Montreal qualifying analysis: Will Ferrari challenge the Red Bulls?

The cold, fast, green and low down force track of Montreal didn’t stop Red Bull and Sebastian Vettal to grab another pole position in the 2011 season. Ferrari’s made a big step forward and qualified on P2 and P3, which is their best qualifying performance this season. McLaren didn’t live upto the expectation and didn’t challenge the Bulls on the track which is suited best to their car. Mercedes with the big horse power engine makes a double appearance on Q3. Both the Renaults made into the final leg of qualifying. Force India and Paul De Resta just missed Q3 by 2 hundreds of the seconds and Jaime Alguersuari’s spin on almost every lap. Thus is how the qualifying for the only flyaway race happening in the middle of the season took place. Let’s have a look at the qualifying performance of each team.

Red BullP 1 Sebastian Vettel 1m 13.014s, P4 Mark Webber 1m 13.429s

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettal dominated the qualifying and outpaced their rivals on the track which is not so favorable for the team. Vettal was delighted with his maiden pole in Canada and performed really well after having a huge shunt at the Champions corner on Friday free practice season. Webber didn’t matched his teammate which is a case in the while season and qualified on the second row of the grid behind the Ferrari’s. Webber had problems with the KERS in the morning and this potentially had affected his qualifying.

FerrariP2 Fernando Alonso 1m 13.199s, P3 Felipe Massa 1m 13.217s

Ferrari registered its best qualifying performance in the 2011 season and was very close to the Red Bull and totally outpaced the McLarens. Massa also had his best qualifying performance and qualified ahead of Mark Webber and closely matched his teammate. Alonso and Massa are optimistic for the race because Ferrari had a better race pace than the qualifying. They are better in the longer runs and with the Ferrari engine at the back Sebastian Vettal’s pole position is under the threat.

McLarenP5 Lewis Hamilton 1m 13.565s, P7 Jenson Button 1m 13.838s

McLaren didn’t have a very good afternoon this time around in Montreal. Lewis Hamilton which was at the Pole position each year when he competed here didn’t live upto the expectation. Button also didn’t able to extract the best out of his McLaren and able to qualify on the 4^th row of the grid. He admitted that he overdrove his best lap and that cost him some positions. Hamilton said that he extracted the best from his car. He said that the race pace of the McLaren is good and they will be fighting for positions.

MercedesP6 Nico Rosberg 1m 13.814s, P8 Michael Schumacher 1m 13.864s

Mercedes showed good pace in the qualifying and achieved the best that they could have. Both Nico and Michael were happy with the car and said that the team has made a step forward. Even qualifying at front Mercedes will have to race hard because they are not so good on the longer runs and the tyre degradation is also an issue with the team.

RenaultP9 Nick Heidfeld 1m 14.062s, Vitaly Petrov 1m 14.085s, P10

Renault did a fantastic job by putting both their cars on Q3. Both Vitaly and Nick were happy with their car, Nick said that the adjustment on the car helped in improving the lap times. Vitaly however, said that he had problems in heating the rear Pirelli tyres on the cold track.

Force IndiaP11 Paul di Resta, 1m 14.752s, P14 Adrian Sutil 1m 15.287s

Di Resta again outpaced his teammate and qualified on P11. He could have made into the final leg of qualifying but, missed it by just 2 hundreds of the second. Adrian however finished on P14 he could have qualified higher but hit the kerb on the final sequence of corners. Adrian and Paul were hopeful to score some points with the better race pace and wise strategy.

WilliamsP12 Pastor Maldonado 1m 15.043s, P16 Rubens Barrichello 1m 15.361s

Maldonado outpaced his teammate Rubens and qualified behind Force India. Barrichello again didn’t perform well and was totally of the pace and also had a spin on his final lap he encountered front disk problem as well.

SauberP13 Kamui Kobayashi 1m 15.285s, P17 Pedro de la Rosa 1m 15.587s

Sauber had a tough qualifying season and only managed P13 with Kamui. Pedro was still learning the car and the new different buttons on the steering wheel. Kobayashi admitted that the KERBS are creating problems for him. De La Rosa however, improved his performance and was just couple of tenth away from his teammate.

Toro RossoP15 Sebastien Buemi 1m 15.334s, P18 Jaime Alguersuari 1m 16.294s

Buemi said that he is happy with the car and achieved best with the available resources. Jaime however struggled with the brakes and every now and then locked the wheels which hampered his qualifying performance.

LotusP19 Jarno Trulli 1m 16.745s, P20 Heikki Kovalainen 1m 16.786s

First time this season Trulli outpaced his teammate in the qualifying. Both the Lotus drivers said that the car felt good and they achieved the best which was available. They also said that the performance of Lotus T127 was much better.

HRTP21 Tonio Liuzzi 1m 18.424s, P23 Narain Karthikeyan 1m 18.574s

Liuzzi said that the lack of KERS hurt them but he was happy with the team. He said that the team has made a big step forward and the new exhaust is working well. HRT outpaced their closest rival Virgin and qualified ahead of him. Narain however, struggled to heat his first set of tyre but with the second set able to qualify for the race by making the cut on 107% rule.

VirginP22 Timo Glock 1m 18.537s, P24 Jerome D’Ambrosio 1m 19.414s

Virgin didn’t have a strong qualifying outing, they were outpaced by the HRT team and then D’Ambrosio didn’t able to qualify by missing the 107% rule. However, stewards allowed him to race after considering that he was using the new chassis after his accident. Glock said that he focused on the suitable level of downforce as the rain is expected on Sunday.