Mark Webber got the better of team-mate Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bull team thrashed the field to take pole and second spots on the grid for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The two were locked in a battle of their own in the Catalan sunshine, coming out nine-tenths quicker than third-placed Lewis Hamilton and home hero Fernando Alonso. Such is the team’s pace that they look to be a dead cert for a win if not a one-two tomorrow afternoon.
Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button was fifth-placed, while a much-improved Michael Schumacher will start sixth. Robert Kubica’s Renault did not appear to suffer unduly from not having brought major updates to the first European event of the season like so many, and he will depart from seventh.
Schumacher’s team-mate Rosberg was eighth quickest, while Felipe Massa could only manage ninth. Kamui Kobayashi, in the first evidence that he is as good as his last season’s showings indicated, was tenth after having slipped his way into the top ten shootout. His team-mate Pedro de la Rosa, another man racing at home, was 12th on the grid.
Elsewhere there was misery for Williams as Rubens Barrichello could not get out of Q1, blaming traffic and a lack of absolute pace for his travails.
