Red Bull Racing resumed their qualifying form with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber taking the front row at the Valencia street circuit.
Championship contender Lewis Hamilton will start the European Grand Prix in third, alongside home crowd favourite Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
Initially it was Webber who held provisional pole going into the closing moments of Q3, but a superb lap from his team-mate push the German to top honours, the first time since Shanghai. His pole lap in the F-duct RB6 was one minute, 37.587 seconds. A difference of 0.075 seconds.
An error on his final qualifying run saw Hamilton unable to defend his provisional front row slot and he will start the race in third, just ahead of the Scuderias of Alonso and Felipe Massa respectively.
Both Renault and Williams got both cars into the top-ten shootout, with Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello setting identical times! Although Hulkenberg takes eighth over last year’s Valencia winner by virtue by setting his lap first. Robert Kubica takes sixth with team-mate Vitaly Petrov four places back.
As for Jenson Button, the defending world champion could only manage seventh for McLaren. For Mercedes, the silver cars enduring their worst qualifying session even after the troubles at Montreal. Nico Rosberg could only manage P12 after a dramatic brake-locking last lap. While team-mate Michael Schumacher was struggling and will start the race down in P15, his worst ever Formula One starts.
The Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi will share row seven. And it was an encouraging session for Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi, who grabbed P11 and came within 0.034s of sneaking into Q3.
Schumacher’s last-gasp Q1 escape meant it was Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi who ended up down with the new teams for the second event in a row. His team-mate Pedro de la Rosa was just two places ahead, with Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso splitting them.
Lotus remained on top among the tail end group, but this time the gap to the rest of the field was back up to 1.3 seconds. Jarno Trulli overturned team-mate Heikki Kovalainen’s recent superiority and led the battle of the new teams – and there was a change of form at Virgin Racing too, where Lucas di Grassi outqualified Timo Glock for the first time.
Qualifying times from Valencia:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:37.587
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:37.662
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:37.969
4. Alonso Ferrari 1:38.075
5. Massa Ferrari 1:38.127
6. Kubica Renault 1:38.137
7. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.210
8. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:38.428
9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:38.428
10. Petrov Renault 1:38.523
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.586
12. Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.627
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:38.851
14. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:38.884
15. Schumacher Mercedes 1:39.234
16. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.264
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.458
18. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.343
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:40.658
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:40.882
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:42.086
22. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:42.140
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:42.600
24. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:42.851
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel is delighted to be back on pole position and resume the team’s qualifying form this season. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel was happy to be back on pole position after securing the top stop on the grid for tomorrow’s European Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver had been outqualified by his team-mate Mark Webber in the last four races, but bounced back in today’s session to outpace the Australian.
It was the third pole of the season for Vettel and the ninth of his career.
The German driver finished over a tenth of a second ahead of Webber, as Red Bull secured its eighth pole position in nine races.
“It is good. The last couple of races we didn’t have a good run on Saturday, so it is good,” said Vettel. “These circuits, Canada and here in Valencia, usually shouldn’t be our strongest so it’s good to put the car on pole and our pace looks good.
“It was a tight qualifying session in the end. In the first run I had a huge moment in the first sector and I knew I had to put everything in the second run, and it worked.
“I am happy for today. It was a very tough one here, especially as we reintroduced the F-duct and a lot of other things of the car, and some mechanics had just one-hour sleep.”
Vettel, who will race with the F-duct for the first time this season, said he was feeling the difference when using it and reckons it will be a significant asset for the race.
“I think it is isn’t that big probably, but we feel the difference,” he said. “You see how much they [McLaren] gain with it. We are learning every lap and every run.
“Yesterday we were not quite happy but we did another step overnight. We were in front of the monitors to see how to fine tune it and make it better. Also due to that we are in a good position for tomorrow’s race.”
After taking pole position in the previous race at Montreal, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will be pleased to start the European Grand Prix in third. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton said he was relieved to be as high as third in Valencia qualifying as he expected McLaren would be overtaken by teams bringing larger upgrades this weekend.
While McLaren’s next major update – including its blown diffuser exhaust set-up – will not appear until the next round in Britain, Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari have all introduced their revised exhaust systems for Valencia.
But Hamilton still managed a second row start behind the Red Bulls.
