Qualifying report
Formula 1
Vettel dominates qualifying to take pole in India
Ellis Goodwin
Edited: Oct 27, 2012, 2:51 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
When the dust settled, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel had continued their dominant qualifying performance taking first and second position for the 2012 FIA Formula One Indian Grand Prix from the Buddh International Circuit near Delhi, India.
This marks the third-consecutive grand prix in which Red Bull has locked out the front row, and Vettel's second pole in as many races. The two-time defending champion had a lap time of 1m25.283s. He is poised for a strong finish Sunday, and potentially his fourth-consecutive victory and a strong grip on the driver's championship.
"It was a very tight session," Vettel said. "It was a great weekend so far. And, no problems with the car. The boys have been pushing extremely hard. We had lots of feedback from the factory as well, which was helpful form yesterday to today."
Red Bull's Mark Webber was just .05s slower than his younger teammate with a lap time of 1m25.327s. Both Vettel and Webber said their qualifying was not as good as it could have been.
"As Seb said it wasn't the smoothest session for him and I think also the same for me," Webber said. "I did my best. It was close. It was obviously a pretty tight run between Seb and I...I was surprised to end up second to be honest, but I'll take that and we can have a good race for tomorrow"
McLaren locked out the second row with Lewis Hamilton in third and Jenson Button in fourth. The Britons ran lap times of 1m25.544s and 1m25.659s respectively.
"The team have done a great job this weekend in just trying to dial in the set up in the car," Hamilton said. "To have us on the second row, I mean we were not quick enough to be ahead of [the Red Bulls], but I think we can challenge them in the race. I think our race pace was as good as theirs in practice."
Immediately behind the McLarens were the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso, 1m25.773s, and Felipe Massa, 1m25.857. Alonso made two runs on the softer tire in Q3, but his second was slower than his first.
No other drivers were able to eclipse the 1m26s mark.
Massa recovered from a rocky set of practice sessions where he swapped ends multiple times, which Ferrari later attributed to a malfunction with the car.
With a renewed contract in hand, Massa has shown great promise and at times has been as fast or even faster than teammate Fernando Alonso, which should help keep former world champion and Lotus Driver Kimi Raikkonen, 1m26.236s, at bay on Sunday.
Sauber's Sergio Perez was eighth with a 1m26.360s lap time. Pastor Maldonado posted a time of 1m26.713s to take ninth for Williams, and Mercedes Nico Rosberg rounded out the top 10 without a time in Q3.
Raikkonen's Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean missed Q3 and will start the race from 11th. The young Frenchman had shown good pace, but an off and a mistake in sector 2 kept him from the last round of knockout qualifying.
other notable drivers absent from the top 10 today included both Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta for Sahara Force India, Mercedes' Michael Schumacher and Williams' Bruno Senna.
Vettel dominated qualifying from the beginning of Q1. In fact, he has dominated every F1 session ever ran at the Indian circuit. The young German has never finished lower than second in any session, and does not plan on doing so in Sunday's race.
"I’m very happy to be on pole. It’s the best position to start," Vettel said. "But, there is a hard race coming up tomorrow. I think we had a bit of a surprise on Friday. In terms of long runs, everyone was quite competitive and tires seemed to last reasonably well, so we'll see what that means for strategy tomorrow."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Ecclestone tips Vettel for Schumacher-like greatness
Next article Vettel and Red Bull dominate Indian GP qualifying
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ellis Goodwin
Too much drama, but one hell of a race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Too much drama, but one hell of a race
Alex Gurney is enjoying his time at the Circuit of The Americas
Grand-Am
Grand-Am
Alex Gurney is enjoying his time at the Circuit of The Americas
Top moments of 2012, #2: Is Vettel on his way to become the greatest ever?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Top moments of 2012, #2: Is Vettel on his way to become the greatest ever?
More from
Felipe Massa
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Formula 1
Formula 1
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
Formula 1
Formula 1
Las Vegas GP
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
More from
Ferrari
Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC
WEC
WEC
Monza
10 h
Robert Kubica announces exit from AF Corse’s privateer Hypercar in WEC
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
10 h
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Latest news
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
6 min
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
4 h
Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe