Saturday, 16 April 2011

2011 Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel eased to another pole position, as he continues his dominance of Formula One in 2011. The current World Champion, and Number 1 Ranked Driver, took pole by 0.7 seconds, ahead of the McLaren's of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. The German made sure he made it 3 poles, out of 3, and will be hoping to turn this in to a victory for a third time this season.

Q1, unusually, had its twists and turns. The usual suspects fell, with the HRT's, Virgin's, and the two Lotus drivers taking the back six grid positions. However, falling into 17th is Mark Webber. A team decision to keep the Australian on the hard tyres cost him, with Mark eventually being pushed back by Pastor Maldonado.

Q2 kept up with the topsy turvy Q1, mainly due to a red flag with 2 minutes remaining in the session. The Renault of Vitaly Petrov stopped out on track, bringing out the flags. When qualifying resumed, chaos ensued. With cars fighting for position, it was more like Sunday than Saturday. When the dust had settled on Q2, the surprises were from Toro Rosso, with both cars making it through to Q1. They were joined by Paul DiResta, and Vitaly Petrov.

The main contenders woke up in Q3, after the McLaren's and Sebastian Vettel posting times to just get through to the sessions. Button made the benchmark, which was soon to be obliterated by the young German. Vettel beat Jenson by 0.7 seconds to ease to pole. Jenson's primary time was enough to keep him in second, and Lewis Hamilton slotted into third. Nico Rosberg managed to beat the Ferrari's, who had a very poor Qualifying.

The Grid For Tomorrow's Race -
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1st
2 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5th
3 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 2nd
4 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 10th
5 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4th
6 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 5th
7 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 20th
8 - Paul DiResta - Force India - 34th
9 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 16th
10 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 22nd
11 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 15th
12 - Sergio Perez -Sauber - New
13 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 25th
14 - Michael Shumacher - Mercedes - 19th
15 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 9th
16 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 13th
17 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - N
18 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 3rd
19 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 11th
20 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 12th
21 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 36th
22 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 14th
23 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 26th
24 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - N

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