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Saturday, 29 October 2011

Vettel Adds Pole Number 13 in India


Red Bull made Formula One history on Saturday as Sebastian Vettel chalked up his 13th pole of the year ahead of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

It means the Milton Keynes-based outfit have become the first team to achieve 16 pole positions in a single season.

Vettel's latest pole leaves him just one shy of Nigel Mansell's 1992 record with two rounds left after India, while his team have now beaten the mark they equalled last year, set at 15 alongside McLaren and Williams.

Vettel, who earlier set the pace in Saturday's final free practice session, posted the quickest lap of the weekend with a time of one minute 24.178secs, beating McLaren's Lewis Hamilton into second place by almost three tenths of a second.

Hamilton, though, will start from fifth on the grid after incurring a three-place grid penalty during Friday's first free practice session, when he ignored double waved yellow flags following a spin by Williams driver Pastor Maldonado.

As a result it will be an all-Red Bull front row at the Buddh International Circuit, with Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber lining up second.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in his McLaren occupy the second row, with Hamilton heading the third from Felipe Massa in his Ferrari.

The Brazilian, though, caused drama at the end of the top-10 shoot-out when the front-right suspension of his car broke running over a high kerb at turn nine, sending him into the gravel and a tyre wall.

Nico Rosberg starts seventh for Mercedes, followed by Adrian Sutil for Force India, and Toro Rosso pair Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari - the Italian team with both cars in the top 10 for only the second time this season.

Vitaly Petrov managed to set the same time as Alguersuari in Q2, but missed out on competing in the final 10-minute session as he set his lap later.

Although qualifying 11th, the Renault driver drops five places given his penalty handed out in the last race in Korea when he collided with Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes.
Disappointing for Schumacher

It means Schumacher now starts 11th, with Paul di Resta 12th for Force India, disappointingly finishing 0.363secs behind team-mate Sutil.

Williams' duo Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello start 13th and 15th, sandwiching Renault's Bruno Senna.

Like Hamilton, Sergio Perez incurs a three-place drop for ignoring the yellow flags in Friday practice, and although qualifying 17th, the Mexican in his Sauber starts 20th.

For only the second time this year, team-mate Kamui Kobayashi failed to make it out of Q1.

On the other occasion in Turkey an engine failure left him without a time, but in this instance there was no excuse for the Sauber driver, who only three weeks ago qualified seventh in Japan, and he will start 17th, moving up a place thanks to Perez.

Behind him will be Lotus pair Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, in 18th and 19th, then Perez, with Narain Karthikeyan in 21st for Hispania, the Indian in for Vitantonio Liuzzi at his home race.

The Virgin pair of Jerome D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock line up 22nd and 23rd, the latter suffering a gearbox issue that left him with a time outside of the 107% ruling, but it is certain he will be allowed to compete.

Lining up at the back will be Hispania's Daniel Ricciardo, who despite initially qualifying 21st, incurs a five-place penalty due to a gearbox change following final practice.

Vettel now has 28 career poles to his name and stands joint sixth in the all-time standings alongside five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

"It was tricky with the dust on the track, ending up with one racing line clear of dirt, and going slightly off means you lose a small amount of time," said Vettel, who retained his title two races ago in Japan.

"But it's good to be here, a very interesting race, a challenging circuit, so I'm excited to race tomorrow."

Hamilton, smiling on this occasion unlike in Korea a fortnight ago when he qualified on pole, said: "It's been a good day for me, and we're surprised at splitting the Red Bulls.

"But I've got the penalty, a silly mistake from myself and we paid the price, but I'm still optimistic regardless of where I start."

Webber, still chasing his first win of the season, said: "It's a challenge for us all, a new venue.

"But overall a good job from the team, with a good foundation for the race."

Times
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1mins 24.178secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:24.474, 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:24.508, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:24.519, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:24.950, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:25.122, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:25.451, 8 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India No Time, 9 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso No Time, 10 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso No Time, 11 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:26.319, 12 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:26.337, 13 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:26.503, 14 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:26.537, 15 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 1:26.651, 16 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:27.247, 17 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.562, 18 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.876, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:28.565, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:28.752, 21 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 1:30.216, 22 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:30.238, 23 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:31.878, 24 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:34.046

Note: Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez both receive three-place grid penalties due to ignoring a yellow flag in Friday's practice, so will start the race in 5th and 20th places respectively. Additionally Vitaly Petrov receives a five-place grid penalty for causing a accident with Michael Schumacher in the Korean Grand Prix and Daniel Ricciardo receives a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, they will start 16th and 24th respectively.