Vettel takes home pole!

Sebastian Vettel will start his home GP from pole position on Sunday afternoon.

Ferrari’s Alonso put up a great challenge against the Red Bull Racing driver but was eventually beaten by two thousandths of a second. Felipe Massa qualified 3rd fastest and will be joined on the 2nd row of the grid by Red Bull’s Mark Webber.

The session was held in dry conditions, under the constant threat of rain.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out:

Q1

Lucas di Grassi left the pitlane as soon as the light turned green and was closely followed by Petrov and Alonso. The Virgin driver pitted at the end of his lap with a gearbox problem, while his rivals embarked on a first flying lap.

Both Ferraris of Alonso and Massa set the early pace and were leading when the session was red-flagged with 14 minutes remaining. The session had to be stopped after Tonio Liuzzi lost his Force India out of the final corner and crashed into the pitwall. The Italian driver was fine but his car was badly damaged.

The session resumed less than ten minutes later with Jarno Trulli leading the field out of the pits.

Alonso’s mark was immediately bettered by Webber and Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel slotted between his two rivals before slightly upping the pace and taking over at the front. Webber then moved up to P2 but was quickly demoted to P3 by Alonso. The Spaniard set the fastest time of the weekend so far in the following lap to go top.

Liuzzi was the unlucky loser eliminated alongside the new teams’ drivers. Lucas di Grassi posted no time on the board as he completed just a single installation lap before pitting with a gearbox problem.

Q2

Webber was the early leader of the session but was rapidly overhauled by Alonso, Vettel and Massa. The four of them, as well as Lewis Hamilton, were then lapping in the high 1’14.

After the first run, neither Mercedes was in the top ten. Reigning World Champion Jenson Button was a worrying ninth in his McLaren.

Alonso moved up to P1 with a 1’14’’081. Vettel was 2nd fastest; Webber 3rd. Button improved to 7th fastest and made it through to Q3. Nico Rosberg narrowly made the cut as his teammate Michael Schumacher missed the top ten by 0.008s.

Kobayashi, Petrov, Sutil, De la Rosa, Alguersuari and Buemi were also eliminated.

Sutil qualified 14th fastest but will drop five places on the grid due to a gearbox change.

Q3

All eyes were on Fernando Alonso as the battle for pole was about to start.

The Spaniard had set the fastest time in Q1 and Q2 and looked a serious threat to the RBR team domination in qualification.

Alonso made his intent crystal clear with a first flying lap completed in 1’13’’927… to which Vettel responded with a 1’13’’961! With only 0.034s separating the two leaders, the scene was set for a thrilling final run.

Vettel managed to improve on his last assault and snatched pole away from Alonso!

Massa beat Webber to third. McLaren Mercedes teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will share the third row of the grid. Robert Kubica qualified his Renault in 7th place. Barrichello will start from 8th. Rosberg and Hulkenberg will line up on the fifth row.