“I am really happy to be here, I feel so fortunate this weekend,” he said. “We knew everyone else would be bringing updates and we saw from practice we were quite some way behind, so I was a little bit cautious [in expectations], pushed to the limit, and didn’t realise we would be so far up.”
He was even more surprised considering he had made a costly error on his last Q3 run.
“On the second lap I was up in the second sector but locked up rears in Turn 12 and did it later in the lap,” said Hamilton. “I thought for sure I was going to drop back but was surprised when I came back and was third.”
The Briton still thinks the race is wide open even though a less eventful grand prix than Canada is anticipated.
“I think definitely it is going to be an interesting race tomorrow,” he said. “How we manage the tyres and hopefully they will behave better than the last race.
“I can’t complain about where we start from. The stops will be crucial and obviously the first corner, the first few laps will be crucial for positions. We will push as hard as we can to win.”
McLaren’s Jenson Button will start the European Grand Prix in seventh position and has admitted that he made a mistake during his important Q3 lap. Read the Autosport.com article below for the full story.
Jenson Button blamed a driving error for his disappointing performance in qualifying for the European Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver will start the race from seventh position after losing time due to a mistake on the final corner of his final lap in Q3.
Without that, Button believes he would have been up in fourth position, behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
“Qualifying was going to be tough for us, we thought here, with people having new updates, but it was all looking good until the last corner of qualifying,” Button said.
“I was pretty happy with the car and I locked up into the last corner. I got a bit of oversteer through the quick right-hander before that and I think I just set the car a little bit wrong for the last corner.
“I locked up and ran wide and lost two tenths, which was massive. That’s P4, so it’s very disappointing. Let’s hope for a better race tomorrow.”
The world champion admitted he was surprised by the pace of the Red Bull cars, after Sebastian Vettel took pole position by fourth tenths over the first non-Red Bull car.
Button reckons the blue cars will be very strong in the race too.
“Surprised by the speed of the Red Bulls and a little bit surprised… I thought the other cars would also be on the Red Bull’s pace,” Button said.
“I think the Red Bulls have proved that they’ve got the F-duct working. So they are very competitive and I can’t see them being slow in the race either. I spoke to Mark [Webber] yesterday and he seemed pretty confident.”
As for the seven-time world champion, this was a difficult qualifying session for Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes GP driver has said that he was having problems with the brakes and tyres. Autosport.com has the details on this and can be read below.
Michael Schumacher said brake issues and trouble getting the tyres into their operating window were to blame for the worst qualifying result of his comeback so far.
The seven-time champion will start the European Grand Prix in Valencia only 15th, while his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg also struggled and was 12th.
“Basically, there were two factors,” Schumacher told television crews in Spain. “One was that we had a general issue with the tyres just not working, as in Canada.
“On top of this, I had a so-called difficulty with the brakes – I was locking up the front right basically permanently, seemed to be unloaded at the front right corner. I don’t understand that – something we need to get on top of, so that made it extra difficult when we already had a barrier to climb over.”
He acknowledged that tomorrow’s race will be extremely tough, but remained adamant that Mercedes was fundamentally competitive in race trim.
“I’m sure there’s some disappointment, naturally,” said Schumacher. “We are fighters. We know the business long enough that you have those up and downs, you have those moments that for whatever reason you don’t understand things.
“We clearly have improved the car. The guys have worked hard and they have worked very well. This is very clear and obvious, because when we put the fuel in the car we are looking actually strong. We did as well in Canada.
“But, it doesn’t help if you qualify where we do qualify and then you have to race from there. It’s going to be a difficult afternoon tomorrow.”
In addition, Michael Schumacher has said he is not downbeat by his current performance this season, despite his poor qualifying form at the European Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher insists he is not getting disheartened by his continued frustrations in Formula 1, despite slumping to his worst qualifying performance of the season in Valencia.
The Mercedes GP driver could manage no better than 15th, struggling with traffic, brakes and tyres, as his comeback continues to fail to deliver the front-running success that he and the outfit had hoped for.
But although admitting he was not happy with the situation he found himself in at the European Grand Prix, Schumacher said that such trouble had to be viewed in the context of his three-year plan to triumph.
“Come on guys, I am long enough around and I have had to deal with much worse pain,” Schumacher told reporters in Valencia on Saturday evening. “I am not here with the short-term view that I just go race-to-race and I have to have a single race. It is something we are programming on.
