Apart from the man on pole, Sebastian Vettel, and the man in second, Lewis Hamilton, the Valencia qualifying session was one of the most baffling of the year. In third place is Pastor Maldonado of Williams. While it is true that all of these drivers have won races this year, still, look who else is in the top 10 spots on the grid: Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, as well as Paul di Resta of that same team.
But Fernando Alonso of Ferrari is only 11th, Michael Schumacher, whom some had tipped as a potential winner here because of his pole in Monaco, is only 12th. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari is 13th, while Mark Webber in the other Red Bull could only manage 19th, after suffering problems on his car all weekend. No, F1 qualifying is not what it used to be. But once again this year the Pirelli tires played a huge role.