Hulkenberg takes maiden pole in wet Brazilian qualifying!

Nico Hulkenberg clinched a surprising pole during a wet qualifying for tomorrow’s Brazilian GP, which will lead to the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The German and his Williams race car managed to out-perform the championship contenders after capitalizing on slick tires at the dying minutes of the session. Hulkenberg who enjoyed his first ever pole position will start ahead of both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber from Red Bull. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and championship leader Fernando Alonso from Ferrari will start from fourth and fifth respectively.

Hulkenberg’s Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello was sixth ahead of Renault’s Robert Kubica. Seven times World Champion and Mercedes ace Michael Schumacher managed to out-qualify his teammate this time around with his eight position. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari is four places down from Alonso, in ninth. The Brazilian has the task of supporting his teammate since he is already out of contention in the championship battle.

Renault’s Vitaly Petrov took the tenth spot. Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button had an unfortunate qualifying as the reigning World Champion only managed 11th place. It would be difficult for him to assist Hamilton for the championship fight with this grid configuration. Another usual top ten contender, Nico Rosberg had to make do with 13th.

A couple of places down the grid in 18th place is Adrian Sutil of Force India who will start the race ahead of Virgin’s Timo Glock. Both Lotus drivers had to settle with 20th and 21st positions with Jarno Trulli heading the duo. 22nd went to Glock’s teammate Lucas di Grassi while the final two positions were taken up by Christian Klien and Bruno Senna of Hispania. Look out for an interesting race tomorrow as the championship battle is more intense now then ever. Dry weather is expected, but this is the Brazilian GP we are talking about, anything can happen!

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Harvinder Sidhu

Harvinder Singh Sidhu thinks there's nothing better than Formula 1, not even sliced bread. Having written about cars since 2006, he plunged head first into the industry out of a passion for all things four-wheeled and everything in between. The F1 enthusiast has been following the sport since 1999 and has been keeping up with it since. In between races he keeps himself busy as the host of the Driven motoring show and as our version of the Joker.

 

Comments

  • Mohd Saiful Ameri on Nov 07, 2010 at 1:06 am

    bravo… hopes that webber can win 2morow

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  • Scanzew on Nov 07, 2010 at 1:50 am

    Superb drive by TheHulk….for sure hamilton will win tommorow…and blow engine by webber and vettel engine(vettel using very OLD engine haha)…
    both redbulls and alonso will need 9th engine in Abu Dhabi for sure!!

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  • wa ..congrat…now lotus will say i want cosworth

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    • vince on Nov 07, 2010 at 2:45 am

      er guys don be lame hulk win the pole is becos of weathe and luck pls

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      • seriousSAM on Nov 07, 2010 at 3:26 am

        lotus switch to renault engine NOT because they have any issue with their cosworth engine.

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    • Diablo on Nov 07, 2010 at 1:51 pm

      Vince you obviously did not personally follow qualifying yesterday and just labelling out of convenience.

      Hulk deserved the credit. His own team gave him the credit. He drove to perfection. Did not make mistakes like others, avoided going off line on the wet bits and got his slick tyres to come up to temp.

      He took full advantage of the presented opportunity in the closing minutes and did remarkably well where others failed. He qualified faster than Vettel by over 1s on the last run! If he had screwed his last flying lap he would have still been on pole because no one could beat the his run before that.

      Some people call that luck I guess. Certainly his timing for switching to slicks could be attributed to that but once he got back out it was all him!

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      • CocoBear on Nov 07, 2010 at 5:40 pm

        Awesome driving from Nico Hulkenberg. Smooth, precise and perfect execution. What a surprise!

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        • pujutengineered on Nov 07, 2010 at 9:01 pm

          Exactly. Hulk was flying in the same lap as the others and he topped them outright, even before his last additional lap – so he was on pole, and he is on pole!

