Oct 29, 2011
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When you get a promising result like the double top ten finish we secured in Mokpo at the Korean GP a fortnight ago, coming to the next race can be a bit nerve wracking: people are talking about you, saying you did well and there’s a sense of apprehension as to whether you can continue down the same path or not. Well, we have not done it yet, because although there were smiling faces in the garage after qualifying, that will all be forgotten if we don’t deliver tomorrow in the seventeenth round of the world championship, the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.
But for now, let’s be proud of the fact that Sébastien Buemi starts tomorrow’s 60 laps from the inside of Row 5 in ninth place and alongside him we find his team-mate, Jaime Alguersuari who set the tenth fastest time. In fact neither driver set a time in Q3, just doing an in and an out lap, saving some rubber for tomorrow. In Q1, the Spaniard was seventh, two places ahead of the Swiss driver and then in Q2, they were ninth and tenth in the reverse order. In fact, in one of those flukey events that happen from time to time, Jaime’s lap of 1.26.319 was identical to Vitaly Petrov’s lap in the Renault, down to the nearest thousandth, but the Toro Rosso man was credited with tenth because he set the time earlier in the session.
Do you really need to ask who’s on pole? Sebastian Vettel secured the number one slot for the 28th time in his career, the 13th this year. He was untouchable today, three tenths quicker than anyone else, with Lewis Hamilton second for McLaren, while Mark Webber was third in the second Red Bull. Fernando Alonso was fourth for Ferrari, followed by Jenson Button in the McLaren with the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa sixth. After setting his time, the Brazilian had a frightening accident, from which he thankfully emerged unscathed, after his suspension broke when he hit a kerb hard and then crashed into the barriers. Although that’s the order of the top six in terms of lap time, it’s not the order on the grid: with Lewis Hamilton getting a three place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags on Friday, he slips down to fifth on the grid, which means the front row is an all Red Bull affair, with Alonso and Button moving up to Row 2, as Lewis is now on the inside of Row 3 which he shares with Massa. Nico Rosberg for Mercedes and Adrian Sutil for “home team” Force India are on the fourth row ahead of our duo.
Tomorrow should be an exciting premiere for F1 in India and hopefully there will be a good crowd. As for our own hopes, these revolve around getting both cars home in the points and finishing ahead of our closest rivals Sauber, who currently lead us by 3 points.
Credit: Scuderia Toro Rosso (www.scuderiatororosso.com)
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