For the first time this season, it does not look like Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull pair will be dominating the race. As the Rule changes have struck hard few teams of which Red Bull and Renault were the greatest losers. While the impressive lead which they maintain over the other drivers were not been cut but still Red Bull continue to dominate with 1-2 on the first row. But this time around, it was Mark Webber who looked confident enough to out-qualify his teammate. Webber was fastest in Q1, and Q3 was second on the time sheet in Q2. Webber had trouble free run today which saw him easily keeping his teammate at bay. The qualifying session was a mix of dry and wet spells. As the Q1 started with dry, all the drivers were warm of a possible rain in 10mins. So most of the front runner stick to their harder compounds while the backmarkers comes out with softer compound tyres. As the clock ticks 6min remaining, rain struck leaving no room for improvement. It saw both the Toro Rosso plunging into the Q3 knockout zone and watching Heikki Kovalainen reaching Q2. Q3 also saw both the Ferrari drivers taking on grassy route to their success. With Fernando Alonso lucky to escape such a huge gravel trap. As the Q2 started, it was on wet setup with the water still on track from the last session. Some of the drivers started on intermediates, but some braving out on dry tyres to set some early times that saw Kovalainen, Pastor Maldonando and Adrian Sutil setting the pace. But as they went on to the track for the second run, all the drivers set the pace with the new soft compound tyres. Felipe Massa lead the pack in Q2 while biggest upset was knocking out of Michael Schumacher. He will start in 13th position. Rookie driver Paul Di Resta qualified for Q3 on his first home race. As the Q3 started, there were 3 British Drivers in the Top 10 shootout hunting for the pole position but none of them succeeded. Q3 started on a dry note with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mclaren coming out early on track with the single Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. They set the early pace as the track was still dry and cars were gaining speed every lap. Force India Rookie Starer Paul Di Resta impress all the fans with quite a brilliant drive which saw him at 6th position plunging Lewis and Rosberg behind him. As the Q3, went to the final 2mins, it seemed that he will start at somewhere at 8th since neither Di Resta, nor Maldonado and not even Kobayashi went out for their final run, but little rain spell its magic, with no driver actually improved their lap time and Force India Driver and homeboy Paul Di Resta will start at his career best position. Ferrari has improved a lot and are now in hunt of Red Bull with just nearly closing them for the pole this time. From the today's result it seem that Ferrari can upset Red Bull in tomorrow race. While Mclaren seems to clearly lack in pace and were left far behind the front runners. Jenson Button could only got upto 5th. Lewis Hamilton, the other British Driver will only start at 10th position. Sutil nearly missing the Q3, and will start at 11th. Sergio Perez will join the 6th row with Sutil. Petrov in the leading Renault will start in 14th position ahead of Rubens Barrichello who initially had a brilliant timesheet but could not cover it till the end and will start in 15th. Nick Heidfeld could only make it to 16th ahead of Team Lotus Heikki Kovalainen who outqualified both the Toro Rosso in the first session. Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Beumi will start in 18th and 19th. At the back of the pack, it was Timo Glock of Virgin, who upset Jarno Trulli to better him to 20th position. Jerome D'Ambrosio will start at 22nd ahead of both the HRT's. Debutant Daniel Ricciardo who is also the reserve driver of Red Bull and Toro Rosso with an agreement with HRT allowed him to run for the rest of the season instead of Indian Driver Narain Karthikeyan could not get it going and was only 24th and last. However all the 24 drivers qualify for the 107percent of the rule, before the rain could play any of its spoil sport.
Qualifying Result - British Grand Prix, Silverstone
Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
1 | Mark Webber | Red Bull - Renault | 1min 32.670sec | 1min 31.673sec | 1min 30.399sec | 19 |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull - Renault | 1min 32.977sec | 1min 32.379sec | 1min 30.431sec | 19 |
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1min 32.986sec | 1min 31.727sec | 1min 30.516sec | 20 |
4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1min 32.760sec | 1min 31.640sec | 1min 31.124sec | |
5 | Jenson Button | Mclaren - Mercedes | 1min 34.230sec | 1min 32.273sec | 1min 31.898sec | 21 |
6 |
Paul Di Resta | Force India -Mercedes | 1min 34.472sec | 1min 32.569sec | 1min 31.929sec | 14 |
7 |
Pastor Maldonado | Williams -Cosworth | 1min 32.702sec | 1min 32.588sec | 1min 31.933 | 16 |
8 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber - Ferrari | 1min 34.324sec | 1min 32.399sec | 1min 32.128sec | 16 |
9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP |
1min 34.186sec | 1min 32.295sec | 1min 32.209sec | 18 |
10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mclaren - Mercedes | 1min 33.581sec | 1min 32.505sec | 1min 32.376sec | 20 |
11 | Adrian Sutil | Force India -Mercedes | 1min 34.454sec | 1min 32.617sec | 14 | |
12 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1min 34.145sec | 1min 32.624sec | 14 | |
13 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1min 34.160sec | 1min 32.656sec | 15 | |
14 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1min 34.428sec | 1min 32.734sec | 14 | |
15 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams -Cosworth | 1min 33.532sec | 1min 33.119sec | 12 | |
16 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1min 35.132sec | 1min 33.805sec | 15 | |
17 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1min 34.923sec | 1min 34.821sec | 9 | |
18 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR - Ferrari | 1min 35.245sec | 7 | ||
19 | Sebastien Buemi | STR - Ferrari | 1min 35.749sec | 7 | ||
20 | Timo Glock | Virgin -Cosworth | 1min 36.203sec | 7 | ||
21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1min 36.456sec | 4 | ||
22 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Virgin -Cosworth | 1min 37.154sec | 6 | ||
23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT - Cosworth | 1min 37.484sec | 7 | ||
24 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT - Cosworth | 1min 38.059sec | 6 |
107percent Qualifying Rule Time: 1min 39.156sec.
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