The 2009 European Grand Prix marked the F1 circus’ second visit to the Valencia street circuit, a semi-permanent racetrack in located in the port area of the Spanish city. Rubens Barrichello took the win for Brawn GP from third on the grid, his first victory since taking the flag for Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix of 2004. The 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton finished second for McLaren-Mercedes, while 2007 world champion Kimi Räikkönen finished in third for Ferrari. Championship leader Jenson Button finished in seventh for the second race in a row, but extended his lead as Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel both failed to score.
The race saw the debut of GP2 Series driver Romain Grosjean, who replaced the sacked Nelson Piquet Jr at Renault and the Grand Prix return of Luca Badoer who had not raced since the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix. He replaced the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari.
Luca Badoer made his Grand Prix return, having not raced for 10 years
The Grand Prix circuit is the first major step in the development towards making Valencia's port area another Monaco
Rubens Barrichello once again got the best of Jenson Button, out-qualifying and out-racing the championship leader
Jarno Trulli had a dismal weekend in the Toyota, qualifying a lowly 18th and finishing 13th in the race
Romain Grosjean stepped up from GP2 to make his F1 debut with Renault
Mark Webber had a poor weekend, both qualifying and finishing in 9th place
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in all three segments of qualifying en route to pole position
Kimi Raikkonen put in another strong performance for Ferrari, moving up from sixth on the grid to take third place in the race
Valencia's port is steadily becoming more picturesque
Timo Glock's Toyota under the sunshine in Valencia
Kazuki Nakajima continues to struggle in 2009, qualifying 17th and finishing three laps down in 19th after various troubles
Romain Grosjean's debut was nothing to write home about, he finished 15th and was the final car home on the lead lap
Toro Rosso follows Toyota through turn 1
Luca Badoer's lack of pace was a frustration for race engineer Rob Smedley
Jaime Alguersuari's second F1 weekend was a struggle, he was slowest of all barring Luca Badoer
Barrichello's Brawn leads the pack in chasing down the McLarens of Hamilton and Kovalainen
Toyota had another poor weekend, with their cars coming home 13th and 14th in the race
Nico Rosberg put in a fabulous performance, taking fifth in the race from seventh on the grid
Jenson Button faced further damage limitation after a poor start from grid left him down the field. He eventually claimed two points for seventh place.
Nick Heidfeld has now finished every race since the 2007 French Grand Prix, an ongoing record
Luca Badoer was out of his depth on his F1 return
Mark Webber struggled all weekend
Rubens Barrichello was jubilant in celebrating his first win since 2004, in the process taking the 100th Grand Prix win by a Brazilian driver