“From my point of view, I have a three-year programme. Obviously we thought we would be closer, nearer and in a better situation this year, but that is not the case. So we have to understand and I have to work my way through as I did in the past and that is what we are here for. It is part of, in a way, the process – and the joy comes from a different point of view.
“Sure I am not happy and excited about being P15, that is natural. But once the progress comes in, and I am sure it will come in, then you get rewarded.”
When asked if he was hurt by the criticisms he has faced in the media, Schumacher said: “I know what is going on, and I care for what is realistic and what I know, what I have to worry about.”
Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn was equally philosophical about the situation.
“It is a curious thing, but is it pain that makes the pleasure so much better,” he said. “Having been in this business so long you know you are going to have days like this, and you know you are going to have periods like this. And it is impossible to be consistently at the top, consistently the fastest. You just can’t do it.
“These are the periods when you have to show your strengths – to make the right moves and do the right things to get out of it. But it is the pain we will put ourselves through because it is the nature of the business. If you cannot handle this pain you should not be involved.”
Brawn also played down wild speculation that had appeared in certain sections of the Internet that the team had approached Robert Kubica about a potential deal for 2011.
“We haven’t spoken with Robert Kubica,” said Brawn. “I spoke to him at Brawn GP a year ago when we looking at the future, but we haven’t spoken to him since then, so there are no discussions going on.
“We are very happy with Michael. We have to sort the car out, that is the main issue, and we are confident when we get the technical package together our drivers are going to succeed.”
Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso was quite happy with the progress made by the Ferrari team, in particular the updated aerodynamics fitting to his F10. The Spaniard will start the European Grand Prix in fourth while team-mate Felipe Massa in fifth. Autosport.com provides the story on the Scuderia’s qualifying form.
Fernando Alonso has praised Ferrari’s updates for Valencia, saying the team would have struggled to reach Q3 without them.
The Italian squad has introduced several new components in its F10 in the hope of moving forward, and the team enjoyed a good qualifying on Saturday.
Alonso qualified in fourth position, with team-mate Felipe Massa in fifth.
The Spaniard admitted he was pleased with his performance, and conceded things would have been much harder for his team without the upgrades.
“I am happy with this result,” said Alonso. “Here, so many teams, including Ferrari, have brought new parts and so it was important to show we are capable of fighting for the top places.
“We managed it and we must bear in mind that, without the updates we have on the F10, we would probably have struggled to make it into Q3.
“Tomorrow, we have the potential to fight for a podium place: it will be important to get a good start, choose the right strategy and not make any mistakes because the walls here are not forgiving.
“Obviously, reliability will be very important as this track is very tough on the cars. With the harder tyre, our car was more competitive as its behaviour inspired more confidence over the flying lap, but to have done Q3 with this compound would probably have compromised our race.”
Massa believes a better result was possible given the performance of the car, but the Brazilian said traffic had prevented him from getting his tyres working perfectly.
“Today, we had a good car and the potential was there to do better than this fifth place,” he said. “In Q1 and Q2, I was very pleased with the handling of my F10, but in Q3 I was not able to improve, mainly because of traffic that prevented me from preparing the tyres properly.
“It’s a shame, because I could have been starting from third place tomorrow: from fifth it will be harder to fight for a podium finish, but the chance is still there within our grasp.
“The updates the team has brought here contributed to making the car more competitive and they lived up to our expectations: we must continue down this route for the rest of the season.”
Fernando Alonso believes that his hopes of finishing on the podium on home turf in Valencia should be boosted by the fact that his car is so good on its tyres.
Although the F10’s characteristics have sometimes led to he and team-mate Felipe Massa struggling to get soft tyres switched on in qualifying, the Spaniard is upbeat about how their plight could well be a help for the likely long stint on harder tyres that are expected in Sunday’s race.
“To get the maximum from the soft is difficult for us,” said Alonso. “We need to improve in that area, but it is not the first time it has happened.
“Sometimes we feel more comfortable with the prime. And, in a way, it is an advantage for the race pace because when we have to do 40/50 laps with the prime tyre, normally we are better than our competitors. We will try and exploit that more.”
Although the upgrades that Ferrari brought to Valencia, including the blown diffuser, did not help the team overcome Red Bull Racing or McLaren, Alonso said he was still pleased with the situation the team found itself in.
