Sebastian Vettel has continued his incredible showing of speed to take yet another pole position and looks towards a fourth successive F1 win at the Indian Grand Prix in New Dehli.
The world champion posted a 1m 25.283s to pip his Red Bull Racing teammate and Australian Mark Webber by four hundredths of a second. It’s the third race in a row Red Bull Racing have filled the front row.
Vettel was naturally pleased with his qualifying performance.
“Pole is the best place to start from, so I’m happy with that,” Vettel said. “We had a good qualifying session and a good weekend so far with no car issues.
“My first attempt in Q3 wasn’t great, I was a bit too greedy with braking into Turn 4, but after that we had a good second run and it was enough pole. Mclaren, Ferrari and Lotus look competitive in race trim, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow – they will be pushing hard.”
Webber said he was very close to matching his teammate for pace and is confident for today’s race.
“It was very, very close with Seb and I, both of us only really had one run in Q3,” Webber said. “Seb made a mistake on his first lap and I couldn’t get the tyre prep right for the second run, but that’s how it was.
“Tomorrow should be a good race, I think it will be tighter between all of us, but we should have enough.”
McLaren will cover row two with Lewis Hamilton just a tenth quicker than Jenson Button while Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa kept the trend going with their Ferraris to start from row three.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen and Sauber’s Sergio Perez will be on row four. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg complete the top 10.
Australian Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo will start from 15th but the Perth-native said he was on used tyres so he’ll have a bit to spare in the race Sunday afternoon.
“We are looking alright for tomorrow as my lap time on used Options (soft tyres) seems quite respectable,” Ricciardo said after qualifying.
“That was quite a good session for me and I was pretty happy with my laps, even if my last run in Q2 was a bit scrappy, but generally I pushed hard to get the time out of the car.
“I had hoped to get a bit closer to Q3, but looking at our pace this morning, we did make a small step forward for qualifying. The nature of this circuit means you have to be aggressive with it.”
1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 01:25.3
2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 01:25.3
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:25.5
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:25.7
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:25.8
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:25.9
7 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 01:26.2
8 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 01:26.4
9 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 01:26.7
10 Nico Rosberg Mercedes No time
11 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 01:26.1
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 01:26.2
13 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 01:26.3
14 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 01:26.6
15 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 01:26.8
16 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 01:27.0
17 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 01:27.2
18 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 01:27.5
19 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 01:28.8
20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 01:29.5
21 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 01:29.6
22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 01:30.6
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 01:30.6
24 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 01:30.7
