| Row 1 | 1. Sebastian Vettel 1’33.706 Red Bull | |
| 2. Jenson Button 1’34.421 McLaren | ||
| Row 2 | 3. Lewis Hamilton 1’34.463 McLaren | |
| 4. Nico Rosberg 1’34.67 Mercedes | ||
| Row 3 | 5. Fernando Alonso 1’35.119 Ferrari | |
| 6. Felipe Massa 1’35.145 Ferrari | ||
| Row 4 | 7. Jaime Alguersuari 1’36.158 Toro Rosso | |
| 8. Paul di Resta 1’36.19 Force India | ||
| Row 5 | 9. Sebastien Buemi 1’36.203 Toro Rosso | |
| 10. Vitaly Petrov No time Renault | ||
| Row 6 | 11. Adrian Sutil 1’35.874 Force India | |
| 12. Sergio Perez 1’36.053 Sauber | ||
| Row 7 | 13. Kamui Kobayashi 1’36.236 Sauber | |
| 14. Michael Schumacher 1’36.457 Mercedes | ||
| Row 8 | 15. Rubens Barrichello 1’36.465 Williams | |
| 16. Nick Heidfeld 1’36.611 Renault | ||
| Row 9 | 17. Pastor Maldonado 1’36.956 Williams | |
| 18. Mark Webber 1’36.468 Red Bull | ||
| Row 10 | 19. Heikki Kovalainen 1’37.894 Lotus | |
| 20. Jarno Trulli 1’38.318 Lotus | ||
| Row 11 | 21. Jerome d’Ambrosio 1’39.119 Virgin | |
| 22. Timo Glock 1’39.708 Virgin | ||
| Row 12 | 23. Vitantonio Liuzzi 1’40.212 HRT | |
| 24. Narain Karthikeyan 1’40.445 HRT |
107% time in Q1: 1’41.941
2011 Chinese Grand Prix
Bien
16th April 2011, 8:19
That was a monster time by Vettel. My jaw dropped when I saw his time.
F1iLike
16th April 2011, 10:17
Testament of how pathetic all these regulations are.
James G
16th April 2011, 13:38
Sorry, but I don’t see how the regulations have anything to do with it. The Red Bull has been a very fast car for 3 seasons now. Once they got their reliability problems out of the way, it was only going to be a matter of time before they pulled off into the distance.
kinz (@kinz)
16th April 2011, 12:01
He knocked my pole prediction out the park.
Calum (@calum)
16th April 2011, 8:23
Nick Heidfeld again!! :O
He’s not doing a good job of living up to the Mr Consistant nickname!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 19:51
Well his team mate kind of threw a wrench in the works there.
HxCas (@hxcas)
17th April 2011, 2:17
Yeah, I don’t think we can blame him too much here, with Petrov going 4th I’m sure he could have got at worst 6th-7th if he’d had that clear run he should have
Eggry (@eggry)
16th April 2011, 8:29
Petrov ruins whole Renault…someone have to stop Vettel.
Snusmumr
16th April 2011, 11:25
“Renault ruined whole Renault”
fixed
Eggry (@eggry)
16th April 2011, 16:15
thanks
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th April 2011, 8:34
0.042 between the McLarens. But what a job by Rosberg, denied Alonso 4th even with a Red Bull out of the way.
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
16th April 2011, 8:36
3 things I love:
1: Button P2
2: Rosberg ahead of Ferraris
3: Massa very close to beating Alonso
The rest of the session wasn’t so good though! :P
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th April 2011, 8:46
Even better, look how far ahead he was! He was nearly on the McLarens, that was a special lap.
Fixy (@)
16th April 2011, 9:21
I love your 3rd point!
I don’t love your 2nd though!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
16th April 2011, 10:46
All good points indeed.
Todfod (@todfod)
16th April 2011, 8:41
Mark Webber not qualifying within the top 5 just ruined my prediction for the weekend.
What I find scary this season is the fact that no one even looks close to challenging Vettel. In Malaysia, RB admitted that they weren’t having a particularly strong weekend, and yet Vettel took pole, and cruised to an easy victory. When everything goes according to plan, we see Vettel going 0.7s to 0.8s quicker than anyone else in quali, and in the race he just pulls away and maintains the distance.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
16th April 2011, 8:45
Normally I would pray for a car failure, as I believe if it’s okay to have the best car then it’s okay if it breaks down too.
But we’re going to need failures in every 4th race for it to have any impact, the way things are going. Just praying there’s only tenths left in that Red Bull with every upgrade and half-seconds with McLaren’s and Ferrari’s.
Todfod (@todfod)
16th April 2011, 9:17
I agree. The copycat race is crucial this season. Mclaren and Ferrari need to find a lot of performance with every upgrade they bring. Additionally, Alonso and Hamilton cannot make any mistakes this season if they want to stay in the running.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 19:55
I think there’s something to that Icthyes. When you’re as good a designer as Newey, you’ll get the car closer to it’s full potential earlier than others. On the flipside though, when you’re as good as Newey you’ll always be able to find more places to eek out a tenth or so here or there. McLaren definitely look to have the most potential. Ferrari are never going to be faster with a copycat approach.
