Sebastian Vettel seized the opportunity at Valencia by beating both Lewis Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado to pole position in an exciting qualifying session.
The new revisions to the Red Bull RB8 featuring upgrades to the front wing, floor, sidepods, front suspension and diffuser certainly made the car quicker with Vettel achieving his third consecutive pole at the circuit.
Williams driver Maldonado looked set to start in P1 for the second time this season – having inherited the Barcelona pole after Hamilton was penalised – as he surged to the top with a one minute, 38.475 seconds lap in the closing moments of Q3.
But Vettel was flying in the revised Red Bull, coming through to depose Maldonado by nearly four tenths of a second with a one minute, 38.086 seconds.
By taking pole position, the double world champion has now equalled Jim Clark and Alain Prost’s record of 33 career poles in the sport. A remarkable achievement.
As for Lewis Hamilton, the championship leader was able to slipped ahead of Maldonado by 0.065 seconds with his final Q3 lap.
Yet again, Lotus was unable to challenge for pole despite looking good in final practice. Romain Grosjean will start in fourth position ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, with the time difference between the team-mates was only 0.008 seconds.
The astonishingly close times in qualifying claimed several early victims – including both Ferraris, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber – none of which made it into the top ten.
That was in part because a host of underdogs proceeded to Q3, with both Force Indias and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi reaching the top ten shootout.
In fact, Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta made an appearance inside the top four during Q3 before being edged back down to eighth and tenth respectively.
Jenson Button showed signs of improved form but will start the European Grand Prix in ninth for McLaren.
As for Nico Rosberg, who set the initial pace for Mercedes, the Chinese Grand Prix winner will line up on the grid in sixth ahead of Kamui Kobayashi.
Less than three tenths of a second covered the top 13 cars in Q2, and several top teams were squeezed out.
Most significantly for the title battle and most disappointing for the Spanish crowd was that Alonso missed out on Q3 by 0.004 seconds, as lapping just 0.218 seconds off pacesetter Grosjean left him P11.
Michael Schumacher squeezed in between the Scuderias in P12, with all three less than 0.08 seconds from the Q3 cut-off.
The other early shock was that Mark Webber could only managed P19, hampered by hydraulic issues and a lack of DRS on his Red Bull.
The qualifying session gave Heikki Kovalainen and Caterham another chance to star, and the Finn outpaced both Toro Rossos to take P16 on the grid, behind Bruno Senna’s Williams and the Sauber of Sergio Perez, both of whom were some way off their team-mates’ pace in Q2.
It was a tough session for Marussia. While Timo Glock was sidelined by illness, his team-mate Charles Pic was unable to beat either HRT.
Qualifying positions for the European Grand Prix, Valencia:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.086s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.410s
3. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m38.475s
4. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.505s
5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m38.513s
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.623s
7. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.741s
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m38.752s
9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.801s
10. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m38.992s
11. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.707s
12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.770s
13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.780s
14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m39.207s
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.358s
16. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m40.295s
17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.358s
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.203s
19. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.395s
20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m40.457s
21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m42.171s
22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m42.527s
23. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.675s
107 per cent time: 1m45.742s
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel is not taking anything for granted despite taking his third consecutive pole position at Valencia. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel believes that pole position is no guarantee of victory despite three out of the four previous winners at the Valencia Street Circuit starting from the front.
Vettel earned his third consecutive European Grand Prix pole position after a spectacular last-gasp lap, but is anticipating a difficult race.
“It will be a difficult race and difficult to predict,” said Vettel. “We have seen too much this year to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what is going to happen. It is easier to predict football than the ranking for the race!
“It will be hotter tomorrow and there will be a lot of cars to look out for. Ferrari is very competitive, Williams is quick, Lotus proved [its speed] in Bahrain.
“This year, grid position is obviously important, but perhaps not as important.”
Vettel admitted that he struggled in both Q1 and Q2 and was surprised at being able to take pole position by over three-tenths of a second.
“Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking and we were struggling to find the balance that we had early on this weekend during practice. But we made a good recovery.
“I had to use a second set of options in Q2 as it was very tight and my [first] time was not good enough, but with the second set it was good to go again.
“I knew that in qualifying, if I go at the end and the track comes in a bit more, then it should be good enough for pole. But in the end it was a surprising gap.
“The guys have worked really hard this weekend in the garage to make sure that we brought a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I am looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Vettel is chasing a third consecutive win at Valencia after winning there in 2010 and 2011.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was surprised to be on the front row following a difficult practice sessions. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton says he is very surprised to have managed to qualify on the front row for the European Grand Prix in Valencia.
The McLaren driver will start from second position behind Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull after recovering from a series of difficult practice sessions.
Hamilton admitted he never expected to be so high up on the grid given his problems.
