Overjoyed Vettel on pole at home
Hockenheim (Germany), July 24: German Sebastian Vettel was overjoyed Saturday after he clocked the fastest time in front of his home fans in qualifying for Sunday’s German Grand Prix.
That completed a hat-trick of pole positions and gave the 23-year-old his sixth of the season, meaning Red Bull have now taken ten from eleven races this year.
Vettel shouted, “Yeh baby!” after being given the news that he had won a close battle between himself Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.
“It will be interesting to work out how much distance two thousandths of a second is! All session Fernando was very strong and Ferrari are generally very competitive,” said the German
Alonso, who will start second on the grid ahead of Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, said he was surprised to be challenging the Red Bulls for pole.
Australian Mark Webber will start fourth and admitted that he had had a poor start to his final lap.
McLaren drivers Britons Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will start fifth and sixth respectively but are concerned that, despite their upgraded cars, they are not as fast as the Red Bulls.
Robert Kubica of Renault will start seventh ahead of Williams driver Brazilian Rubens Barichello and Germans Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Williams who completed the top ten.
After an overcast, cold and wet Friday, the track was clear and the sun was out at the Hockenheimring on Saturday. Alonso relished the improved conditions from the get-go and was on top in Q1 while the three new teams were all eliminated along with Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Liuzzi crashed after running wide at the last corner just five minutes into the session, and Virgin driver Timo Glock narrowly escaped a stray wheel as he went past the Force India car. Liuzzi claimed his accident was the result of a wet patch on the astro-turf.
Despite his accident, Liuzzi will start race in 22nd place.
The biggest disappointment of the day was seeing crowd favourite and seven times champion German Michael Schumacher of Mercedes fail to make the top ten shoot out after fellow German Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg knocked him out of tenth in the final seconds of Q2.
Sauber driver Pedro de la Rosa, Toro Rosso drivers Spaniard Jaime Alguesuari and Swiss Sebastien Buemi and Lotus drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen were all boosted up a place after Force India driver Adrian Sutil was given a five-place grid penalty, he will start in 19th position.
Post new comment