Button showed Brawn GP’s fairytale start to Formula 1 life is not about to end any time soon by storming to his second successive pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The winner of last week’s season-opener in Melbourne had run under the radar for much of practice but again demonstrated his and the team's stunning speed by coming to the fore when it really mattered to pip Toyota’s Jarno Trulli to the top spot at Sepang.
Button’s stunning final Q3 lap of 1m35.181s initially put him half a second clear of his rivals, but Trulli so nearly matched it on his own final run and finished just under 0.1s slower to claim a still impressive front row berth.
Sebastian Vettel again showed strong speed in the Red Bull to set the third best time, outpacing the second Brawn car of Rubens Barrichello.
However, both drivers had penalties hanging over them heading into qualifying and will drop down the order to 13th and eighth places respectively, promoting the second Toyota of Timo Glock to third and Williams's Nico Rosberg to fourth.
Again like the Australia season-opener, the appearance of the Brawn, Toyota, Red Bull and Williams cars at the front of the grid shows a new order is beginning to emerge in F1's new era.
Reigning world champion team Ferrari had been tipped to join them here after showing stronger pace in practice following its dismal showing last week.
But the threat did not materialise as Raikkonen struggled towards the bottom of the top 10 (his ninth place becoming seventh courtesy of the penalties) while Felipe Massa was knocked out early and will start 16th after a Q1 gamble spectacularly backfired.
The Brazilian and his engineers thought his two early flying laps on the softer compound rubber would be enough to safely see him through to the second stage, especially as he returned to the garage fourth on the times.
But while Ferrari prepared Massa’s car for Q2 in the garage, over half of the field were in a scramble to ensure they weren’t knocked out as they moved onto the softer tyres in the closing minutes.
Ferrari’s worst nightmare then played out as driver after driver posted a quicker time than Massa and, with the track picking up grip all of the time, the pole-sitter here for the past two years was shuffled below the cut line.
Indeed Raikkonen was lucky not to suffer the same fate as he walked the same tightrope, but his slightly faster flying lap meant he just stayed above the elimination line in 14th.
The Finn's F60 didn't pick up much as the hour progressed and he will now be pinning his hopes on his KERS system catapulting him past the cars directly ahead of him on Sunday's grid.
The drivers most at risk will be Mark Webber, who will lead Red Bull's challenge after Vettel's penalty, in fifth and BMW's Robert Kubica.
Behind Barrichello in eighth will be Fernando Alonso, who showed commendable battling spirit to haul his previously uncompetitive Renault into the top 10 despite struggling with an ear infection.
Vettel’s demotion means Nick Heidfeld will start 10th, but the German again failed to follow team-mate Kubica into the pole position shootout despite being the sole BMW driver carrying the advantageous KERS unit.
Still, there was little to choose between Alonso, Heidfeld and the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima on the Q2 cut line – with the Renault man finishing ahead of the pair by under 0.1s.
Nakajima will share the sixth row with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren man putting the trauma of the previous day behind him to show the MP4-24 appears to be be making progress after finishing just 0.2s shy of the top 10.
The penalised Vettel slots in to 13th, ahead of the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.
Sebastien Bourdais earned Toro Rosso its first Q2 appearance of the season after a fine lap on the soft tyres in the first phase, the Frenchman starting 15th.
Massa’s first Q1 elimination for three years means he starts from the unusual position of 16th and with it all to do if he is to open his points account for 2009.
Nelson Piquet Jr is a more regular driver to make up the Q1 drop zone and the Brazilian, under pressure for much of his debut season due to continued qualifying struggles, may be able to about to come under renewed scrutiny from his Renault bosses after failing to get beyond the first phase for the second race in a row.
He was joined again by the Force India duo, although Fisichella got off the back row and briefly put himself in a position to make Q2 until the dramatic late shuffle of the order knocked him back down to a more familiar position.
His team-mate Adrian Sutil will join Toro Rosso rookie Sebastien Buemi on the back row, the latter enduring the first disappointment of his F1 career after outqualifying Bourdais and scoring two points on his debut.
Buemi was 0.3s up on his best time following the first sector of his final lap, but fell of the road at turn eight.
Malaysian GP starting grid
1. BUTTON Brawn
2. TRULLI Toyota
3. GLOCK Toyota
4. ROSBERG Williams
5. WEBBER Red Bull
6. KUBICA BMW
7. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
8. ALONSO Renault
9. BARRICHELLO Brawn*
10. HEIDFELD BMW
11. NAKAJIMA Williams
12. HAMILTON McLaren
13. VETTEL Red Bull**
14. KOVALAINEN McLaren
15. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso
16. MASSA Ferrari
17. PIQUET Renault
18. FISICHELLA Force India
19. SUTIL Force India
20. BUEMI Toro Rosso
* five-place penalty for gearbox change
** 10-place penalty carried from Melbourne
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