Qualifying analysis - flying Ferraris close in on Red Bull
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel once again took the top grid slot during qualifying for Sunday’s Canadian race. But with Fernando Alonso a very close second and his Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa in third, Mark Webber found himself down in fourth in the other RB7. Ferrari seem to have made genuine progress in Montreal and they could pose a very real threat on Sunday. We take a team-by-team look at how all the runners performed…
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 13.014s, P1
Mark Webber, 1m 13.429s, P4
Red Bull’s usual high-downforce package served them very well here, and Vettel said he was very happy with yet another pole position, especially after his accident on Friday morning. Webber had problems all morning with his KERS and it was still not working this afternoon, which made his fourth-fastest lap even better.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 1m 13.199s, P2
Felipe Massa, 1m 13.217s, P3
The Ferraris have been in contention for pole all weekend, and given that they always race better than they qualify, they will be very dangerous on Sunday. Massa led Alonso all the way through Q3 after being fastest in Q2, until their final lap when Alonso edged ahead. It marked the first time since Singapore 2010 that the Spaniard has been on the front row. Both drivers were very happy, and are extremely optimistic and confident about the race.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 13.565s, P5
Jenson Button, 1m 13.838s, P7
Hamilton was very unhappy after failing for the first time in his career to start a Canadian race from pole. He said he was happy with his lap and that he didn’t think he’d ever driven a Formula One car harder, even brushing a wall at one stage, but fifth was the best the MP4-26 could offer. Button admitted that he overdrove his best lap and lost time as a result. McLaren hope that their race pace stands them in better stead as their consistency on both the soft and super-soft compound Pirellis has been good.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 1m 13.814s, P6
Michael Schumacher, 1m 13.864s, P8
Rosberg felt that Mercedes had made progress even though they were not able to demonstrate the form they did on Friday. Schumacher was happy to be so close, especially as he lost drive momentarily after Turn Four during his last lap.
Renault
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 14.062s, P9
Vitaly Petrov, 1m 14.085s, P11
Heidfeld said he was very happy with his lap and that overnight adjustments had improved his R30. Petrov complained that the lower track temperature today made it hard to warm his Pirellis properly.
Force India
Paul di Resta, 1m 14.752s, P11
Adrian Sutil, 1m 15.287s, P14
Di Resta had high hopes of his best-ever qualifying position, but it didn’t quite work out for the Scot, who ended up 11th. He felt that perhaps his tyre strategy wasn’t perfect for qualifying, and that he lost a couple of tenths in the second chicane. Sutil made a mistake in the hairpin on his last lap after hitting a bump and locking the rear wheels.
Williams
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 15.043s, P12
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 15.361s, P16
Maldonado was happy with my qualifying performance, but Barrichello encountered a front brake disk problem in Q2 which hurt his best lap and sent him off track at one stage.
Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, 1m 15.285s, P13
Pedro de la Rosa, 1m 15.587s, P17
Sauber’s tough weekend continued, as they recovered from Kobayashi’s Friday crash and De la Rosa’s in FP3. In Q1 the latter clobbered the wall out the back of the circuit, but he made it through to Q2 and to qualify only couple of tenths off Kobayashi was a great achievement for the Spaniard. The Japanese driver had to use the spare chassis, and he admitted that his biggest problem was sorting out the numerous kerbs here.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, 1m 15.334s, P15
Jaime Alguersuari, 1m 16.294s, P18
Buemi said he was more or less where he expected to be, while Alguersuari locked his brakes and lost time on his best lap, despite changes aimed at making his STR6 more stable under braking.
Lotus
Jarno Trulli, 1m 16.745s, P19
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 16.786s, P20
Trulli was pleased with his T127’s performance and thought he got as much out of it as there was available. Kovalainen also said his car felt fine.
HRT
Tonio Liuzzi, 1m 18.424s, P21
Narain Karthikeyan, 1m 18.574s, P23
Liuzzi said HRT had made a good step forward, even on a track where the lack of KERS should have hurt him, as the new exhaust was working well. Karthikeyan struggled to warm up his first set of tyres, and said his left front wheel locked up under hard braking hard.
Virgin
Timo Glock, 1m 18.537s, P22
Jerome D'Ambrosio, 1m 19.414s, P24
Glock said he’d focused more on a suitable level of downforce for the rain that is expected tomorrow, while D’Ambrosio was very disappointed that his crash yesterday left the team with a rebuilding mountain which it had not appeared to have climbed until the stewards said that he could race despite not qualifying under the 107 percent rule.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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