Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his twenty-fifth career pole position with a sensational lap around the legendary Monza track.

His margin over rival Lewis Hamilton was an impressive 0.4 seconds and by taking the top spot, it underlines the speed of the Renault-powered RB7 and maintains the team’s perfect record in qualifying this season.

The McLarens will start the Italian Grand Prix in second and third, with Hamilton edging out team-mate Jenson Button by 0.052 seconds.

Racing in front of the passionate tifosi, Fernando Alonso took fourth for Ferrari ahead of Mark Webber’s Red Bull and team-mate Felipe Massa.

The Renaults and Mercedes completed the top ten, with Vitaly Petrov in seventh, Michael Schumacher out-qualifying Nico Rosberg to eighth, with Bruno Senna completing the Q3 field without setting a lap time.

Senna’s last-gasp Q2 effort knocked Force India’s Paul di Resta out by just a tiny margin of 0.006 seconds. He will share the sixth row with his team-mate Adrian Sutil.

The Williams pair takes up row seven, while the Saubers struggled in qualifying after a promising practice session and will sandwich Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi in P15 and P17. Buemi’s team-mate Jaime Alguersuari was again the unfortunate midfielder knocked out in Q1 and will start the race in P18.

Jarno Trulli led the tail-end group for Team Lotus out-qualifying team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Timo Glock got close to Kovalainen’s pace despite concerns that his Virgin Racing’s Drag Reduction System was sticking open.

As for the back row of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo will start ahead of his veteran HRT team-mate Tonio Liuzzi for the first time in only his fifth appearance in Formula One.

Qualifying positions for the Italian Grand Prix, Monza:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m22.275s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.725s
3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.777s
4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m22.841s
5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m22.972s
6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m23.188s
7.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m23.530s
8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m23.777s
9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m24.477s
10.  Bruno Senna           Renault              No time
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m24.163s
12.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m24.209s
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m24.648s
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m24.726s
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m24.845s
16.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m24.932s
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m25.065s
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m25.334s
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m26.647s
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m27.184s
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m27.591s
22.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m27.609s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m28.054s
24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m28.231s

107 per cent time: 1m29.854s

иконография

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel took his seventh Grand Prix victory of the season in a thrilling Belgian Grand Prix. He led home a Red Bull Racing one-two with Mark Webber close behind following a bad start off the grid.

This was the perfect result for Vettel following three disappointing races. To win his seventeenth career Grand Prix at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Vettel is well on his way to take the drivers’ title come the end of the championship.

McLaren’s Jenson Button made some stunning overtaking manoeuvres to recover from P13 to finish in third. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to retire following a clash with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Fernando Alonso was a contender for race victory but fell down to fourth in the final stint on the Prime tyre.

As for Michael Schumacher, celebrating his twentieth anniversary since making his Formula One debut, the seven-time world champion drove a solid race from last on the grid to take fifth, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

A chaotic start had seen Mark Webber stutter off the grid (once again) and fall from third to eighth, as Nico Rosberg burst through to second and then slipstream past Vettel to take a shock lead for Mercedes by Les Combes, with Felipe Massa, Hamilton and the fast-starting Alonso next up.

Rosberg’s lead lasted until lap three, when Vettel activated his Drag Reduction System and eased ahead on the Kemmel Straight. But the tyre issues that had been feared prior to the race started early for the Red Bulls, with Webber pitting after just three laps, and Vettel coming in from the lead next time around due to blistering.

That put Rosberg back in front, though he had Alonso right behind as the Spaniard had swiftly passed Hamilton, then outbraked team-mate Massa when the sister Ferrari lost momentum in a failed move on Rosberg. Hamilton also capitalised to further demote Massa as the shuffle unfolded.

By lap seven Alonso used a combination of DRS and KERS to sweep past Rosberg on the Kemmel Straight to move into the lead, with Hamilton doing likewise on the following lap.

The Ferrari and McLaren managed to keep their initial tyres intact until laps eight and eleven respectively, but the Red Bulls’ earlier pit stops had worked out better for them – and as Hamilton pitted from the lead, Vettel was sweeping around the outside of Rosberg in an epic move into Blanchimont ready to head the field again.

Shortly beforehand, Webber had produced a similarly spectacular move on Alonso into the Eau Rouge as the Ferrari emerged from its pit stop, though Alonso would repass the Red Bull next time around.

Hamilton’s challenge then ended on lap 13, when a brush of wheels with the yet-to-pit Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on the run into Les Combes. The McLaren spun into the barriers, prompting a safety car period.

With the Safety Car out on track, Vettel immediately pitted for a fresh set of Pirellis, which meant that although Alonso was able to lead again from the restart, the champion was soon easing ahead once more with a DRS pass.

