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Vettel takes pole for second time in China
Sebastian Vettel took pole position for tomorrow’s race for the Chinese Grand Prix, by pulling out a stunning lap out of the bag at the end of Q3. He will be joined on the front row by Mark Webber, meaning it will be the second front-row lockout by Red Bull so far this year in 4 races.
Here is the breakdown of what happened:
Q1
As expected, the new teams were the first to be knocked out in qualifying. Both Karun Chandhok and Heikki Kovalainen has spins while out on flying laps. However, Timo Glock was the fastest of the new teams, followed by Jarno Trulli.
Vitaly Petrov took until the final few minutes to set his lap time, as his mechanics were fixing his car after his crash in Saturday morning practice. By his first lap time, he was 1.4 seconds behind the fastest lap set by Lewis Hamilton.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was the unlucky driver who was knocked out alongside the new teams, and he will start 18th on the grid. Because Karun Chandhok qualified last, his 5-place grid penalty for having his gearbox opened will not be applied.
Drivers knocked out of Q1:
18) Vitantonio Liuzzi
19) Timo Glock
20) Jarno Trulli
21) Heikko Kovalainen
22) Lucas di Grassi
23) Bruno Senna
24) Karun Chandhok
Q2
Vitaly Petrov was the first to go out on track in this session. Despite this, he was unable to match his team-mate, and he ended up in 14th place.
Michael Schumacher was complaining of a lack of rear grid throughout the session. He struggled and therefore only got 10th place in Q2, by 3 hundreths of a second. The Williams of Nico Hulkenberg suffered the same problem, as he was forced to short-shift in order to keep rear traction. He therefore only qualified 16th.
The Saubers struggled again, with Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa getting 15th and 17th respectively.
Alguersuari and Buemi for Toro Rosso both got 12th and 13th respectively.
Drivers knocked out in Q2:
11) Rubens Barrichello
12) Jaime Alguersuari
13) Sebastien Buemi
14) Vitaly Petrov
15) Kamui Kobayashi
16) Nico Hulkenberg
17) Pedro de la Rosa
Q3
Fernando Alonso was the first to go out on track, and immidiately set a lap of 1.35.065. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg instantly got within 7 hundreths of a second, before Sebastian Vettel beat Alonso’s lap time by 1 tenth.
Michael Schumacher messed up his first lap, and never had the pace to keep up with the frontrunners, qualifying 9th. Robert Kubica never really shined either, and got 8th.
Adrian Sutil, as he usually does in Q3, took on the harder tyres, so he got 10th place, although he will have a different strategy for the race tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton was carrying slightly more fuel than required, so his first run only got him 5th. His second run, on fresh soft tyres, got him 2nd place, 6 hundreths behind Vettel’s time. Jenson Button got within 9 thousands of the Red Bull, and replaced Hamilton in P2. Fernando Alonso instantly took that second place off Hamilton with his final lap.
Mark Webber then took P1 with a 1.34.806, before a last-gasp run by Sebastian Vettel got him a 1.34.558, to give him pole position. That was the final lap of Q3, so it was another Red Bull front-row lockout this season.
Full times from qualifying:
| Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1.36.317 | 1.35.280 | 1.34.558 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1.35.978 | 1.35.100 | 1.34.806 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1.35.987 | 1.35.235 | 1.34.913 |
| 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1.35.952 | 1.35.134 | 1.34.923 |
| 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1.36.122 | 1.35.443 | 1.34.979 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1.35.641 | 1.34.928 | 1.35.034 |
| 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1.36.076 | 1.35.290 | 1.35.180 |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1.36.348 | 1.35.550 | 1.35.364 |
| 9 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1.36.348 | 1.35.715 | 1.35.646 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1.36.671 | 1.35.665 | 1.35.963 |
| 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1.36.664 | 1.35.748 | |
| 12 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1.36.618 | 1.36.047 | |
| 13 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1.36.793 | 1.36.149 | |
| 14 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1.37.031 | 1.36.311 | |
| 15 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1.37.044 | 1.36.422 | |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1.37.049 | 1.36.647 | |
| 17 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1.37.050 | 1.37.020 | |
| 18 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1.37.161 | ||
| 19 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1.39.278 | ||
| 20 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1.39.399 | ||
| 21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1.39.520 | ||
| 22 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1.39.783 | ||
| 23 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1.40.469 | ||
| 24 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1.40.578 |
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Stunning lap by Vettel, but what happened to Lewis’s pace? It seemed to disappear as fast as Buemi’s front wheels.
BTW: Kobayashi changed his gearbox and will start 20th.
Lewis seems to be saying that the car was bottoming out a lot in Q3, I’ll look more into that.
Just wondering, where did you learn about Kobayashi’s gearbox? I can’t seem to find it on any of the websites I’ve looked on.
The inaccuracies of Wikipedia strike again! Maybe I should have double checked with the BBC.