Sebastian Vettel took his third pole position in three races in 2011 as once again his Red Bull RB7 was in a class of one. Vettel, who also made it a hat trick of poles in China, finished a mighty 0.715 seconds ahead of Jenson Button who made it onto the front row for the first time since last year's Italian Grand Prix. Button narrowly out-qualified his team mate Lewis Hamilton, who was just hundredths shy of the 2009 world champion. Hamilton, however, was able to save a set of soft tyres for tomorrow's race which could be crucial given his tyre troubles last weekend. Speaking of troubles, Mark Webber's dismal weekend took a further turn for the worse in qualifying. Webber was yet again the victim of an unreliable KERS system and Red Bull's over-confidence in not changing to the soft tyre proved disastrous as he ended Q1 in 18th and out of the running. It was the first time Webber had been knocked out in Q1 since Bahrain 2009.
Nico Rosberg's fourth place for Mercedes indicated that the team is now finally heading in the right direction, although Michael Schumacher's wretched season continued as he could only secure 14th place in the sister Mercedes. Rosberg finished Q3 ahead of both Ferrari's with Fernando Alonso narrowly beating his team mate Felipe Massa into fifth. Toro Rosso enjoyed a wonderful qualifying session as they were able to get both cars into Q3 for the first time since Brazil 2008. Jaime Alguersuari qualified a brilliant seventh and team-mate Sebastien Buemi ninth, sandwiching Paul di Resta's Force india, who celebrated his 25th birthday in the best possible fashion by making it into Q3 for the first time in his career. The rookie British driver has looked more than comfortable as he settles down to life in F1 and eighth place was an excellent effort.
Renault's Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top 10, although the Russian was unable to feature in the pole position shootout after he suffered a possible hydraulics problem just moments after posting the fourth-fastest time in Q2. Petrov stopped on the circuit, ensuring red flags were brought out to move the stricken Renault. The session was stopped with just two minutes to go, which led to a frantic scramble for position as the drivers tried to seal their place in Q3. Along with Schumacher, di Resta's team mate Adrian Sutil and both Saubers were unable to squeeze into the top-10 shootout. The two Williams' and Petrov's team mate Nick Heidfeld were also out in Q2. Alongside Webber in those eliminated from Q1 were the usual suspects, comprising of the Lotus', Virgin's and Hispania's. All of the 24 runners were within 107% of pole and so we will have all the drivers on the grid for tomorrow's race.
In spite of an unpredictable qualifying session, it was never in doubt who thepole man would be. Vettel had been fastest in every practice session and demonstrated Red Bull's superiority by qualifying almost three quarters of a second quicker than his nearest challenger. The only fly in the ointment for Red Bull has been their KERS troubles and Red Bull will be thankfully that Vettel has suffered no such worries this weekend. The rest of the field will be praying for otherwise tomorrow.
Chinese GP grid positions
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 33.706secs
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:34.421
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:34.463
4 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:34.670
5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:35.119
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:35.145
7 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.158
8 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:36.190
9 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.203
10 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault No time in Q3
11 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:35.874
12 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 1:36.053
13 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber 1:36.236
14 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:36.457
15 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:35.465
16 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault 1:36.611
17 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:36.956
18 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:36.468
19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Team Lotus 1:37.894
20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Team Lotus 1:38.318
21 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:39.119
22 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:39.708
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Hispania 1:40.212
24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Hispania 1:40.445
Josh.
No comments:
Post a Comment