Saturday, 15 October 2011

2011 Korean Grand Prix - Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton got his first pole position of the year, finally denying Red Bull the top stop. Vettel could only come second, ahead of Button & Webber.

In Q1, everything went to plan to most of the teams. Hamilton set the fastest lap in the 20 minutes, as McLaren seemed to close the gap to Red Bull at the front. In the midfield, Force India and Sauber seemed secure. The team in trouble was Williams. It seemed to be a fight between Maldonado & Barrichello to see who would make it through. With the flag out, it was Barrichello who was through, but with Rubens in the pits, Pastor came across the line, beating his teammates lap time. Rubens joined the two Lotus', Virgins & HRTs.

Q2 was slightly tighter for some teams. Red Bull & McLaren eased through on the soft tyres. But Ferrari & Mercedes had to use the super-soft tyres. Massa had to do 2 stints to get through to Q3, while Michael Schumacher struggled with vibration, and he could only reach 12th. His lap time was beaten by Alguersuari, then Sutil & DiResta. Both Force India's just making it through to the last part of Qualifying.

In Q3, it was all about today's 2 fastest teams. In the first stint, Hamilton took pole, ahead of Vettel, Webber & Button. The Ferrari's were split by Rosberg, while Force India chose not to run. At the start of the second stint, it seemed that the drivers were tight for time. Every made it across the line in time, but all 8 drivers were tightly bunched. Webber was first in the pack, but a poor first sector forced him to abandon his lap. Behind him though, was the man of the moment. Lewis Hamilton went across the line, setting the fastest time of the day. Button could only beat Webber, and Vettel could nothing but take second.

Lewis stops Red Bull's total domination of Qualifying this year. It is the first none-Red Bull pole since Brazil 2010, and Lewis' first pole since Canada 2010!

Grid For Tomorrow
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
2 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
3 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 4
4 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
5 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
6 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 5
7 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
8 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 12
9 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 19
10 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
11 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 15
12 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 9
13 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 13
14 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 14
15 - Bruno Senna - Renault - 26
16 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 25
17 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 24
18 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
19 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 18
20 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 17
21 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 21
22 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 29
23 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 23
24 - Daniel Ricciardo - HRT - 38

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