July 10 '10
Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole position for the second year in a row at Silverstone, as the Milton Keynes-based team secured its fifth front-row lockout of the season. Vettel beat his team mate Mark Webber by 0.143s. Fernando Alonso will start tomorrow's race on second row of the grid for Ferrari.
Jenson Button in his McLaren had a disastrous session. He will start his home grand prix from 14th place after missing the cut for the top-10 shootout.
In Q1
Heikki Kovalainen was the best of the new team drivers in 19th. His Lotus team mate Jarno Trulli will start from 21st position. Seems like the Virgins have made a step forward with the new updates as Timo Glock managed to split the two Lotuses.Sakon Yamamoto who will take the place of Bruno Senna in HRT for the British Gran Prix, was last of all. He was half a second down on his team mate Karun Chandhok.
Driver from the established team unable to get into Q2 was Jaime Alguersuari who qualified 18th.
Drivers eliminated in Q1
18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 32.430s
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1m 34.405s
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m 34.775s
21. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1m 34.864s
22. Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1m 35.212s
23. Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1m 36.546s
24. Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1m 36.968s
In Q2
Local hero, Jenson Button could only manage 14th fastest time in his McLaren. Button radioed in that he was struggling with low grip at the rear.
McLaren was on the back foot going into qualifying after having to shelve the exhaust-blown diffuser it tried in Friday practice, which it found upset the MP4-25?s balance. Thus the team abandoned the key element of its planned car upgrade and reverted to the old specification rear end on the MP4-25.
Somewhat bewildered by the sudden downturn in performance Button said, ?This morning the car felt really good. I personally think there?s something wrong, the car was undriveable. That?s it really. I don?t know if I?ve lost rear downforce since this morning, but it?s pretty undriveable. This weekend has been tricky, but that wasn?t normal.?
Also failing to make it beyond Q2 was Adrian Sutil who has for most part been a regular in the final Q3 shootout, but alas not at Silverstone on the doorstep of the Force India team?s headquarters. His team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi fared worse and will start from 15th on the grid.
Vettel was quicker in the first knockout session while Webber had the edge in Q2.
Drivers eliminated in Q2
11. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m 31.399s
12. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1m 31.421s
13. Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1m 31.635s
14. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m 31.699s
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1m 31.708s
16. Vitaly Petrov Renault-Renault 1m 31.796s
17. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 32.012s
In Q3
It was the battle of the Bulls for the top position and Vettel got the better of it. This result put Red Bull on pole for the ninth time out of ten Grands Prix this season.
Webber was the first to set a Q3 time and logged a 1m29.758s, easily the fastest lap of the new Silverstone layout up to that point ? but moments later Vettel stopped the clocks in 1m29.695s.
Webber was unable to respond on his second run so Vettel?s pole was secure, but that didn?t stop the young German shaving another few hundredths off his own benchmark just to emphasise who had the upper hand.
His final time of 1m29.615s represented an average speed of 147mph for the revised 3.7-mile circuit, almost identical to the average he recorded on the previous layout in last year?s low-fuel Q2 session.
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Fernando Alonso finished third for Ferrari and will share second row of the grid with his nemesis Lewis Hamilton.
Pedro de la Rosa qualified an excellent ninth, his first top-10 grid placing of his F1 comeback season. He qualified ahead of Mercedes' Michael Schumacher.
Only a mishap (such as a broken nosecone which Sebastian Vettel suffered in practice) is likely to prevent a Red Bull victoryTop ten drivers in Q3
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m 29.615s
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m 29.758s
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 30.426s
4. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m 30.556s
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 30.625s
6. Robert Kubica Renault-Renault 1m 31.040s
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 31.172s
8. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m 31.175s
9. Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1m 31.274s
10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 31.430s
Full Qualifying Times
Images(C) daylife, sutton-images, BBC
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