World champion Sebastian Vettel continued his early season form by taking the third pole position in as many races at the Chinese GP. He lapped the Shanghai circuit in 1m33.706s and will share the front row with McLaren’s Jenson Button, who was 0.715 sec behind the German. Button just outqualified teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was third, while Nico Rosberg brought cheer to the Mercedes GP Petronas camp with a strong fourth.
The Ferraris of Alonso and Massa will occupy the third row. Another team that will be delighted with today’s showing is Scuderia Toro Rosso, which had both cars in Q3. Jaime Alguersuari lines up on the grid in seventh while Seb Buemi is in ninth. They sandwich Force India’s Paul di Resta. Looks like these “midfield teams” that Team Lotus is aiming to challenge have progressed by a fair bit!
The unfortunate Vitaly Petrov of Lotus Renault is in tenth place. 13 minutes into Q2, the Russian’s black/gold car stopped just before turn 6 after he set the fourth fastest time so far, causing officials to stop the session. His time proved to be good enough to enter Q3, but there’s no more car to do so. Let’s hope they can fix the issue in time.
When the session restarted, there was an almighty scramble at the pit exit, and Massa managed to lead the pack and set a good time. It was like a snake, and those at the tail were affected by traffic. Those who fell out in Q2 include the Saubers, both Williams, Sutil, Nick Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher.
Earlier, Q1 saw the usual six drivers from Lotus, Virgin and HRT eliminated, but they were joined by a high profile name in Mark Webber. The Aussie Red Bull driver was sent out at the end on hard tyres to save a result, but he couldn’t improve and will start in 18th tomorrow – shocking!
Of the other six cars, Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus was the fastest with a 1m37.894s lap, ahead of teammate Trulli. The Virgins were next, ahead of the two HRTs, who managed to get inside the 107% time.
Will Vettel make it a hat-trick of wins tomorrow, or will McLaren have a say in that? Tune in to find out, but only if you have Astro, unfortunately.
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My money is on Vettel. But I do believe LRGP will bounce back. Both Nick and Vitaly are fastest on the speed trap at 322km/h and 320km/h.
my money on button =D
Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg also close to the pole. The heat is on!
not really..hihi
3rd race is otw but still shame performance from tony lotus… challenge the midfield?????
normal lah..he thought they can..maybe they forget another team improvement especially their high court (right name issue) arrival Lotus Renault GP..
TF still mumbling about this in his twitter.. good self motivation indeed LOL
correction: not just astro, but astro with expensive sport package
no need astro watch online
how where?website?
i watched on sportshike.com the last time.. dunno tmr got anot.. anyway, do google on live stream channels, should get some nice and good source
Wooo, nicely done Vettel!! The macca boys r still quite a threat, hopefully RBR’s kers work fine tmoro!
Hopfully Webber n d LR boys race well tmoro!
Erm… Tony lotus, good luck to u too…
whut time the race starts tomorrow..?
1500hrs =)
2pm..
3pm
2000hrs..Buletin Utama TV3 =D
3pm la.. check at http://www.formula1.com
we have:
Sebastian Vettel (F1 world champion)
Sebastien Buemi (F1 star)
Sebastian Loeb (WRC world champion)
Sebastian Ogier (WRC star)
Sebastian Bourdais (Champcar World Series world champion & LeMans star)
Sebastien Tortelli (motorcross world champion)
what a name!!!