Qualifying analysis - Ferrari run Red Bull close
Only Red Bull really know how much the off-throttle diffuser restrictions cost them on Saturday at Silverstone. With a confident-looking Webber on pole, they locked out the front row nonetheless, though the proximity of the Ferraris bodes well for a tight Grand Prix on Sunday. Unfortunately for British fans, McLaren fell well short of the front-running pace, diminishing hopes of a home win for Button or Hamilton. We take a team-by-team look at the pre-race form…
Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 30.399s, P1
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 30.431s, P2
Webber was very happy with his lap and said it was a product of the strength of Red Bull, built up over the years, rather than any kind of direct response to the FIA’s refusal to re-allow the dispensation granted at the beginning of the weekend for the Renault engine users to run 50 percent exhaust gas flow on the throttle-off position. Like everyone else they could only run 10 percent. His was a very clean lap, leaving Vettel wishing he’d got in a second run before the rain came.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 30.516s, P3
Felipe Massa, 1m 31.124s, P4
Alonso was clearly delighted with Ferrari’s strongest qualifying performance of the season, which left them only a tenth off the Red Bulls. The Spaniard said that it was a product of aerodynamic revisions to the car rather than to the diffuser rule change, and that as a result it felt much better on the hard Pirelli than it had in Barcelona. Watch out from a very strong challenge from him, and also from Massa who has been on it all weekend, but admitted to a couple of mistakes on his Q3 lap.
McLaren
Jenson Button, 1m 31.898s, P5
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 32.376s, P10
Button was totally bemused to find McLaren so far off the pace, but Hamilton was in a far worse position. He lost time with a KERS problem in the morning, then blamed the team for fitting old tyres for his first run in Q1, which just didn’t give him a decent level of grip.
Force India
Paul di Resta, 1m 31.929s, P6
Adrian Sutil, 1m 32.617s, P11
Another superb qualifying run saw Di Resta take his best-ever starting place in his brief F1 career, after just shadowing team mate Sutil in Q2. The Scot very nearly beat Button’s McLaren for fifth, such was the quality of his performance.
Williams
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 31.933s, P7
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 33.119s, P15
Williams had a great run on home ground thanks to Maldonado. They ran all their new bits - exhaust, diffuser, front wing and suspension - on both cars, and the Venezuelan got a lot from his. Barrichello complained of traffic in his run in Q2.
Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, 1m 32.128s, P8
Sergio Perez, 1m 32.624s, P12
Kobayashi really made up for Friday’s accident with a very strong Q3 performance which put him eighth on the grid. He did well to make it through Q1 after only getting a run on the hard Pirellis, and in Q2 where conditions were still damp, and said he was really happy with his Q3 lap. Perez missed Q3 by a few thousandths, but said he was also happy with the way that things went.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 1m 32.209s, P9
Michael Schumacher, 1m 32.656s, P12
Rosberg was unhappy to fall to ninth overall after being fifth in Q2, and that Stowe was wet when he was the only driver to get a meaningful second run in Q3. Schumacher had a gearbox problem in the morning, but said that the reason he was only 12th was that he ran too early in Q2.
Renault
Vitaly Petrov, 1m 32.734s, P14
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 33.805s, P16
Another poor qualifying performance for Renault saw their cars only 14th and 16th. Petrov said he was very disappointed after coming to Silverstone with high expectations, but that on the positive side the R31 was fast and strong in the quick corners. Heidfeld said he’d struggled with his rear wing on Friday, and again in FP3.
Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari, 1m 35.245s, P18
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 35.749s, P19
Alguersuari said that Toro Rosso should have switched sooner to the soft Pirelli in Q1, and Buemi echoed the sentiment, explaining that they had not expected the rain to come so soon.
Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 34.821s, P17
Jarno Trulli, 1m 36.456s, P21
Kovalainen did a great job in Q1, and at one stage in Q2 bounced up to P4 before a rash of improvements pushed him back down to a still promising 17th. Trulli had a less happy time, being beaten by Glock for the first time in a long while.
Virgin
Timo Glock, 1m 36.203s, P20
Jerome D'Ambrosio, 1m 37.154s, P22
Glock was happy with his lap, even though the MVR-02 wasn’t quite there despite further changes to the set-up that were intended to improve it after the dry run in FP3. D’Ambrosio said he made a mistake on his best lap in Q1.
HRT
Tonio Liuzzi, 1m 37.484s, P23
Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 38.059s, P24
Liuzzi said that the handling of his F111 wasn’t good all day, while rookie Ricciardo said that he was pleasantly surprised by his car’s level of grip on the soft tyre but wished he could have been closer to his more experienced team mate.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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