Sebastian Vettel claimed an eighth successive pole and the 22nd of his short F1 career after topping the charts in qualifying for the European GP in Valencia.
The defending world champion and current leader was the only man to dip under one minute 37 seconds for the street race with Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber qualifying second fastest late in the session.
Lewis Hamilton will share the second row with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso while Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa edged out the second McLaren of Jenson Button on the third row.
The Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher came next ahead of Nick Heidfeld's Renault and the Force India of Adrian Sutil.
Despite teams being forced by the FIA to run the same engine mapping - therefore without using tweaks to enhance qualifying performance - as they will for the race, there was no great upset on the harbourfront track.
There were few surprises in a disrupted 15-minute second session in which Pastor Maldonado caused a red flag after his Williams ground to a halt on track.
The Venezuelan, who starts 15th, appeared to suffer an engine issue prior to stopping and bizarrely then parked his car in the middle of the circuit.
A four-minute delay followed whilst his car was retrieved, at which stage there were eight minutes of action remaining in Q2.
The top six drivers at that point in Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Webber and Rosberg opted not to venture back out, knowing they had done enough.
In the closing stages Sutil dropped Vitaly Petrov down to 11th by a mere 0.034secs, with the Russian lining up in 11th ahead of Paul di Resta who finished 0.388secs behind his Force India team-mate.
Williams' Rubens Barrichello starts 13th, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi 14th ahead of Maldonado, with the second Sauber of Sergio Perez occupying 16th on the grid, and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi 17th.
For 21-year-old Mexican rookie Perez, he at least completed his first qualifying session since the Spanish Grand Prix.
Perez then crashed in qualifying in Monaco, suffering concussion, the effects of which ruled him out of the race a fortnight ago in Canada.
Prior to that Webber scraped into Q2 by just three tenths of a second, finishing 16th in the opening 20-minute session in which Jaime Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso was again the man to miss out.
The gamble almost backfired on Webber, but it now means he has an extra set of soft tyres which will be critical for the race.
As for Alguersuari, it is the third successive race he has failed to make Q2, with the 21-year-old starting 18th on home soil.
Behind him will be the Lotus duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, followed by Virgin's Timo Glock and Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Hispania in 21st and 22nd.
On the final row of the grid will be Jerome D'Ambrosio for Virgin and Hispania's Narain Karthikeyan, who has propped up the timesheet all weekends, but survives the 107% cut-off by a full second.
Times
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 36.975secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:37.163, 3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:37.380, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:37.454, 5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:37.535, 6 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:37.645, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.231, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.240, 9 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault No Time, 10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India No Time, 11 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:39.068, 12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:39.422, 13 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:39.489, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.525, 15 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:39.645, 16 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.657, 17 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.711, 18 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.232, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:41.664, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:42.234, 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:42.553, 22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 1:43.584, 23 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:43.735, 24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:44.363
The defending world champion and current leader was the only man to dip under one minute 37 seconds for the street race with Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber qualifying second fastest late in the session.
Lewis Hamilton will share the second row with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso while Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa edged out the second McLaren of Jenson Button on the third row.
The Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher came next ahead of Nick Heidfeld's Renault and the Force India of Adrian Sutil.
Despite teams being forced by the FIA to run the same engine mapping - therefore without using tweaks to enhance qualifying performance - as they will for the race, there was no great upset on the harbourfront track.
There were few surprises in a disrupted 15-minute second session in which Pastor Maldonado caused a red flag after his Williams ground to a halt on track.
The Venezuelan, who starts 15th, appeared to suffer an engine issue prior to stopping and bizarrely then parked his car in the middle of the circuit.
A four-minute delay followed whilst his car was retrieved, at which stage there were eight minutes of action remaining in Q2.
The top six drivers at that point in Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Webber and Rosberg opted not to venture back out, knowing they had done enough.
In the closing stages Sutil dropped Vitaly Petrov down to 11th by a mere 0.034secs, with the Russian lining up in 11th ahead of Paul di Resta who finished 0.388secs behind his Force India team-mate.
Williams' Rubens Barrichello starts 13th, Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi 14th ahead of Maldonado, with the second Sauber of Sergio Perez occupying 16th on the grid, and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi 17th.
For 21-year-old Mexican rookie Perez, he at least completed his first qualifying session since the Spanish Grand Prix.
Perez then crashed in qualifying in Monaco, suffering concussion, the effects of which ruled him out of the race a fortnight ago in Canada.
Prior to that Webber scraped into Q2 by just three tenths of a second, finishing 16th in the opening 20-minute session in which Jaime Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso was again the man to miss out.
Gamble
The Australian stayed on Pirelli's harder medium compound tyres that are being used for the first time this season, whilst those around him all switched to the faster soft rubber in the closing minutes.The gamble almost backfired on Webber, but it now means he has an extra set of soft tyres which will be critical for the race.
Behind him will be the Lotus duo of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, followed by Virgin's Timo Glock and Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Hispania in 21st and 22nd.
On the final row of the grid will be Jerome D'Ambrosio for Virgin and Hispania's Narain Karthikeyan, who has propped up the timesheet all weekends, but survives the 107% cut-off by a full second.
Times
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 36.975secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:37.163, 3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:37.380, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:37.454, 5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:37.535, 6 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:37.645, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.231, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.240, 9 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Renault No Time, 10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India No Time, 11 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:39.068, 12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:39.422, 13 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:39.489, 14 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.525, 15 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:39.645, 16 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.657, 17 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:39.711, 18 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.232, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:41.664, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:42.234, 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:42.553, 22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 1:43.584, 23 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:43.735, 24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:44.363
No comments:
Post a Comment