“I expected to be a lot further back,” said Hamilton. “We struggled all weekend and into qualifying I had to make some guesses as to what set-up I wanted, and it seems to work.
“I’m really, really surprised. The guys did a great job to get me a good lap and the car felt pretty good. The gap is still quite big so it will be quite a tough race tomorrow as always.”
The Briton is still expecting a difficult race, and he reckons Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen – fourth and fifth in qualifying – will be the ones to watch in order to stay in the podium positions.
“The Lotuses look massively competitive,” Hamilton said. “I think they are going to be the ones to watch out tomorrow.
“Sure Ferrari will be quick on long runs tomorrow. We need to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions.”
Pastor Maldonado is focusing on a strong result in the European Grand Prix despite problems with his tyres. Autosport.com has the news.
Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado reckons he has enough life in his tyres to be able to fight for a second F1 win in 2012, after the Williams driver qualified third for the European Grand Prix on the Valencia Street Circuit.
The Venezuelan admitted that he had spent much of the weekend struggling to find a balance on Pirelli’s option tyres but that Williams had managed to switch on the Williams FW34 for qualifying.
Nevertheless he used all seven sets available to him in order to access the second row.
“The car has been quite quick since yesterday, [but] we were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were a bit confused because I didn’t feel the same feeling with the prime tyres,” explained Maldonado.
“But then we have been working so hard, trying to understand what has been happening this morning, [and we were] still struggling, especially with the option tyres.
“For qualifying we understood them a little bit more and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job.
“Williams is getting better and better every time so I am pretty happy for the team and pretty happy for my country and it’s going to be a great opportunity again to get on the podium and fight for a good result.”
Maldonado added that the race, which is expected to be run in intense heat, would be all about strategy.
“I think for the long run, for us the prime tyres were a bit better,” he said. “We had more range and we were even quicker after a couple of laps, so we have tyres enough to race and be very competitive, so I don’t worry about that.
“Looking forward to tomorrow, what happens with the strategy is very important and will be essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and difficult for everybody so I am looking forward to it. Let’s see.”
Heikki Kovalainen is confident he will be able to fight with the Toro Rossos in Sunday’s European Grand Prix after outqualifying them on Saturday.
The Caterham driver will start from 16th position after outpacing both Daniel Ricciardo – 17th – and Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who was 18th after being knocked out in Q1 in Valencia.
Kovalainen praised his team for the performance and is now hopeful of being able to keep the Toro Rossos at bay in the race.
“Today’s performance was the result of a great effort by the whole team,” said Kovalainen. “This morning we weren’t sure if we could do it or not but both runs in Q1 were really good.
“In Q2 we opted to wait until the end of the session and see if we could improve on the Q1 time and while that wasn’t quite possible we achieved the target of beating both Toro Rosso cars and that obviously is a great feeling.
“I think tomorrow could now be really interesting for us – it looks like we have the chance to race them and that’s a significant step forward for our team.
“We’ve been getting closer to them in the last couple of races, but this track, the conditions here and the upgrades we’ve brought give us the chance to make good on our goal of joining the midfield, so now we need to translate today’s result into more good news tomorrow and keep moving forwards.”
Technical director Mark Smith believes the performance shows Caterham has taken a step forward with the latest updates introduced.
“I am delighted with today’s performance, as is everyone in the team,” said Smith. “We were reasonably optimistic that the updates we have brought here and will have in Silverstone would give us a chance to take another small step forwards and the proof of that is seeing Heikki put his car into Q2.
“Now we turn our attention to tomorrow’s race and the goal is the same as it has been all season – make sure we bring both cars home, take the fight to the cars just ahead of us and be there to take advantage of whatever opportunities arrive in the race.”
Kovalainen’s team-mate Vitaly Petrov will start from 20th position.
Source: Autosport.com
McLaren’s Jenson Button is not expecting to make much progress in the European Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the story.
Jenson Button reckons he has very little chance of making progress up the order from ninth on the European Grand Prix grid after his McLaren lost performance at the end of Valencia Q3.
After a run of difficult weekends, Button was optimistic that he would be in better shape in Valencia – and that seemed to be the case as he led the way in final practice.
But on his final run in Q3, the front brake locking issues that had troubled him in Friday practice returned, leaving him only ninth on the grid and pessimistic about his race chances.
“We’re in Valencia, not a lot happens here in the race,” Button said. “You can’t overtake round here. I think if you get it right on the strategy, maybe, but the way the tyres seem to hold on for most people, it’s not going to be the most exciting race, I don’t think.
“The only people I would say can maybe move up will be the Lotuses.”
He added: “It’s going to be difficult. It’s not a place that’s famous for its fantastic overtaking manoeuvres. There’s only one DRS zone as well this year. I think we’re pretty much stuck with what we’ve got at the moment.”
Button said his McLaren had seemed to be in good shape until its behaviour changed on new tyres in Q3.
