Vettel takes pole as Red Bulls dominate

Sebastian Vettel (pole position), Fernando Alonso (third) and Mark Webber (second)

Jul.10 (YallaF1.com) The writing was on the wall from the outset of the weekend. red Bull dominated qualifying for the British Garnd Prix at Silverstone with Sebastian Vettel grabbing pole position from Mark Webber to hog the front row of the grid on race day.

Sebastian Vettel gives it the old finger treatment

After topping the timing screens in each of the three free practice sessions it came as no real surprise that a Red Bull would occupy the top slot in qualifying. The fact that they hogged both was also unsurprising as both drivers have been on the boil all weekend, make that all season.

If there was a minor blip on their radar it would have been after Q1 when Vettel was fifth fastest and Webber sixth. The Australian set things right in Q2 where he was top of the charts with his German team mate just below him. In Q3 Vettel simply blitzed it to the summit, with Webber his only real opposition, having to settle for second place on the grid, albeit a mere 0.143 seconds adrift losing the time in the second sector.

Mark Webber kept his eye on the ball to take second

The Red Bulls were the only two cars to dip into the 1 minute 29 seconds zone with Vettel nearly a second faster than their nearest challenger.

Vettel said:”We have a lot of races and then we come here and you do the first couple of laps and it’s amazing – the combination of corners, the speed we reach here, it’s a bit crazy, but it’s so much fun. I really like this track and fortunately our car works well here. It was a tight session here. In Q2 I was not perfectly happy but I had two very strong laps.”

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was obviously delighted, “It was a great team performance, the drivers were evenly matched and there was nothing between the two of them.”

No staring lads not good manners

Alonso and Ferrari are enjoying something of a mini renaissance at Silverstone and true to form shown in the earlier practice sessions he was the best of the rest although his team mate Felipe Massa continues his struggle to match the Spaniard’s pace and will start the Grand Prix from seventh on the grid.

Interesting moment occurred when the Ferrari boys alighted from their F10 in parc ferme they proceeded to stare long and hard at the parked Red Bull RB6.

Sharing the second row with Alonso will be his nemesis and home favourite Lewis Hamilton whose McLaren was best of the Mercedes powered brigade.  His team mate, another local hero and reigning World Champion, Jenson Button failed to make it into Q3 and will start his home race from 14th on the grid. More of that later…

Nico Rosberg has looked revitalised at Silvesrtone

Another driver showing renewed form this weekend has been Nico Rosberg who managed the fifth best time to head up the third row with Renault’s Robert Kubica starting beside him after setting sixth fastest time.

Row four will be an all Brazilian affair with Massa, as mentioned earlier, taking seventh spot and Rubens Barrichello giving the AT&T Williams a timely boost with the eighth best time.

For the first time this season Pedro de la Rosa has achieved a qualifying result that befits a driver of his experience compared to his rookie team mate. The Spaniard will have given his shares at Sauber a major boost nabbing ninth place on the grid ahead of fellow veteran Michael Schumacher who was slowest of all the Q3 mob and will thus be tenth on the grid or the race.

Only a mishap (such as a broken nosecone which Sebastian Vettel suffered in practice) is likely to prevent a Red Bull victory

The top ten were covered by 1.8 seconds while the top four were covered by less than a second which signifies a leap in performance at the sharp end of the field. In Valencia the top ten were covered by less than a second.

BBC pundit summed it up, “Unless they stand on their own tails, Red Bull are going to walk this race. Their car is so planted. It’s their race to lose.”

All the opposition can hope for is a Turkey like incident and/or that Turn 11 bump giving the RB6 too much of a pounding over the course of 52 laps.

Q1: No big surprise as the usual suspects drop out

It was an early shower for Jaime Alguersuari

Failing to make it out of Q1 was as usual the half down new team drivers with Jaime Alguersuari joining them for an early shower. The young Spaniard was 18th  and half a second down on his team mate Sebastien Buemi when the flag dropped to end Q1.

Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) as has been his habit this weekend was best of the new team drivers, 3.5 seconds down on the pace setters. He will start 19th on the grid with Timo Glock (Virgin Racing) beside him on row ten.

Jarno Trulli (Lotus) will head up the eleventh row alongside Lucas di Grassi who was 22nd fastest.

Sakon Yamamoto will start last

Back row of the grid will be hogged by the Hispania racing duo with Karun Chandhok starting 23rd and Sakon Yamamoto last of all, half a second down on his Indian team mate and a whopping six seconds slower than the fast boys.

At the top of the timing screens it was an all McLaren affair, which eventually proved deceptive, headed up by Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Rosberg, Vettel, Webber, Massa, Alonso, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Kubica, Petrov, Sutil, Liuzzi, Buemi, de la Rosa and Kobayashi.

Q2: Button’s Silverstone curse continues

Jenson Button speaks to the media after being eliminated in Q2

Biggest scalp to stumble in Q2 was local hero Jenson Button who was upbeat about reversing his fortunes on his home track in front of his adoring fans. Unlikely this time around as the reigning World Champion will start from 14th on the grid after failing to make the cut into Q3 despite heading the timing screens minutes earlier when Q1 came to an end.

Somewhat bewildered by the sudden downturn in performance Button said, “This morning the car felt really good. I personally think there’s something wrong, the car was undriveable. That’s it really. I don’t know if I’ve lost rear downforce since this morning, but it’s pretty undriveable. This weekend has been tricky, but that wasn’t normal.”

Adrian Sutil failed to make it out of Q2

Also failing to make it beyond Q2 was Adrian Sutil who has for most part been a regular in the final Q3 shootout, but alas not at Silverstone on the doorstep of the Force India team’s headquarters. His team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi fared worse and will start from 15th on the grid.

Rookies Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) were next best 12th and 13th fastest respectively. Fellow rookie Vitaly Petrov (Renault) will start the race from 16th on the grid.

At the end of Q2 the order at the top was: Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Schumacher, Rosberg, Hamilton, Barrichello, De la Rosa and Kubica squeezing into the top ten.

Qualifying – 10 July 2010