page_title: 2009 Monaco Grand Prix
section_title: Practice and qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 Monaco Grand Prix / Report / Practice and qualifying
caption_attribution_description: Jenson Button driving for Brawn GP at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2009 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 24 May 2009 at the Circuit de Monaco, in Monaco. The race, which was contested over 78 laps, was the sixth round of the 2009 Formula One season. It was won by Brawn GP driver Jenson Button, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello second, and Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen third.
  This year a peace and sport initiative was introduced on this Grand Prix under the High Patronage of Albert II, Prince of Monaco. Sébastien Bourdais scored his last ever world championship points at this race.
context_section_description: The early practice sessions at Monaco are traditionally run on the Thursday of the week so that the roads can be opened on the Friday for public access. As such, two practice sessions were held on the Thursday, with the third on Saturday morning, followed shortly by qualifying.
  The Thursday practice sessions began with Brawn GP establishing its dominance once again; Rubens Barrichello was fastest by three-tenths of a second from countryman Felipe Massa with a time of 1:17.199, and the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen following shortly thereafter. The Brawns continued their form in the second session, placing third and fourth behind Nico Rosberg – who topped practice for the ninth time this season with a 1:15.243 – and Hamilton once again. A similar story held true for the Saturday session, with Jenson Button narrowly being beaten by Fernando Alonso in the Renault.
  The first qualifying session was marked by 2008 winner Lewis Hamilton crashing at Mirabeau and damaging his suspension, putting him out of qualifying and gradually knocking him down the order until he would finish sixteenth, ahead of the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica and the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock. The second session saw the departure of the two Force Indias, both Toro Rossos and Nelson Piquet, Jr.'s Renault while Finland's Kimi Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen topped the timing sheets. Giancarlo Fisichella had two times disallowed for cutting the corners at the Swimming Pool Complex and Nouvelle Chicane. The third and final session was dominated by Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel until a late lap from Jenson Button saw the championship leader take his fourth pole from six starts this season with Kimi Räikkönen the highest-placed KERS-equipped car in second place.
caption: Jenson Button took pole position and won the race, extending his championship lead.
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