Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has claimed another pole position for the Red Bull team, just pipping McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to the front spot thanks to a late flying lap.
The German driver had been trailing Lewis Hamilton as he began his second – and last – attempt, beating the British driver by 0.163 seconds in a 1m 19.815s.
McLaren will be pleased with their qualifying with Jenson Button putting his car on the third spot ont he grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix. A late run by Felipe Massa saw the Ferrari man sntach fourth place pushing team-mate Alonso into fifth and the Red Bull of Webber – who last year’s race – to sixth.
Heikki Kovalainen had a good qualifying in his Lotus, putting it in 19th position on the grid just 0.3 seconds behind Buemi. He was top of the lower team ahead of Glock, Liuzzi, Ricciardo and D’Ambrosio. However Buemi will be bumped five places down the grid, starting in 23rd place, for colliding with Heidfeld last weekend.
Lap times for the three qualifying sessions were:
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m19.815s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m19.978s + 0.163
3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m20.024s + 0.209
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m20.350s + 0.535
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m20.365s + 0.550
6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m20.474s + 0.659
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m21.098s + 1.283
8. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m21.445s + 1.630
9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m21.907s + 2.092
10. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari No time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m23.067s Gap
11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m22.256s + 1.994
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m22.284s + 2.022
13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m22.435s + 2.173
14. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m22.470s + 2.208
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m22.684s + 2.422
16. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m22.979s + 2.717
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth No time
Q1 cut-off time: 1m23.285s Gap
18. Sebastien Buemi* Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m24.070s + 2.492
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m24.362s + 2.784
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m24.534s + 2.956
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m26.294s + 4.716
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m26.323s + 4.745
23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m26.479s + 4.901
24. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m26.510s + 4.932
107% time: 1m 27.288s
*To have a five place grid slot penalty applied.
