Sebastian Vettel blazes to pole in a thrilling Qualifying at Valencia

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel has stormed to pole-position for tomorrows European Grand Prix, after a thrilling qualifying session at the Valencia Street Circuit. The Red Bull ace qualified roughly four tenths ahead of current Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, with Pastor Maldonado a competitive 3rd for Williams.

The Valencia Street Circuit was bathed in glorious sunshine as the opening session got underway, as Daniel Ricciardo set the initial pace for Toro Rosso. However, the Aussie unsurprisingly failed to stay at the top for long as Bruno Senna, Michael Schumacher, then Lewis Hamilton assumed the top spot in a frenetic opening session.

Mark Webber’s dismal weekend continued into qualifying, as the Monaco Grand Prix winner took to the track extremely late in the session. The Australian driver failed to avoid the drop as Q1 came to a close, and was relegated out of qualifying as the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne and then the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen improved on their respective times. The 35-year-old joined the regular Q1 victims of the Jean-Eric Vergne, Vitaly Petrov, the two HRTs and the two Marussias.

As Q2 got underway, the times separating the top 10 was exceedingly close. Pastor Maldonado took to the track first, ahead of the Ferrari duo. Alonso initially set the pace, however as other drivers took to the track the local hero dropped ominously into the Q2 drop zone. Eventually, as Q2 came to a close it was Romain Grosjean who was sitting proud at the top of the timing sheets, with the two Force India’s of Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg competitively through to the top ten shootout.

Local hero Fernando Alonso joined his team-mate Felipe Massa is dropping out of Q2, along with 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher. With the competitive nature of the 2012 season clearly evident in qualifying, the top ten shootout consisted of a vast array of drivers from the field. With Romain Grosjean the favorite to take pole, no-one knew how the top ten shootout was going pan out.

It was the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean who were the first out as the final qualifying session got underway. The Finn set the initial pace with a 01:38.966 which was quickly beaten by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado was forced to abort his initial qualifying run, as the Venezuelan ace made a big mistake through the penultimate corner.

As the big names completed their first laps, there was a moment of quiet as the drivers prepared for their final and all-important runs. Romain Grosjean stormed to the top on new Pirelli soft tyres, setting a commanding 01:38.475. However, as the session drew to a close it was Pastor Maldonado who went fastest until reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel muted the opposition and blazed to yet another dominant pole.

With the Valencia Street Circuit a difficult track to overtake on, Sebastian Vettel and 2nd place man Lewis Hamilton are in a commanding position as the attention of the F1 paddock now turns to tomorrows Grand Prix of Europe. The German has won the last two races around Valencia, and will be gunning for the hat-trick tomorrow afternoon.

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