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  • Tarmiziali on Nov 07, 2010 at 3:40 am

    I heard that Proton will be the title sponsor for Renault next year and that will use the Lotus name on Renault team something like Lotus Renault.

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  • proton will buy renault F1 on Nov 07, 2010 at 4:56 am

    PROTON to BUY RENAULT F1

    Renault is poised to scale back its Formula 1 involvement next year and become only an engine supplier, AUTOSPORT has learned, as its current works team closes in on a tie-up with Lotus Cars owned by PROTON

    full news : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87936

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    • Driver on Nov 07, 2010 at 1:17 pm

      As suspected before that Dany Bahar (CEO of Group Lotus) wanted to join F1. Will the real Team Lotus Stand Up. Politic plays major role here between Group Lotus and 1Malaysia F1 Team aka Lotus Racing. It’ll be interesting to see 2 “Lotus-Renault” next year if Tony win the legal claims in UK Court.

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    • oh noes!!

      please let current lotus racing be the only Lotus-Renault team next year. I hope that they’ll win the “team lotus” name right in the court.

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      • campro on Nov 07, 2010 at 5:22 pm

        Genii capital is doing well in their Renault…plz don’t disturb them spread speculation of Lotus cars to be minority shareholder in Renault and create F1 havoc …..Team Lotus hv the right to use lotus name in F1….Tony fernandes & his group should stand firmly get the right to use Lotus name in F1 since Team Lotus company is belong to AirAsia now….every1 knows this is the political moves by group lotus….can u say genii capital company no money to run renault F1??? then group lotus owned by Proton hv that gold mountain to burn for F1??? is that mean Proton is richer than genii capital??? OMG!!

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        • seriousSAM on Nov 07, 2010 at 6:11 pm

          proton should just support tony’s team
          holiau laa PROTON got money to burn in F1?
          when tony is simply doing it for free for group lotus plc and proton?

          stupid PROTON if they bow down to dany bahar F1 ambition
          If DANY BAHAR wants to be in F1 let him burn his own money
          not PROTON’S MONEY

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    • Tarmiziali on Nov 07, 2010 at 5:18 pm

      Well actually it makes perfect sense. Tony’s Lotus is still a backmarker team although they may able to mix it with the mid players ala Sauber, STR and force India next year with the Renault engine and Redbull gearbox all. Compare to Renault F1 team an already establish midfield player also former championship winning team and might be championship contender next year or two. There is no sign now to indicate whether or not Tony’s Lotus will become a championship contender.

      I would see that Dany Bahar wants Lotus to be ascociated with a winning team or a competitive contender so that it can compete with its road car business with Ferrari.(Remember the 5 supercars unveil during Paris Motorshow?) We might actually see some people from Lotus Group would be involve with the new Lotus renault. Now this team would the real Lotus. FYI, there have been Lotus Renault in the past before if you remember the cool JPS black gold livery. One of which was driven by Aryton Senna.

      I think this is a similar analogy when Proton wants to rebadge the Lancer to become the Inspira. In the case of F1, its is far simpler to just buy an established and stable team renault (Former champion, strong mid-field performance, strong tie-in with renault as engine supplier, more branding exposure) vs Litespeed Lotus that is still more work to be done to prove themselves (but they are doing well and i credit them for that)

      afterall, in the end of the day, Formula 1 is still a business.

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  • mitlanevo on Nov 07, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    Hulken-what?

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  • ismazri on Nov 07, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    Last year force india and this year mclaren. Bernie must get rid of brazilian gp next year.

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  • squawk on Nov 07, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    F1 is dangerous. :-P

    Button uninjured in armed São Paulo car attack
    7 November 2010

    World Champion Jenson Button has escaped unscathed after armed attackers approached the road vehicle carrying the McLaren driver plus his father, manager and physiotherapist upon leaving the Interlagos circuit on Saturday evening.

    A McLaren press release reads as follows:

    ‘On Saturday evening (November 6) on the way back from the Interlagos circuit to Morumbi (São Paulo), armed would-be assailants made an attempt to approach the car that was carrying Jenson Button.