“All day it’s been good. All weekend the car’s felt good in terms of the feeling,” he said. “The car was very different at the end of Q3, with massive amounts of front locking.
“It’s something I’ve worked on so much overnight and this morning, and the car’s been great. I’ve had a lot of confidence under braking. I get to Q3 and touch the brakes, and every time I do, I’m locking fronts.”
Fernando Alonso says there was nothing wrong with Ferrari in qualifying for the European Grand Prix, and the team just paid the price for the field being so close in Q2.
Both Alonso and Felipe Massa missed out on making the top 10 on the grid, despite both being within 0.3 seconds of the fastest lap in that segment.
When asked what made the difference between Ferrari’s strong qualifying performance in Canada and this weekend, Alonso said: “I think how close the times were. From a handling point of view, driving the car, everything was good.
“In Montreal we were four tenths from the quickest in Q2, and here we were two tenths from the quickest in Q2.
“Performance wise it is one of the best performances for us this year. Position wise, it is one of the worst.”
Alonso added that while Ferrari was so close to the pace, that was not to suggest that the team deserved to qualify any higher.
“We were not quick enough,” he said. “Normally if you get into Q3 it is because you deserve it and because you do the job. We will try to recover tomorrow and try to gain some positions.”
Source: Autosport.com
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was left feeling frustrated after qualifying. Autosport.com has the story.
Nico Rosberg reckons he could have qualified higher than sixth on the grid if he had not encountered Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren in the final sector of his out-lap.
The Mercedes driver had been quick throughout practice and the team believed he could challenge for a front row start, but decided to abort his flying lap in Q3 after beginning it behind the Briton.
“We had a lot of potential going into qualifying, but unfortunately I can’t be happy with the outcome today,” said the German. “We were quick throughout but when I was just about to start my final lap, Lewis was slowing down in the last corner. I had to start my quick lap behind him which made it impossible to improve my time.
“We know it’s tricky in the last sector here and there is an agreement in place to stop things like this happening so it’s frustrating. It will be an interesting race tomorrow from a strategy perspective, and I hope there will be the opportunity to make up some places.”
Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug said he was disappointed by the missed opportunity: “While Nico’s first run in Q3 put him P1, his second ended in traffic as he caught a car in the final sector where you are not allowed to slow down. As his times in Q2 and Q3 proved, it is clear that Nico would have had a shot at the front row of the grid without this handicap.”
Rosberg’s team-mate Michael Schumacher will start 12th having failed to make Q3 for the second time this year.
“Of course, I’m not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me – I didn’t get my lap together,” said the 43-year-old. “On my first run, I was too aggressive in turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap and pit because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve.
“After that, I was a bit too conservative on the second run and that cost us, because the times were so close today.”
Force India’s Paul di Resta laments missed opportunity in qualifying for the European Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the details.
Paul di Resta believes that he missed an opportunity for a strong qualifying performance at Valencia despite making it into the top 10.
The Force India driver was third fastest in Q2 and was on a lap that had the potential to put him in the top five when he made a mistake.
“It’s going to take a few hours to reflect on it,” he said. “It was a bit of a missed opportunity.
“On the last lap, I tried as much as I could and unfortunately locked the rears and an inside wheel as well at Turn 17. The lap was identical to Q2 at that point and it would have been the same probably.”
Di Resta’s Q2 time would have been good enough to earn him sixth on the grid, and the Scot suspects that he could have improved on that lap in the final sector without his mistake.
“Looking at it realistically P4 [was possible],” said di Resta. “If I’d improve in the last sector then possibly P3. It was in there.
“The positive side is we’ve showed we’re very competitive, but I don’t have to tell, if you look at the sector times, what happened.
“It cost us a lot of positions, but that’s the difference from an exceptional lap to the one I had.”
Romain Grosjean reckons he got the most from his Lotus E20 after taking fourth position on the grid for the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
The Frenchman and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen are widely tipped as a dark horses for race victory because of the Lotus’s performance in hot weather and race conditions.
“Today we got pretty much the most out of the car that we could have,” said Grosjean. “P4 is a good position for the start of the race but of course you want always more and to do better.
“Sebastian did an unbelievable lap and today we could not have matched it. We have improved our qualifying performance but there is still room to do better. Tyre degradation will be more important than what we saw at the last race.
“There will be 57 laps in hot conditions on Sunday; we will see what we can do for a good race tomorrow.”
Raikkonen too was satisfied with his fifth position though he felt he may have been able to make it on to the second row of the grid.
“It was very close in qualifying, especially in Q2, so it’s good to be fifth on the grid,” said the Finn. “The car felt good. If we could have improved just a little bit on my last lap then we could have gained a couple of places, but it is an improvement on last time out so I’m very happy with that.
“We found a few good things with the setup this morning to make the car easier to drive. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Source: Autosport.com
Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher was left feeling disappointed after missing out in Q3. Autosport.com has the story.
Michael Schumacher says he only has himself to blame for missing out on the top 10 in qualifying for the European Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion was just 0.281 seconds off the fastest time in Q2, but the competitive nature of the field meant that was only good enough for 12th on the grid.
Fernando Alonso, who qualified just ahead of Schumacher in 11th, said he could not be too disappointed with such a small gap to the pace, but Schumacher said that he was disappointed with himself because he did not put all of his best sectors together on the same lap.
“Naturally you have a slight disappointment,” Schumacher said of missing out on Q3. “Clearly I could have easily been in the top 10 if you take my best sectors.
“I just didn’t put them together, which for myself is a disappointment because I didn’t perform as I’m used to performing.
“A realistic situation [for qualifying] was position five, sort of middle of the pack in Q3. That would have been possible. Everything is so close it’s just unfortunate to be where we are.”
Schumacher added that he took heart from the fact that Sergio Perez finished on the podium from as low as 15th on the grid in Canada.
“If you took the last race, where Perez started from and where he finished, let’s hope I can do something similar,” he said.
“[Being eliminated in Q2] offers the chance to make a different strategy, and we will see tomorrow if that makes sense or doesn’t make sense. Having fresh tyres can help a slight bit, but not a big deal.”
Lewis Hamilton has been called to see the stewards at the European Grand Prix after rival Nico Rosberg was left fuming that he had been blocked on his final run in qualifying.
Rosberg found his last run of Q3 compromised when he was held up behind Hamilton – who had been driving slowly in the final sector of the lap to try and build himself a good buffer to the cars ahead of him.
Hamilton managed to deliver a lap that secured him second on the grid, while Rosberg was left ruing what might have been – as he was left down in P6 with the time from his first run.
Speaking about how much Hamilton’s situation had cost him, Rosberg said: “It had a big impact. But that’s beside the point really. The point is that there is a rule, stating very clearly that you are not allowed to slow down in those last couple of corners unnecessarily. That is the rule, it is very clear, because it is dangerous.
“In this case, me and [Pastor] Maldonado were arriving flat out, and Lewis was driving extremely slowly all of a sudden. It’s just a very dangerous situation, and that’s what the rule is there for.
“At the same time, as a side point, it did ruin my lap because I started the lap stuck behind him.”
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn believes that Rosberg had had the potential to be fighting for a front row start if he had got a clean run on that final lap.
“Nico had a good balance and was looking as if he could challenge for the front row,” he said. “And he got caught up with Lewis.
“He had Maldonado behind him so he was conscious of making sure he gave Maldonado clearance to finish his lap, and Lewis backed him up into Maldonado. So that was the end of our qualifying.”
McLaren confirmed on Saturday evening that Hamilton had been summoned to see the stewards to discuss the matter.
Source: Autosport.com
No penalty for Lewis Hamilton over incident with Nico Rosberg during Valencia qualifying. Autosport.com has the news.
Lewis Hamilton was found to have done nothing wrong in driving slowly before his final qualifying lap for the European Grand Prix – despite rival Nico Rosberg’s claims that he was held up.
Hamilton was trying to build a buffer zone to get some clear air ahead of his final Q3 effort but, in slowing down at the final sector, that put him within range of the pursuing Pastor Maldonado and Rosberg behind him.
Rosberg in particular was furious about the situation – especially because drivers had been warned ahead of the weekend that they should not drive slowly in the final sector of the lap.
After both drivers were summoned to see the stewards on Saturday evening to explain the situation, it was decided that Hamilton had not driven excessively slowly – so there was no need for any punishment.
The stewards said that there was no evidence that Hamilton had driven ‘unnecessarily slowly’.
In a statement issued on Saturday they said: “The sector time for Car 4 (Hamilton) was actually faster than a time set previously in that same sector by Car 8 Nico Rosberg, which is an indication that Car 4 was not being driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25.”
It added: “The smallest gap between Car 4 and Car 8 was 18 metres and 1.1 seconds.”
That means he will keep his second spot on the grid for the race in Valencia, with Rosberg ending up sixth overall.
Timo Glock will be allowed to start the European Grand Prix if he is passed fit by Formula 1 medical delegate on Sunday morning, despite not taking part in qualifying.
The Marussia driver has suffered from a stomach bug over the Valencia weekend but, after appearing to be on the road to recovery, he suffered relapse on Saturday that forced him to abandon efforts to take part in Q1.
Although his absence meant that Glock was unable to set a time within the mandatory 107 per cent of pole position, the stewards will allow him to start because he set an acceptable time during free practice, and has also shown himself to be quick enough over the season so far.
The stewards made it clear however that “the permission is subject to the driver being cleared to race by the FIA Medical Delegate.”
Source: Autosport.com