From then onwards Vettel was effectively untouchable, pulling away from Alonso through the next stint and clinching his first win since Valencia. When the Ferrari switched to the Prime for the final run to the chequered flag, Alonso’s pace tailed off dramatically and he found himself being passed by first Webber, then Button.

The Hungarian Grand Prix winner had driven another epic race, getting the Prime tyre out of the way in the first stint, then overtaking car after car to move himself into podium contention. Button secured his place on the rostrum by passing the troubled Alonso with two laps left.

Michael Schumacher took a superb fifth place from the back of the grid – like Button using the Prime tyre in the opening stint then charging spectacularly. His Mercedes team-mate Rosberg drifted back to sixth as the race progressed, ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil and the Renault of Vitaly Petrov.

An additional pit stop to replace a deflating tyre left Massa in ninth spot, while Pastor Maldonado put behind his qualifying controversy to score the final point for Williams.

Bruno Senna’s return to Formula One resulted in P13 for Renault. This was a bad result following his impressive qualifying form. It didn’t help he was quite ambition at La Source which ended in a tangle with Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. This first-corner clash earned the Brazilian a drive-through penalty.

Virgin’s Timo Glock was also given a drive-through after being adjudged to have triggered further multi-car mayhem at the back end of the pack.

So a great result for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. His lead in the drivers’ championship looks increasingly omnipresent with 259 points, ahead of Webber on 167, Alonso on 157, Button on 149 and Hamilton on 146. Massa remains sixth with 74, but Schumacher’s fifth hoists him clear of the ninth-place scrap with 42 points to Rosberg’s 56.

In the constructors’, Red Bull Racing had a very profitable day, garnering 43 points to bring their leading score to 426 ahead of McLaren on 295 and Ferrari on 231.

Belgian Grand Prix race results, 44 laps:

1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h26.44.893
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +3.741s
3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +9.669s
4.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +13.022s
5.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +47.464s
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +48.674s
7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +59.713s
8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1m06.076s
9.  Petrov        Renault                    +1m11.917s
10.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth         +1m17.615s
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1m23.994s
12.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1m31.976s
13.  Senna         Renault                    +1m32.985s
14.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
15.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
17.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +1 lap
19.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415

Not classified/retirements:

Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               27 laps
Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth                 13 laps
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             12 laps
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           6 laps
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           1 lap

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel       259
2.  Webber       167
3.  Alonso       157
4.  Button       149
5.  Hamilton     146
6.  Massa         74
7.  Rosberg       56
8.  Schumacher    42
9.  Petrov        34
10.  Heidfeld      34
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         24
13.  Buemi         12
14.  Alguersuari   10
15.  Di Resta       8
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4
18.  Maldonado      1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          295
3.  Ferrari                   231
4.  Mercedes                   88
5.  Renault                    68
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       32
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
9.  Williams-Cosworth           5

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 9-11.

икони

Sebastian Vettel maintains Red Bull Racing’s excellent qualifying form with yet another pole position, this time at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps.

The championship leader achieved his eighth pole of the season with a time of one minute, 48.298 seconds, to denied McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton from the top spot by a margin of four tenths of a second.

After setting the fastest time in two of the practice sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, Mark Webber had to settle with third, with Felipe Massa once again out-qualifying his Ferrari team-mate to take fourth.

But the major talking point in this wet/dry qualifying session was a bizarre incident involving the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton in Q2.

As track conditions rapidly improved and the lap times turned inside out, Hamilton banged his wheels with Maldonado going through the Bus Stop chicane as the McLaren completed a flying lap just as the chequered flag was out.

That moment elevated Hamilton to the top of the leader board but on the slowing-down lap, Maldonado appeared to retaliate for the contact on the run out of La Source, sideswiping the McLaren, which then needed minor impromptu repairs for the start of Q3.

Unfortunately the second McLaren of Jenson Button was out following the late-Q2 scramble, leaving the winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix down in P13 on the grid.

The end of Q3 was a similar topsy-turvy as the circuit began to dry out. Felipe Massa was able to take advantage of the improve track condition to out qualify his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso for only the second time this season as they took fourth and eighth respectively.

Nico Rosberg put his Mercedes in fifth, while Jaime Alguersuari continue to impressive with an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso.

But the real hero of qualifying was Bruno Senna. The Brazilian was drafted in to replace Nick Heidfeld and despite not driving since Abu Dhabi last season, he was quick throughout qualifying and in the end, recorded the seventh fastest time on his debut for Renault. That’s three positions ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov, who shares row five with Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

Rosberg was the only Mercedes in the top ten as his team-mate was out even before setting a flying lap… Twenty years after making his Formula 1 debut in the Jordan – in which he qualified a superb seventh – Michael Schumacher’s anniversary weekend went dramatically downhill when his Mercedes shed a right-rear wheel on its out-lap at the start of Q1 and crashed heavily on the approach to Rivage, leaving the seven-time world champion at the tail end of the field.

Neither Williams made it beyond Q2, with Rubens Barrichello in P14 and Maldonado initially in P16. A five-grid penalty was given to the latter hours after qualifying for causing a collision and so Maldonado will start the race in P21. Adrian Sutil lines up P15 after crashing his Force India on the way out of Eau Rouge while holding fifth in Q2. A red flag was required while the debris was cleared up.

That completed a miserable qualifying session for Force India as a spin on his final Q1 run had already left Paul di Resta down in P17. With Schumacher and di Resta both missing the cut, Heikki Kovalainen made it to Q2 for Team Lotus and will start in P16.

Qualifying times from Spa-Francorchamps:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m48.298s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m48.730s
3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m49.376s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m50.256s
5.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m50.552s
6.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m50.773s
7.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m51.121s
8.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m51.251s
9.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m51.374s
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m52.303s
11.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   2m04.692s
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       2m04.757s
13.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     2m05.150s
14.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    2m07.349s
15.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 2m07.777s
16.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        2m08.354s
17.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 2m07.758s
18.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        2m07.773s
19.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      2m09.566s
20.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      2m11.601s
21.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    2m08.106s*
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         2m11.616s
23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         2m13.077s
24.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time

107% time: 2m10.339s

*Five-place grid penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton at the end of Q2

Jenson Button celebrated his two hundredth Grand Prix with victory in a wet/dry Hungarian Grand Prix.

McLaren could have had a one-two finish, with Lewis Hamilton leading the majority of the Grand Prix, but a tyre strategy misjudgement and a drive-through penalty ruined Hamilton’s race.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel had to settle for second position, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Hamilton.

The race began on a damp track with all twenty-four drivers on the intermediates. Starting in second, Hamilton was in aggressive mood and immediately focused his attention on passing Sebastian Vettel for the race lead. The duel between the pair was quite exciting.

The lead finally changed on lap five, when Vettel ran wide at Turn 2 and Hamilton breezed past and pulled away, soon extending a four-second lead over the championship leader, who was at least able to drop Button at this stage.

Laps 10 to 13 saw all the leaders decide the track was ready for slicks, and coming in one lap sooner than Vettel paid off for Button, who made the most of this warmer tyres and greater confidence to take second place into Turn 2.

Mark Webber pulled off the same manoeuvre on Alonso for fourth at the same time. The Ferrari had lost ground through Turn 1 on the opening lap, and then charged back up the order despite two minor trips off track.

The relatively serene middle phase of the race saw Hamilton holding a comfortable gap over Button, who had a similar five-second advantage back to Vettel, while Webber fended off Alonso ten-second behind them.

Alonso decided to make a relatively early third pit-stop and take another set of option (super softs), while all the other leaders except Hamilton switched to the prime (softs) at this point.

That burst of pace allowed Alonso to jump both Red Bulls during his rapid laps before they pitted, though the Pirellis began to wear out and he lost third to Vettel again.

Hamilton adopted the same strategy as Alonso, which left him looking very vulnerable to Button, but in the event the return of the rain rendered these tactics rather irrelevant.

The sudden shower hit on lap 47, causing Hamilton to spin at the chicane. He tried to rejoin as quickly as possible, but could not prevent his team-mate taking the lead. As he rotated around, he forced Paul di Resta off the track and that move ultimately earn Hamilton a drive-through penalty.

With the rain increasing, Button slipped up at Turn 2 four laps later, allowing Hamilton back into the lead. Button retaliated on the following lap and briefly regained first place on the pits straight, only to go wide again at Turn 2 as the top spot was exchanged yet again.

While all this was going on the McLaren drivers were in discussion with the pit wall on whether to switch to intermediate tyres. Initially, the team told both to come in which would have meant Button queueing behind Hamilton.

But as the lap neared an end the team decided not to bring Button in. Hamilton, struggling to hear his instructions with a faulty radio, did pit for intermediate tyres.

This was a big mistake as the brief shower was gone, and he was soon back in for slicks. His drive-through penalty for nearly wiping out Paul di Resta followed; dropping Hamilton down to sixth and leaving his McLaren team-mate clear to take the chequered flag.

The 2009 champion briefly came under pressure from last year’s champion, but had the speed to pull away again and clinch his second Grand Prix victory of the season.

With Webber also switching to intermediates unnecessary, Alonso regained third, which he held despite a quick late spin.