    Neither Jenson nor the other occupants of the car were hurt. (The other occupants were John Button [Jenson’s father], Mike Collier [Jenson’s physio] and Richard Goddard [Jenson’s manager].)

    Vodafone McLaren Mercedes had provided both Jenson and team-mate Lewis Hamilton with reinforced armoured vehicles driven by police drivers, who had been trained in avoidance techniques and were armed.

    The police driver of Jenson’s vehicle reacted swiftly and, using avoidance techniques, rapidly forced his way through the traffic, taking Jenson and the other occupants of the car immediately away from any danger and back to their hotel.

    The São Paulo authorities have also acted efficiently and will be providing additional security to transfer Jenson and other senior Vodafone McLaren Mercedes personnel to the Interlagos circuit for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.’

    Update:

    According to The Daily Mail, six men armed with machine guns targeted the vehicle, with Button’s driver then making contact with several other road vehicles in the consequential escape.

    “My driver bounced off about five cars,” Button told the newspaper. “We were driving over the top of them.

    “‘We were going back from the track and were outside a shanty town and moving slowly on a busy road. I saw a dog come out. It was very cute.

    “The next thing I saw was a man with a gun. Our guy angled the car and floored it. That’s when we saw six men, all of them brandishing machine-guns.

    “My driver was a legend. It was very scary. I don’t know whether they knew who it was they were ambushing.

    “I said, “Isn’t that a gun?” and as soon as I said that the driver angled the car. I am glad I didn’t have my girlfriend Jessica with me – she would have been terrified.”

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  • Jarum on Nov 07, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    How come they don’t show the F1 Qualifiers live on tv anymore? What is going on with Astro. We’ve been paying more for their services and they don’t even bother showing the qualifying anymore?

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  • proton will buy renault F1 on Nov 07, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    latest..

    RENAULT F1 TEAM PRINCIPAL CONFIRMS that it is true the talk with PROTON, GROUP LOTUS is in progress.

    source : http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=393659&FS=F1

    it is said that PROTON will buy the shares in RENAULT F1 and get engine technology transfer from RENAULT.. we will see the official announcement soon about this.

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    • campro on Nov 07, 2010 at 9:38 pm

      but anyway genii capital will be majority shareholder that hold the power for their F1 direction….it hv stated in autosport news only Lotus cars will be minority shareholder…anyway it only may entitle for the lotus name for help promote Renault brand…they still dun hv power to control the whole Renault F1 team…something like petronas title sponsorship in mercedes gp…Lotus racing/Team lotus remain the most realistic….i see this move only gain for french automaker Renault for their brand advertisement for using lotus name…plus the move to stop Tony’s Lotus racing F1….
      now more confusing is Dany bahar is the real Boss or our proton Datuk is the real boss…it make me feel the Proton the real owner follow other order…Proton should show Dany Bahar they r the actual boss not u lolxxx…

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  • JohnDeep on Nov 08, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    The rational behind is to promote the latest 5 new Lotus models that planned for the next 2 years. I am not convinced they will succeed such plan until we got the production numbers of total units that will be rolled out of the factory by then. Lotus is currently producing hardly 2500 cars a YEAR!!! Where the hell the money come from for funding such a big motor sports? This year Toyota’s profit immediately jump rocket high (4 times) the moment they pulled out from F1. I noticed that Toyota needs a quarter-year profit (US300mil) for funding its one year F1.

    Dani Bahar is a sucker and need popularity for his own ambition.

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    • squawk on Nov 09, 2010 at 10:20 am

      Conspiracy theorists will claim that there is actually a higher hand playing this game, especially looking at the viability of Lotus or Proton entering F1 based on their cash reserves & profitability. And that higher hand is one that wants to
      sabotage someone’s current plan to use an F1 team for ‘national unity’.

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