Vettel grabs pole for German grand prix
Saturday, 24, Jul 2010 01:58
By Adam Leveridge.
Sebastian Vettel nabbed pole position for the German grand prix by two thousandths of a second over Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari with a 1m13.791.
Felipe Massa will start from the second row of the grid alongside Mark Webber, who made a slight mistake at turn one, while Jenson Button managed to outqualify Lewis Hamilton with the fifth fastest time.
Third practice suggested that qualifying for the German grand prix would be one of the closest sessions of the year so far, as both Red Bulls, Ferraris and McLarens were in the mix at the sharp end of the timesheets.
The rain that disrupted all three practice sessions held off for qualifying, giving us an opportunity to see exactly how the teams stack-up against each other at Hockenheim.
In the opening minutes of Q1, 12 runners exited the pits to drill in banker laptimes, including both Ferraris, the Silver Arrows and the McLaren teammates.
Felipe Massa went fastest straight out of the blocks, setting a 1m16.908, however, he was shuffled down to second place by Fernando Alonso, who went five tenths faster before the session was red-flagged when Tonio Liuzzi crashed into the pit-wall.
The Italian had a heavy front-end impact after going wide onto the Astroturf and shards of carbon fibre and both his front wheels were scattered across the circuit in the path of one of the Virgin cars.
Times came thick and fast at the restart and Hamilton was the first to get deep into the 1m15s, however, that would only prove to be enough for fifth, as Alonso achieved a 1m14.808 on his final run, the fastest time of the weekend so far.
Vettel was the best of the rest in second place, while Massa put his Ferrari between the Red Bulls with the third fastest time of Q1.
There were no surprises in the drop zone, with the exception of Liuzzi who qualified 22nd with Sakon Yamamoto and Lucas di Grassi trailing him; Di Grassi was unable to take part in qualifying when he suffered a gearbox issue and so he will start from the back row of the grid along with his Virgin teammate Glock, who was handed a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox.
The first half of Q2 was fraught, with all 17 drivers pumping in times, but it was Ferrari who pulled out the fastest times.
Massa drilled in a 1m14.478 to go quickest overall and two hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate.
Both Red Bulls and Hamilton in the McLaren were all in the 1m14s, and Kubica was the best of the rest, setting a 1m15.001 to go fifth fastest.
Despite being comfortable at the top of the times, Alonso and Vettel opted to return to the track for one final go and both improved, as Alonso really took the fight to Red Bull by setting a 1m14.0 and Vettel set a 1m14.2.
Both Silver Arrows needed to find half a second to make it through to the top-ten shootout as the final stints began.
Rosberg and Schumacher were on the ragged edge and while the 25-year old scraped into the top ten, his more experienced teammate had his day spoilt when Nico Hulkenburg pushed him out of the running.
Alonso was blinding in Q3 and he became the first to break into the 1m13s to go provisionally fastest, however, Vettel matched his sector one time and ended up just three hundredths off as he crossed the start/finish line.
Webber was four tenths down in third place and he had Hamilton in fourth at the end of the first runs.
Cars streamed out of the pits for their final surges at pole, but Alonso and Webber waited, wanting to be the last to post a time.
Vettel was the first to cross the line and he pulled off a 1m13.791 to go quickest, while Alonso missed out on pole by a mere two thousandths of a second, which translates to 6.2 centimeters at the line.
Webber made a slight mistake at turn one as he started his final flying lap and he could only manage fourth behind Massa, and Button ended Q3 as the lead McLaren but he was concerned about the pace of Vettel and Alonso, as they had seven tenths in hand.