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 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.
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 who is 14th.
Like Hamilton, Sergio Perez incurs a three-place drop for ignoring the yellow
flags in practice yesterday, and although qualifying 17th, the Mexican in
his Sauber starts 20th.
For only the second time this year 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 this weekend.
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.