Hamilton battled back to fourth ahead of Webber, with Felipe Massa recovering from an early spin to take sixth.

Kamui Kobayashi tried to go the full distance on just a two-stop strategy and held seventh heading into the closing stages, albeit with a massive queue of cars chasing his Sauber.

The plan did not work, and he had to pit for fresh set of Pirellis after tumbling down the order, as Paul di Resta came through to seventh and Sebastien Buemi turned P23 on the grid into an eighth place for Toro Rosso.

Nico Rosberg finished in ninth position in the remaining Mercedes as team-mate Michael Schumacher was forced to retire with a gearbox issue.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari survived a clash with Kobayashi to take the final point with tenth.

One of the most spectacular incidents of this highly eventful race befell Nick Heidfeld, whose Renault caught fire in the pit exit following a long stop, with a minor explosion on its left-hand side as the track marshals dealt with the blaze.

Formula One now enters its summer break. Despite winning a single race in the past four Grands Prix, Sebastian Vettel still leads the championship with 234 points. It’s going to be fascinating to see if McLaren and Ferrari can keep applying pressure to Red Bull in the second half of the championship.

Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps:

1.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           1h43:42.337
2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +3.588
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +19.819
4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +48.338
5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +49.742
6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1:17.176
7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
8.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
9.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1 lap
10.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
11.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12.  Petrov        Renault                    +1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +2 laps
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +2 laps
15.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +2 laps
16.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +2 laps
17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +4 laps
18.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps
19.  D’Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +5 laps
20.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +5 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:23.415

Not classified/retirements:

Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault                56 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     27 laps
Heidfeld      Renault                      24 laps
Trulli        Lotus-Renault                18 laps

World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:             
1.  Vettel       234
2.  Webber       149
3.  Hamilton     146
4.  Alonso       145
5.  Button       134
6.  Massa         70
7.  Rosberg       48
8.  Heidfeld      34
9.  Schumacher    32
10.  Petrov        32
11.  Kobayashi     27
12.  Sutil         18
13.  Buemi         12
14.  Alguersuari   10
15.  Di Resta       8
16.  Perez          8
17.  Barrichello    4

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          383
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          280
3.  Ferrari                   215
4.  Mercedes                   80
5.  Renault                    66
6.  Sauber-Ferrari             35
7.  Force India-Mercedes       26
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         22
9.  Williams-Cosworth           4

Next race: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 26-28.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel earned his twenty-third career pole position for Red Bull Racing, denying McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to the top spot for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The margin between Vettel and Hamilton was really close – only 0.163 seconds – with Vettel’s lap of one minute, 19.815 seconds good enough to earn the champion pole at the Hungaroring.

Competing in his two hundredth Grand Prix, Jenson Button will start in third for McLaren ahead of the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. This is the first time that Massa has out-qualified his Scuderia team-mate this season.

Last year’s winner Mark Webber could only manage the sixth quickest time, ahead of the Mercedes-powered cars of Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil and Michael Schumacher. As for Sergio Perez, the Sauber driver elated not to run in Q3 to save a set of option tyres for the race. Perez will start in tenth position.

There was a gap of almost two seconds from first to tenth with a couple of minutes of Q2 remaining, the result of which was that the top seven at that moment – led by Jenson Button – did not undertake second runs.

All of those drivers had done enough to make it into Q3, but behind them the order was constantly changing. Late laps for Sutil and Schumacher brought the Force India and Mercedes drivers into the top ten after the chequered flag had come out.

The biggest loser was Force India’s Paul di Resta, who was bumped back to P11. The Renaults of Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld were P12 and P14, split by Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, while Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguersuari were next up for Williams and Toro Rosso.

The star of Q1 was Heikki Kovalainen, who put his Lotus in an impressive P19 and just over 0.1 seconds behind Sebastien Buemi.

Behind Kovalainen were his team-mate Jarno Trulli, Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock and the Hispania drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo.

Even though Sebastien Buemi recorded the eighteenth fastest time, he will drop five places on the grid following his collision with Nick Heidfeld at the Nürburgring last weekend.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring:

1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m19.815s
2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m19.978s
3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m20.024s
4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m20.350s
5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m20.365s
6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m20.474s
7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m21.098s
8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m21.445s
9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m21.907s
10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       No time
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m22.256s
12.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m22.284s
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m22.435s
14.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m22.470s
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m22.684s
16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m22.979s
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    No time
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m24.362s
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m24.534s
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.294s
21.  Vitantonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m26.323s
22.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m26.479s
23.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m24.070s*
24.  Jerome D’Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m26.510s

107 per cent time: 1m27.288s

*Five-place grid penalty