“He strung it all together, made a small adjustment to the front wing and he
put together a perfect lap – probably his best lap this year.
“He knew we were going to only give him one run, he knew he only had one lap
to do it in, and that’s when the pressure’s really on and that’s when he’s
really at his best.” Spanish fans upset by the failure of Fernando Alonso to
progress to the top 10 shootout were hoping for more from their football
team last night. To be honest, judging by the half-empty grandstands, most
of them were on the beach or preparing themselves for the game in the city’s
bars.
Organisers have reduced Valencia’s grandstand capacity to 45,000 this year but
the economy is in freefall. Already scheduled to alternate with Barcelona
from next year, it would surprise no one if this year’s running is the last.
Valencia is not a popular race. Overtaking here is notoriously difficult,
which is just one of the reasons we can expect today’s winner to come from
the front row. In fact, despite the sensitive tyres and the competitiveness
this year, the winner of every race bar Malaysia has started on the front
row, and Fernando Alonso’s victory at Sepang was largely down to a monsoon.
Another would be the fact that Vettel loves this place. On Sunday, he will be
attempting to complete a hat-trick of pole to chequered flag victories
around Valencia’s port.
“It was a surprising gap,” he grinned. “We have a few new parts but I’m not
sure there is a secret.” Others would contend there is. Although ostensibly
outlawed, teams are continuing to extract performance from off-throttle
exhaust blowing this year and Red Bull are said to be doing it extremely
effectively.
It didn’t help Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber, though, who will start from
19th this afternoon after his DRS failed in Q1.
Another driver disappointed with how things went was Jenson Button, who has
now been outqualified by his team mate at all eight races this year. Hopes
raised by his success in morning practice, which he topped, Button could
only go ninth fastest in qualifying — four tenths slower than Hamilton — and
struck a very downbeat note afterwards, his championships hopes disappearing
a little more with every race weekend.
“I don’t know why but I kept on locking the fronts and could not slow the car
down,” he said. “Not a lot happens here in Valencia during the race. You
cannot overtake round here. If you get it right on the strategy, then maybe,
but the way the tyres seem to hold on for most people, it is not going to be
the most exciting race. I think we are stuck where we are. The only ones who
I would say who could move up are the Lotuses.”
Indeed Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, starting fourth and fifth
respectively, represent the only realistic shouts for that eighth
consecutive different winner. Hamilton, too, predicted they would be ones to
watch.
But don’t bet on it. Vettel’s odds of scoring a hat-trick today are far
shorter than anyone playing for England in Kiev.
Leading final positions after Qualifying: 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red
Bull 1min 38.086secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:38.410, 3 Pastor
Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:38.475, 4 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team
1:38.505, 5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:38.513, 6 Nico Rosberg
(Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.623, 7 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.741,
8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India 1:38.752, 9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren
1:38.801, 10 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:38.992, 11 Fernando Alonso
(Spa) Ferrari 1:38.707, 12 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:38.770, 13
Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:38.780, 14 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams 1:39.207,
15 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.358, 16 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin)
Caterham 1:40.295, 17 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.358,
18 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.203, 19 Mark Webber (Aus)
Red Bull 1:40.395, 20 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham 1:40.457, 21 Pedro de la
Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1 1:42.171, 22 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:42.527, 23
Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia 1:42.675, 24 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia no time