Sebastian Vettel gained his sixth pole of the year, and Red Bull's eight consecutive pole position after a much closer qualifying session. He will be joined at the front by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
In Q1, everyone's attention was at the back of the field. The main talking points before Qualifying were the 107% rule and Jaime Alguersuari. The young Spaniard has come under increasing pressure to be dropped by the Toro Rosso team. His performance today would not have helped, as he dropped out of Q1 alongside the 2 Lotus', Virgins, and HRTs. After the dust had settled, it became apparent that Jerome D'Ambrosio had not managed to get his Virgin car around fast enough, meaning that due to the 107% rule, he will not feature tomorrow. Elsewhere, Liuzzi managed to get his HRT infront of Timo Glock, and for the first time this season, Jarno Trulli out-qualified his team mate Heikki Kovalainen.
In Q2 tensions were high for the midfield teams. In the 15 minute session, both Kamui Kobayashi and Pail Di Resta had moments were they were inches from ending their qualifying session. At the front, it was fairly confortable. After eveyone had set one flying lap, it became apparent that it would be very difficult for anyone other than the Big 5 to get into Q3. The gap was so vast, that when drivers came around for their second stint, the top 9 did not leave the pitlane. In the end, there were no suprises, with Di Rest coming the "best of the rest" in 11th.
Q3 started with the ten fastest cars all gunning for one spot. As usual in Q3, their were two strategies. Mercedes were going to try and do one stint on the super-soft tyres, instead of two stints like the other four teams. After the first stint of runs, it was Vettel who took prelimery pole, ahead of suprise act Felipe Massa, who had managed to pull off a time faster than Fernando Alonso, who lay third. As the clock ticked away, all the drivers were trying to pull of their fastest lap at the very end. However, as hard as everyone else tried, no one could beat Sebastian Vettel's lap time. Not even Vettel himself. Alonso had managed to take second of Massa. They headed of Webber in fourth, with Hamilton fifth, and Rosberg and Schumacher making it a Button sandwhich in sixth and eight respectively.
The Grid For Tomorrow
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
3 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
4 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
5 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
6 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
7 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
8 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 12
9 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 11
10 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 17
11 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 27
12 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 33
13 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 18
14 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
15 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 16
16 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
17 - Pedro De La Rosa - Sauber - 25
18 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 20
19 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 15
20 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 13
21 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 22
22 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 19
23 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 38
DNQ - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 33
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