“I think it is okay, I think it is what we expected,” he said. “I think everyone did a big step, so there are teams like Mercedes out of Q2. That creates a picture of this championship – how interesting it is, and how much improved everybody is to see Mercedes out of Q2. So thanks to our improvements we are fourth and fifth.
“That is a fantastic result for the team. There were many races we were not fourth and fifth, we were struggling a lot, so hopefully tomorrow we have the possibility to be on the podium.
“But for sure we need to keep improving because half a second off Red Bull is too much. We need to keep improving.”
Renault’s Robert Kubica is quite optimistic about the team’s performance following updates to the R30. The Polish driver believes he has good chance in the race after qualifying in sixth, just behind the Ferraris. Read on from his view as reported by Autosport.com.
Robert Kubica believes there is more potential to extract from the Renault car following the updates introduced for the European Grand Prix.
Kubica will start tomorrow’s race from sixth position after another strong qualifying performance, the Pole happy with the result.
He said, however, that once Renault is more familiar with the updates, the car should be quicker.
“It has been a pretty good qualifying and the car was especially strong on the prime tyre,” said Kubica. “On the options I had a lot more movement so the car felt quite different and we didn’t really gain the lap time, but we made a decision that it would be better to start the race on the options.
“Although I finished higher in the first two parts of qualifying, I think the end result reflects our true position.
“The new updates on the car this weekend are bringing us some gains, but we still need to work to get 100% from them, which I hope we can do in the coming races.”
Team-mate Vitaly Petrov was also pleased with his performance after reaching Q3, the Russian finishing in 10th place.
“It’s fantastic to get into Q3 because the times were very close today,” Petrov said. “Unfortunately I made some mistakes on my fastest lap in Q3 so I could maybe have been even higher on the grid.
“In the race anything can happen so I will try and look after my tyres and make up some positions. There are a lot of new parts on the car this weekend and I have had to adapt my driving style, but I can feel a big improvement with the car.”
With Red Bull Racing taking the front row for the European Grand Prix, the team has insisted that there will be no repeat of that controversial collision between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at the Turkish Grand Prix. Team boss Christian Horner has confidence in his drivers to behave in the race in Valencia. Autosport.com has the details.
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner is confident that his drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have learned the lessons from their Turkish Grand Prix crash to not need a pre-race warning in Valencia.
With the duo having locked out the front row of the grid, and overtaking difficult on the tight Spanish street track, the fight for victory could depend on a brave overtaking move on the opening lap.
But despite the memories of Webber and Vettel’s Istanbul clash still fresh in the team’s memories, Horner says there is little need for him to interfere.
“They are both professionals and I don’t think there is anything I need to say,” Horner told AUTOSPORT. “Of course, as in any debriefing, we will cover how they compete with each other in to the first corner and beyond. But I don’t expect any issues between the two of them.”
Vettel backed up Horner’s comments that he reckoned the two drivers had learned from what went wrong in Istanbul.
“Well, I think fighting for position is what racing drivers do,” he said. “If you look at the job description, that’s what we are.
“Obviously we’ve been through this many times but I’m not afraid that something similar will happen. You can never say never, but surely I think we’ve learned our bit and we’re looking forward.”
With Red Bull Racing having braced itself for a tough time in Valencia, Horner admitted that the outfit never expected to have delivered such a good performance.
“I am really surprised by getting both cars 1-2 here,” he said. “It is a fantastic team performance, and it is testimony to the hard work that has gone on in the factory, to get the F-duct on the car and it has paid off with a 1-2, with the cars split by less than a tenth of a second. It is a great team performance.”
And Horner said he hoped that the outfit would have a bit of good fortune in the race, as he feared safety cars could still wreck all his team’s efforts.
“Saturdays haven’t been our problem, we are just due a bit of luck on a Sunday,” he said. “I am sure hopefully both drivers can have a clean race.
“We haven’t seen a safety car here in the previous two years, so the chances are we will see one probably in the race here. It is important we keep our noses clean and convert a really excellent qualifying performance into a good haul of points.
“All the fundamentals are key: a good start, a clean first lap, a good pit stop and not being had over by safety cars at the wrong time. I think that we are in the best position to start the race, and hopefully we can have a bit of luck in the race.”