Vettel Leads Red Bull Front-Row Lock-Out After Dominant Qualifying At India

Sebastian Vettel has continued on his path to glory at the Buddh International Circuit, as the reigning World Champion stormed to his 35th career pole position. Mark Webber will start alongside his team-mate on the grid, with the McLaren and Ferrari duo also side-by-side further back on the grid.

The Force India duo were the first to take to the track as the opening session of qualifying began, with Paul di Resta leading team-mate Nico Hulkenberg onto the track. The Briton set the initial pace for the local outfit, with a 01:28.786 before Sergio Perez and then Nico Hulkenberg rose to the top. In traditional qualifying fashion, the times quickly began to tumble as more drivers took to the Buddh International Circuit.

Felipe Massa flew straight to the top for Ferrari with a 01:27.082, before fellow countryman Bruno Senna did likewise. The Ferrari driver returned to the top almost instantly, before the other Williams of Pastor Maldonado set a decent 01:26.904 to go fastest overall. However, it was not long before reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel asserted his authority over proceedings with a 01:26.621, which the German was able to improve upon shortly after by several tenths.

As the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel showed his dominance at the top, Felipe Massa pushed a little too hard through the final sector of the lap and spun on the exit of turn 15. Luckily for the Brazilian driver, he was able to avoid the barriers and continue back into the pits. Sebastian Vettel remained fastest as the opening session drew to a close, which saw Jean-Eric Vergne once again suffer an uncompetitive qualifying session and join the regular suspects of the two Caterhams, Marussias and HRTs in being eliminated after Q1.

Heikki Kovalainen ended the opening session in the gravel after spinning through turn 11, beaching his Caterham whilst Pastor Maldonado sneaked through to the top of the timing sheets with a brilliant 01:26.048.

Kamui Kobayashi was eager to get proceedings underway as Q2 began, with the Japanese driver the first out for Sauber. Kobayashi then proceeded to set the initial pace with a 01:27.219, before Paul di Resta shot to the top for Force India. Quick times were in abundance during Q2, as Bruno Senna and the Nico Hulkenberg both momentarily held the top spot before the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton stormed to the top of the timing sheets with a 01:26.039.

However, still no-one could thwart the fearsome pace of the Red Bulls, as Sebastian Vettel set a simply scintillating 01:25.435 which saw the German driver remain fastest as the session drew to a close. Jenson Button progressed greatly throughout the final few minutes of Q2, eventually going 2nd with a 01:25.467. In the exceedingly tight midfield, Romain Grosjean joined Nico Hulkenberg, Bruno Senna, Michael Schumacher, Daniel Ricciardo, Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi in being eliminated from the proceedings.

Despite Red Bull’s immense qualifying pace, the top ten shootout still had all the ingredients on being another thrilling spectacle. And it failed to disappoint as Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to take to the track, setting the first timed lap albeit woefully off the pace with a 01:34.263. Fernando Alonso immediately displaced his former team-mate, as Sebastian Vettel made a rare mistake on his first timed lap and ran wide at turn 7. This ruined the German’s lap, and forced him to pit for a new set of tyres.

As Sebastian Vettel amazingly struggled on his opening lap, Mark Webber showed Red Bull’s superior pace with a 01:25.327. However, upon returning to the pits and changing his tyres, Sebastian Vettel wasted no time in asserting his authority with a stupendous 01:25.283. This saw Red Bull lock-out the front row as predicted, with Lewis Hamilton qualifying 3rd for McLaren alongside team-mate Jenson Button.

Although the Red Bull will duo start tomorrow’s race from the front row of the grid, the McLarens and Ferraris close behind will undoubtedly be striving to thwart the Milton Keynes-based outfit. However, it looks unmistakably as though Sebastian Vettel could well dominate once again during tomorrow’s 60-lap Indian Grand Prix.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m25.283        
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m25.327  + 0.044
 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.544  + 0.261
 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.659  + 0.376
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m25.773  + 0.490
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m25.857  + 0.574
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m26.236  + 0.953
 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m26.360  + 1.077
 9.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m26.713  + 1.430
10.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             no time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m26.939s                                   Gap **
11.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m26.136s  + 0.701
12.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercede  1m26.241s  + 0.806
13.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m26.331s  + 0.896
14.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m26.574s  + 1.139
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m26.777s  + 1.342
16.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercede  1m26.989s  + 1.554
17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m27.219s  + 1.784
Q1 cut-off time: 1m27.517s                                 Gap *
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m27.525s  + 1.477
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m28.756s  + 2.708
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m29.500s  + 3.452
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m29.613s  + 3.565
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m30.592s  + 4.544
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m30.593s  + 4.545
24.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m30.662s  + 4.614

107% time: 1m32.071s

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