David-A (@david-a)
16th April 2011, 8:52
Poor from Webber, Schumacher, Sutil.
Rosberg was superb, extracting everything from his car to get ahead of the Ferraris, and it was a surprise to see Button in P2.
I expect to be seeing Vettel’s finger tomorrow, unless Hamilton pulls his finger out first.
th13teen
16th April 2011, 8:56
Thank you very much Petrov for creating such an exciting Q2, I have never seen such an exciting qualifying. Paul di resta got through by the skin of his teeth, but a great show none the less!
sato113 (@sato113)
16th April 2011, 8:59
Alonso qualifies in 5th for the 3rd race in a row
Todfod (@todfod)
16th April 2011, 9:11
Yeah .. he really should have put that car in P4 today. Lets hope he doesn’t drop another few places at the start again..
raveendhana
16th April 2011, 9:26
sutil schumacher would have gone to q3 if they were not caught in the traffic, am sure they had the pace to do it.
Todfod (@todfod)
16th April 2011, 9:54
Yeah.. Mercedes looked pretty strong this weekend and I would have bet on both their drivers making it to Q3. Schumacher made it 3 Q2 exits in a row. This season is going to be hell for him..
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 19:57
He had trouble with the DRS in qualifying again, so he might not have made it anyhow. I think Sutil, Kobayashi, and Heidfeld all would’ve been giving their best shot at Q3 though. Realistically I doubt if both STRs would’ve made Q3 if Petrov hadn’t red flagged the session. He helped them out a lot and screwed everyone else.
Santi
16th April 2011, 9:36
Top 6 in the exact same order as in FP3 :)
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 20:05
Nope. FP3 was VET, HAM, BUT, ROS, MSC, MAS. Qualifying was VET, BUT, HAM, ROS, ALO, MAS.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
16th April 2011, 10:52
I really enjoyed that session. It was interesting enough up to Petrov’s red flag due to Webber having a terrible session but that red flag just turned it into a race.
Heidfeld was desperate for clean air, he should have been first up the pile of cars waiting to restart however he was obviously holding back for a reason.
Vettel on form again. Even that little wiggle he had coming out of the final corner didn’t deter him. At least I got 2 points in this weeks predictions if nothing else.
Rosberg and di Resta did really well too.
It’s going to be interesting watching Webber. He has new tyres but it’s just a case of can he carve through the pack in enough time to get to somewhere near the top. He has potentially a pit-stop less than everyone else, just wonder if he can make that count or will it be negated by him starting that low down?
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 20:08
…and the real question is, can they get his KERS working properly? If they can’t get it functioning, he’s gonna have another bad start and have a heck of a time making his way through the field during the race. The best thing he has going for him is that none of the cars behind him have KERS either, but without it he won’t be launching past any mid-fielders at the start, which will be key to getting his race off on the right foot.
Alexi
16th April 2011, 11:35
It will be interesting to watch Schumi and Webber.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
16th April 2011, 20:10
I’m predicting another great start from Schumi, and probably another terrible start from Webber if they can’t sort out the KERS. Heidfeld will also be interesting to watch from so far back. His start at Malaysia was absolutely explosive, and he said before the weekend that they’ve made some changes to improve their starts even more. I’m guessing Heidfeld will be in the top ten by the end of lap 1.
DaveF1 (@davef1)
16th April 2011, 11:57
Full credit to Vettel but I thought the Toro Rosso’s and Di Resta were supreme. It’ll be interesting to see how these young guys fare against the more experienced one behind them.
Burnout
16th April 2011, 12:56
Looks like we’ll have a good midfield battle to watch tomorrow. Schumacher, Heidfeld and Webber are in cars that are certainly faster than those immediately ahead on the grid. If Williams have their reliability issues sorted out Barrichello might be in the fray too.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
16th April 2011, 14:44
Mercedes really upped their pace Schumi shouldn’t have messed it up.
I think the pole should be on the right side of the straight, again it seems to be clearer.
Vico
16th April 2011, 16:22
Lower down the grid nice to see d’Ambrosio outqualified Glock.
That shows the difference between a frustrated driver dealing with the hardship of being in a car inferior to his talent and CV, and a motivated rookie.
Hamilton is such a sore loser. “Too easy…”
I don’t recall Raikkonen or such saying something like that in 2007 to Hamilton.
Jino
16th April 2011, 18:26
Damn, it is time for McLaren to spy on the Redbull-Team. I’m getting sick of hearing the German Anthem every freaking week.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
17th April 2011, 2:49
I will fix my eyes on 3 of the top 4 drivers with the exception of Button.