Sebastian Vettel gained his seventh pole position of the season beating off competition from Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.
In Q1, all the attention, as always, was on the back of the field. The usual crowd were fighting it out for that precious 17th place. For a heartbeat, it seemed that a big name could drop out. Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and the Mercedes all had to go out on the soft tyres. This kept them all safe, meaning Felipe Massa took first, and meant that Jaime Alguersuari joined the two Lotus drivers, Virgin drivers, and the two HRT cars. All seven of which, qualified within the 107% of the fastest lap.
In the 15 minutes of Q2, there were the usual two parts. First, most of the drivers went out to do a flying lap. At the end of the first stint, Pastor Maldonado seemed to have an electrical problem with his Williams. he abandoned his car just off the racing line, a stunt which eventually brought out he red flags, postponing Q2 with 7 minutes 59 seconds left. When Pastor's car had been removed from the track, it was re-opened. Everyone below sixth went to do another flying lap. It looked like it would be the top five teams (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault & Mercedes) who would participate in Q3, but as the checkered flag falled, Adrian Sutil pushed out Vitaly Petrov.
Q3 got underway with six cars setting the early pace. Vettel led the way setting a time of 1:36.975, 0.4 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. As they got ready for another stint, the Mercedes drivers, on a one-flying lap, joined them. Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil chose not to do a flying lap, in order to save their tyres. At the front, the drivers were struggling to improve in their times. Mark Webber managed to get his Red Bull up to second, but no-one improved. This meant Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel abandoned their laps. Sebastian Vettel then eased to another pole position, followed by Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.
Grid For Tomorrow
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
3 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
4 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
5 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
6 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
7 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
8 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 12
9 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 11
10 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
11 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 16
12 - Paul DiResta - Force India - 26
13 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
14 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 18
15 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 34
16 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 36
17 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 14
18 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 19
19 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 13
20 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 17
21 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 20
22 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 22
23 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 31
24 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 37
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