It was a qualifying session of firsts at Catalunya, where Mark Webber beat teammate Sebastian Vettel to pole position, something no driver has managed so far this season. Further down the grid, Team Lotus got into Q2 and for the first time, qualified ahead of a few midfield cars.
Q3 was a two horse race for pole. Both the Red Bull drivers only did one hot lap. World champ Vettel went first with a 1m21.181s (without KERS) before Mark topped it with a 1m20.981s (his KERS was working). No one looked to be capable of touching those times, so the Bulls spent the last minutes of qualifying relaxing. The second row will be filled by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in fourth.
Further back, McLaren’s Jenson Button lines up alongside Vitaly Petrov for Lotus Renault GP. The Russian did a good job, but teammate Nick Heidfeld wasn’t even part of qualifying – his R31 burst into flames in morning practice caused by an exhaust failure. They couldn’t fix his car in time.
The rest of the top ten reads Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado and Schumacher. The Williams man drove well to enter Q3, balancing the mood from the other side of the garage – a gearbox problem means Rubens Barrichello qualified 19th.
Team Lotus made the progress it was talking about, as Heikki Kovalainen took his updated T128 to 15th place on the grid. That’s ahead of the Force Indias of di Resta and Sutil. Then came Trulli in 18th place ahead of Rubens’ sick Williams. While it’s great to see Team Lotus competing in Q2 and placed ahead more than just the usual four cars, it has to be qualified that Force India opted to use hard tyres in Q2, saving the faster soft Pirellis all for tomorrow’s race.
Webber was fifth in Australia, fourth in Malaysia, third in China and second in Turkey. Will he be first in Spain? Here’s to a great race day tomorrow. Click here to view the qualifying time sheet.
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How can it be news that Team Lotus is P15 when both Force Indias saved their soft tyres (worth 2 seconds), Barrichello had Gearbox problems and Heidfeld didnt get out due to fire damage!
Looks like TL are still some way off the midfield and the upgrades have not pushed them forward on the grid.
team lotus burn their new set of soft tyre just for 1 run in Q2 and without KERS it is interesting to see how heikki will defend his position at the start of the race.
and it also might be some major protest from the teams that didn’t run blown diffuser; and if HRT or virgin lodge formal protest after the race; we could see almost all the front runners get disqualified from whatever result they might get after race.
HRT and virgin could dominate race result on sunday
lol
lotus can make 1minit 25s per lap but the midfield actually is at about 1mint 23s
Force India 1min.26 per lap..Isn’t Force India also Midfield?
the problem is team lotus is probably not the only ones that came with significant updates..the others would have too…that explains a williams being in top 10 for example…this means those targets are even faster and it looks like there has not been progress…oh well ..thats the way the game is played i guess…
as for Renault..they are running a very radical exhaust system that exits to the side of the car or somethin so its not a suprise somethin this different screws up once in a while….
speechless. not because the 15th place. but the strategy they use.
however. i hope they or heiki can survive the race today.. or perhaps it just another ‘angan2 mat jenin’
Haiyo…almost a second both RedBulls leapfrogging Mclaren at qualifying?! Even without their blown diffusser?! Haiyo…maybe they are using jet engine LOL ;-p
RedBulls ran with their blown diffusers laaa
i cant wait for a malaysian to be an f1 driver… so that i can watch f1 on free tv again!
agreed… we need something to make the media bullish again… coz apparently, 3 malaysia related teams aren’t enough…
As far as I recall, our free tv used to at least carry delayed telecast regardless of having a Malaysian driver involved. Heck I remember catching F1 races on TV3 albeit very delayed, when Ayrton Senna was still alive, Schumacher a newbie and Sepang was still a palm estate.
NTV7 showed delayed telecast only as recent as last season.
Very disappointing. I still can’t get over it.
Interesting strategy by Force India. It could benefit the midfielders to get into the top 10 during the race.
I am actually a little bit surprised seeing how Team Lotus manage to go Q2… but yeah, if Heidfeld not in flames, Barichello’s gearbox didn’t make a fuss, things will be different… but still, that’s the game… reliability does play a role…
or as Vin Diesel once said, winning’s winning…. we’re not playing the word IF here… if ppl can get mad or skeptical upon how Team Lotus make their cars, I would say they should get mad at LRGP and Williams too on how they build their cars in last qualifying…
though, I’m a little bit worried over how Heikki gonna defend that position…
A leap is still a leap to me. Let’s see how the race strategy plays out.
Yeap, I’m supporting Team Lotus! Gimme your best shot! :D
Everytime read F1 new from Paul, 1 or more paragraph of it is a story about Team Lotus a Malaysian Team with British name.. “sigh”
Yet another victory by Vettel it seems.
Although only a quarter of the season done, I think RBR’s advantage is slightly eroding, partly due to their inherent KERS issues and partly due McLaren working overtime to make up time but WDC still in RBR’s favour..
As for Team Lotus, I predict that they will finish the season in 10th in the championship, just as they did last year, and will lose further credibility for their over-hyped PR practices