Kamui Kobayashi will start 10th as a hydraulics issue saw his Sauber grind to
a halt at the end of Q2 and unable to take part in the closing 10 minutes.
The middle 15-minute session caused a stir as both Jenson Button and Mark
Webber failed to make the final shoot-out as just one second covered the top
13 places.
Button will start 11th in his McLaren, with Red Bull’s Webber directly behind
him, their worst grid positions since the races in Belgium and China in
August and April last year.
Button said: “I don’t know where it went wrong. All day I’ve struggled
with balance.
“I thought we would be reasonably competitive and at least get into Q3,
but that’s not the case.
“That final run, I had a lot understeer. We’re out in Q2 and it doesn’t
help because we don’t have any option tyres left for tomorrow.”
Force India still clearly have work to do on their package they had hoped
would propel them into the top 10 as Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg start
13th and 14th.
Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo will start 15th and 16th,
whilst there was more misery for Felipe Massa in his Ferrari as the
Brazilian is 17th, his worst grid slot since lining up 24th in Singapore in
2010.
Bruno Senna earlier brought the curtain down on the opening 20-minute session
in ignominious fashion.
Pushing to make it into Q2, the Brazilian spun his Williams into the gravel at
the right-hander turn 12, stopping just short of a tyre barrier.
The error means Senna will start 18th, finishing 1.6secs behind team-mate
Maldonado in Q1, the Venezuelan fifth quickest in the opening stint to
underline what was possible.
On the 10th row of the grid are the Caterham duo of Vitaly Petrov and Heikki
Kovalainen, followed by the Marussia pair of Charles Pic and Timo Glock.
Only one HRT qualified, however, with Pedro de la Rosa lining up 23rd as
team-mate Narain Karthikeyan suffered technical issues, finishing nearly
three seconds outside the 107% time.
It means the stewards will now determine whether Karthikeyan will compete
tomorrow if they believe there are legitimate grounds for him to do so.