Mark Webber aced Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel for the first time in a 2011 qualifying session, to take his first pole position of the season in Spain on Saturday. Vettel’s sole run in Q3 – done without KERS – yielded him a fastest-of-the-weekend 1m 21.181s, undercutting the 1m 21.961s and 1m 21.996s laps of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, but then Webber slipped in his masterpiece – with KERS – to take the top slot with 1m 20.981s.
Subsequently, Fernando Alonso squeezed his Ferrari between the McLarens, with 1m 21.964s, only three-thousandths off Hamilton.
Vitaly Petrov jumped up to sixth with 1m 22.471s for Renault, ahead of Nico Rosberg who only managed 1m 22.599s for Mercedes. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was eighth on 1m 22.888s, and Pastor Maldonado gave Williams a lot to smile about with a strong 1m 22.952s for ninth. Michael Schumacher opted to save rubber and qualified 10th without a Q3 time, while none of the other nine runners bothered to go for second runs to harvest tyres for what will be a tough race on Sunday.
As Vettel and Webber dominated Q2 with laps of 1m 21.540s and 1m 21.773s respectively, Sebastien Buemi just failed to get into Q3 by two-tenths in his Toro Rosso, lapping in 1m 23.231s. Sergio Perez was Sauber’s leader this time, the young Mexican taking 12th on 1m 23.367s ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari on 1m 23.694s and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 23.702s.
Heikki Kovalainen raised huge smiles at Lotus, not only because he qualified 15th on merit on 1m 25.403s, but because that comprehensively out-paced the troubled Force Indias. In the Silverstone team, Paul di Resta once again out-qualified Adrian Sutil, 1m 26.126s to 1m 26.571s, though both did their Q2 runs on hard tyres.
Jarno Trulli jumped to P18 at the end of Q1 (in which Schumacher was quickest with 1m 22.960s) with a lap of 1m 26.521s, but that was not enough to unseat team mate Kovalainen who put Lotus through to Q2 for the first time this year with 1m 25.874s.
Rubens Barrichello was in trouble with his Williams which spent too much time in the pits due to gearbox trouble, and was 19th on 1m 26.910s. Then came Timo Glock for Virgin on 1m 27.315s ahead of Tonio Liuzzi in the lead HRT on 1m 27.809s and his team mate Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 27.908s.
Jerome D’Ambrosio was also in trouble, running 1m 28.556s in the second Virgin for P23. Nick Heidfeld will start at the back, not running at all as his Renault was still being repaired after its morning fire.
F1.com
Full results
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:23.619 | 1:21.773 | 1:20.981 | 12 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:24.142 | 1:21.540 | 1:21.181 | 13 |
| 3 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.370 | 1:22.148 | 1:21.961 | 12 |
| 4 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:23.485 | 1:22.813 | 1:21.964 | 15 |
| 5 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:24.428 | 1:22.050 | 1:21.996 | 12 |
| 6 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:23.069 | 1:22.948 | 1:22.471 | 14 |
| 7 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:23.507 | 1:22.569 | 1:22.599 | 14 |
| 8 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:23.506 | 1:23.026 | 1:22.888 | 15 |
| 9 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1:23.406 | 1:22.854 | 1:22.952 | 14 |
| 10 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:22.960 | 1:22.671 | 12 | |
| 11 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:23.962 | 1:23.231 | 6 | |
| 12 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:24.209 | 1:23.367 | 9 | |
| 13 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:24.049 | 1:23.694 | 9 | |
| 14 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:23.656 | 1:23.702 | 8 | |
| 15 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1:25.874 | 1:25.403 | 6 | |
| 16 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:24.332 | 1:26.126 | 13 | |
| 17 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:24.648 | 1:26.571 | 13 | |
| 18 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1:26.521 | 4 | ||
| 19 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:26.910 | 5 | ||
| 20 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:27.315 | 8 | ||
| 21 | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1:27.809 | 9 | ||
| 22 | 22 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:27.908 | 9 | ||
| 23 | 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:28.556 | 5 | ||
| 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | no time | 0 | |||
| Q1 107% Time | 1:28.767 |