On the fifth row will be Mercedes’ duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg,
neither driver setting a time after using up all three sets of their
supersoft tyres in the first two sessions.
Nico Hulkenberg found himself ousted from Q2 at the death by the last man on
track in Schumacher, leaving the younger German to start 11th in his Force
India.
Another title contender Kimi Raikkonen, third in the standings and 38 points
behind Alonso, could only manage 12th in his Lotus, claiming he had no grip
from his tyres.
For the ninth time in 14 qualifying sessions this season Felipe Massa failed
to make it into the top 10, lining up 13th for Ferrari.
Sauber’s Sergio Perez, second just a fortnight ago in Italy, starts 14th ahead
of Toro Rosso pair Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Williams’ Bruno Senna will start 17th after he smacked a wall with his
right-rear wheel, breaking the suspension and taking no further action in
the session.
Just two races after starting on the front row in Belgium, Sauber’s Kamui
Kobayashi was the big-name scalp who failed to make it out of Q1, blaming a
lack of confidence with an oversteering car in which he will line up 18th.
In team order, Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov managed to out-qualify Heikki
Kovalainen, with the duo starting 19th and 20th.
At Marussia, Glock finished ahead of Charles Pic, who tomorrow will have 20
seconds added to his race time after passing four red lights and overtaking
a rival in final practice.
In a unique move the stewards have also ordered Pic to perform a day of
community service for the FIA’s Action for Road Safety campaign.
On the back row are HRT duo Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa, the
latter’s five-place penalty for a gearbox change an irrelevance.
Leading Positions after Qualifying: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1
min 46.362 secs, 2 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:46.804, 3 Sebastian
Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:46.905, 4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:46.939, 5
Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:47.216, 6 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India
1:47.241, 7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:47.475, 8 Romain Grosjean (Fra)
Lotus F1 Team 1:47.788, 9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP No Time, 10
Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP No Time, 11 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India
1:47.975, 12 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:48.261, 13 Felipe Massa
(Bra) Ferrari 1:48.344, 14 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:48.505, 15
Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.774, 16 Jean-Eric Vergne
(Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.849, 17 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams No Time,
18 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.933, 19 Vitaly Petrov (Rus)
Caterham 1:50.846, 20 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham 1:51.137, 21 Timo
Glock (Ger) Marussia 1:51.370, 22 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia 1:51.762, 23
Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-F1 1:52.372, 24 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-F1
1:53.355
NB: Pedro de la Rosa has a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox
change, but as he qualified in 24th he remains in that position.