Q1
In Q1 tradition Prime (hard) tyres were the order of the day to begin with. Later on towards the end of the session we saw the usual pattern of borderline drivers moving to the Option (soft) tyres.
Michael Schumacher had dodgey DRS and ended up stuck in the drop-zone! As if that surprise wasn’t enough, Heikki Kovalainen managed to qualify within the top 17 going through to Q2.
Charles Pic must have also been pleased with his effort as for the first time this season he out-qualified his team-mate Timo Glock.
Drivers knocked out in Q1 were:
- Michael Schumacher – 1:34.865
- Jean-Eric Vergne – 1:35.014
- Vitaly Petrov – 1:35.823
- Charles Pic – 1:37.683
- Pedro de la Rosa – 1:37.883
- Timo Glock – 1:37.905
- Narain Karthikeyan – 1:38.314
Q2
Q2 was another pig of a session for Felipe Massa! He made it out to the track early and made it into the top 10, although he was quickly pushed out. Then he set a lap putting him into ninth ahead of Alonso. It was however not to be as other drivers improved their lap times pushing him out in Q2. Once again Alonso showed why Ferrari fans love him so. He donned a new set of the Option tyres and put himself solidly into Q1.
Kimi Räikkönen did not make it in and took 11th on the grid, but Daniel Ricciardo was on top form making it through!
Hamilton was also flying and went straight to the top of the Q2 times!
Drivers knocked out in Q2 were:
- Kimi Räikkönen – 1:33.789
- Kamui Kobayashi – 1:33.806
- Nico Hulkenberg – 1:33.807
- Felipe Massa – 1:33.912
- Brunno Senna – 1:34.017
- Heikki Kovalainen – 1:36.132
- Pastor Maldonado – No Q2 Time Set
Q3
Alonso and Di Resta didn’t set times in Q1 to start on fresh tyres. Lewis Hamilton initially set the fastest lap time. By the end of the session Mark Webber went fast enough to take pole but was then beaten by team mate Sebasian Vettel.
This is Vettel’s first pole position of the season and he always starts strong. Let’s see what he can do with it!
The final line up was:
- Sebastian Vettel – 1:32.422
- Lewis Hamilton – 1:32.520
- Mark Webber – 1:32.637
- Jenson Button – 1:32.711
- Nico Rosberg – 1:32.821
- Daniel Ricciardo – 1:32.912
- Romain Grosjean – 1:33.008
- Sergio Perez – 1:33.934
- Fernando Alonso – No Q1 Time Set
- Paul Di Resta – No Q1 Time Set
