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Sebestian Vettel set the fastest lap time at the BIC to take the pole position at the inaugural Indian GP.
Newly crowned double F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel took pole position at Buddh International circuit in Greater Noida, for Sunday’s first ever Indian Formula one Grand Prix.
Vettel set the fasted qualifying time with a blistering lap of 1:24.178 and secured his 13th pole position and also equaled the record of having the most number of pole positions in a season with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. He needs one more to equal Nigel Mansell’s feat of 14 poles in 1992. It was also the 16th overall pole position for Red bull this season and was Vettel’s 28th overall pole position in his short but illustrious career.
Lewis Hamilton had the second fastest lap time on the track with 1:24.474, but will have to start tomorrows race at 5th position due to a 3 place grid penalty imposed on him on account of ignoring yellow flags during the first practice session. This ensured that Mark Webber with the third fastest lap time will once again be in the front row along with team-mate Vettel. This also means that Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button will now start the race from 3rd and 4th places respectively.
Hamilton will be accompanied by Felipe Massa on the third row, who suffered a suspension failure in his Ferrari just before Q3 ended. But given the history between these two drivers, one can expect some serious fireworks.
As far the Sahara Force India Team is concerned, Adrian Sutil made the cut into the top 10 during Q2 and starts the race from 8th position. Although he qualified for Q3, he decided not take his car out and avoided wasting a fresh set of tyres. The other Force India driver, Paul Di Resta, couldn’t go past Q2 and will start the race from 12th position.
Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher failed to make it into Q1 again, qualifying five places below his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg,who lines up at seventh place ahead of Adrian Sutil,Sebestian Beumi and Jaime Alguersuari.
Narain Karthikeyan, the only Indian driver at the Indian GP was just .22 seconds behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in qualifications but was given a five place grid penalty for impeding Schumacher during Q1. He will starts the race at 24th position while his team-mate Ricciardo takes P21.
2011 Indian F1 Grand Prix – Qualifying Lap Times
Pos Driver Nat Team Time1 Sebastian Vettel GER Red Bull 1’24.1782 Lewis Hamilton GBR McLaren 1’24.474*3 Mark Webber AUS Red Bull 1’24.5084 Fernando Alonso ESP Ferrari 1’24.5195 Jenson Button GBR McLaren 1’24.9506 Felipe Massa BRA Ferrari 1’25.1227 Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes 1’25.4518 Adrian Sutil GER Force India no time9 Sébastien Buemi SUI Toro Rosso no time10 Jaime Alguersuari ESP Toro Rosso no time11 Vitaly Petrov RUS Renault 1’26.319*12 Michael Schumacher GER Mercedes 1’26.33713 Paul di Resta GBR Force India 1’26.50314 Pastor Maldonado VEN Williams 1’26.53715 Bruno Senna BRA Renault 1’26.65116 Rubens Barrichello BRA Williams 1’27.24717 Sergio Perez MEX Sauber 1’27.562*18 Kamui Kobayashi JAP Sauber 1’27.87619 Heikki Kovalainen FIN Lotus 1’28.56520 Jarno Trulli ITA Lotus 1’28.75221 Daniel Ricciardo AUS Hispania 1’30.21622 Narain Karthikeyan IND Hispania 1’30.23823 Jerome d’Ambrosio BEL Virgin 1’30.86624 Timo Glock GER Virgin 1’34.046
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Due to penalties to be applied, Petrov will drop back five places on the grid while Perez and Hamilton drops three places each. Karthikayen also drops two places due to the grid penelty imposed on him.
