| Row 1 | 1. Lewis Hamilton 1’46.362 McLaren | |
| 2. Pastor Maldonado 1’46.804 Williams | ||
| Row 2 | 3. Sebastian Vettel 1’46.905 Red Bull | |
| 4. Jenson Button 1’46.939 McLaren | ||
| Row 3 | 5. Fernando Alonso 1’47.216 Ferrari | |
| 6. Paul di Resta 1’47.241 Force India | ||
| Row 4 | 7. Mark Webber 1’47.475 Red Bull | |
| 8. Romain Grosjean 1’47.788 Lotus | ||
| Row 5 | 9. Michael Schumacher No time Mercedes | |
| 10. Nico Rosberg No time Mercedes | ||
| Row 6 | 11. Nico Hulkenberg 1’47.975 Force India | |
| 12. Kimi Raikkonen 1’48.261 Lotus | ||
| Row 7 | 13. Felipe Massa 1’48.344 Ferrari | |
| 14. Sergio Perez 1’48.505 Sauber | ||
| Row 8 | 15. Daniel Ricciardo 1’48.774 Toro Rosso | |
| 16. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’48.849 Toro Rosso | ||
| Row 9 | 17. Kamui Kobayashi 1’49.933 Sauber | |
| 18. Vitaly Petrov 1’50.846 Caterham | ||
| Row 10 | 19. Heikki Kovalainen 1’51.137 Caterham | |
| 20. Timo Glock 1’51.37 Marussia | ||
| Row 11 | 21. Charles Pic 1’51.762 Marussia | |
| 22. Bruno Senna* No time Williams | ||
| Row 12 | 23. Narain Karthikeyan 1’52.372 HRT | |
| 24. Pedro de la Rosa* 1’53.355 HRT |
*Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
22nd September 2012, 15:05
I don’t think the universe can take the potential carnage and destruction Hamilton and Maldonado could provide going side-by-side into turn 1 tomorrow.
Traverse Mark Senior (@)
22nd September 2012, 15:08
Don’t worry, from what I’ve heard Lewis eats pastor for breakfast!
Tete
22nd September 2012, 18:21
I don,t think so. Maldonado will go for the win as he wants to show he is fast and he wants to be one of the only drivers to win multiple races this season. While Hamilton can,t afford a dnf because it will mean that he will be out of the Wdc contention. And petulant comments like yours is what makes other people to hate or wish bad things to happen to your driver. You probably will be eating your words at this time tomorrow.
Lewis Stroll (@ginola14)
22nd September 2012, 19:26
These 2 alone could take down the concrete expressway bridge that runs over the start with a mega-collision.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd September 2012, 15:09
Only Maldonado can stop Hamilton.
Tango (@tango)
22nd September 2012, 15:10
I don’t know who’s to blame between Vettel and Hamilton, but I feel like I’ve just been robed of a great battle for pole position here.
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
22nd September 2012, 15:11
I don’t know what you guys think,but for me Maldonado is one the fastest drivers on the grid.Faster than Perez. Great future ahead of him.
Tango (@tango)
22nd September 2012, 15:15
You’re only as good as your last race (or here, quali), but he really is fast. Shame he seems to have a magnet car (polarised towards other cars, walls, you name it)
Andrei (@andrei)
22nd September 2012, 17:43
Indeed he is. But he seems uncapable of managing high pressure situations. I’t up to him to learn how to manage this, but I think that he had several opportunities to do it and failed. Beeing fast is not enough, as we all know.
Tete
22nd September 2012, 18:23
You can say the same about Hamilton. He always chokes under pressure.
Lewis Stroll (@ginola14)
22nd September 2012, 19:34
He is fast no question and especially over 1 lap on a Saturday.
But points arent given out based on qualifying performances alone.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd September 2012, 22:04
Not trying to denigrate his performance but I still wonder how fast the car could be, maybe it could be dominating the championship if driven by a top driver, or maybe Pastor is fast enough to be a top driver, I just wish we knew the answer.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
22nd September 2012, 15:12
Wow what laps from Hamilton and Maldonado! Disappointed Vettel wasn’t able to bring the fight to Hamilton, took some of the tension out of Q3. It’s all about damage limitation for Alonso tomorrow down in 5th, but he could get Button off the line.
Traverse Mark Senior (@)
22nd September 2012, 15:14
Vettel’s qualy performance confirms that practice sessions mean diddly (this year anyway).
Tete
22nd September 2012, 18:28
I don’t think do.mit means he might be the fastest in race trim. Alonso also seems to have a good car prepared for the race.let me remind you that Hamilton had a pole like today’s in Hungary and in the race he wasn’t nowhere as fast as he was in the qualifying. The lotusses were faster than him and they couln’t pass him because of the track layout. Also I just heard Alonso say that the most important thing will be the strategy,the setup,the car that will take care of the tires and last but not least the fact that no one knows for sure how long the super soft will last. So based on this I think vetted is in the best position to win the race
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
23rd September 2012, 10:57
We did not really see Vetel’s pace in long runs yet during practice, but Hamilton’s pace for long runs seems good during FP2. So it could be a battle btwn Hamilton and Vetel for the win. Maldonado would most likely be trailing behind with a slower pace and maybe even stir up trouble for the cars in the midfield.
Traverse Mark Senior (@)
22nd September 2012, 15:12
I’ve haven’t been this excited for a race in a long time, tomorrows going to be explosive! Can’t wait for the Maldonado BOMB to go off! :-)
Nickpkr
22nd September 2012, 17:55
Ticking already, if he takes also Vettel then MAL will be in Ferrari next year, perfect number 2 with a destroy mission !
Seriously he can’t screw this one up if he wants to stay in F1.
sic_j02
22nd September 2012, 15:14
The start will be fine because maldonado will be in front of hamilton before the red light dies.
Eggry (@eggry)
22nd September 2012, 15:18
then Grosjean would wipe out front runner.
Asif (@)
22nd September 2012, 15:29
Haha I had a similar thought also. A jumped start puts him side-by-side with Lewis and we all know what happens next :)
Gabriel (@naylamp)
22nd September 2012, 15:29
that would be hilarious.
PJ (@)
22nd September 2012, 17:26
Rumour has it Maldonado’s left his grid slot already and screamed into Turn 1 five minutes ago.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
22nd September 2012, 18:27
It took Maldonado 5 minutes to get from his starting position into turn 1? Is he driving a wheely bin?
Lewis Stroll (@ginola14)
22nd September 2012, 20:06
Lol like the Spa reference.
That might work well for Lewis who must be having nightmares over an inevitable swipe from Pastor before they even reach the first corner.
Watching Pastor do a false start and disappear cleanly into Turn 1 ahead of him and the rest will be relief to him.
skd
22nd September 2012, 15:14
That was Senna like, beating the field by half a second on a track that is more about the driver than the car
butthate
22nd September 2012, 16:00
That feels somewhat ironic as Maldonado has put in a senna-esq performance to put the Willaims on row 1 whereas Senna is 17th..
I hope Maldonado isn’t the next Senna!
duncanmonza (@duncanmonza)
22nd September 2012, 15:15
I knew Maldonado was going to be quick here, I was thinking of putting money on him for the race before I remembered that I don’t gamble.
Tango (@tango)
22nd September 2012, 15:16
And there’s still a lot of laps left
duncanmonza (@duncanmonza)
22nd September 2012, 15:22
This was earlier in the week though.
maaaarsh
22nd September 2012, 15:17
Maldonado’s long run was 1.5 to 2 seconds per lap slower than Lewis yesterday – if they both hold position through turn 1 then only a mechanical can stop Lewis.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
22nd September 2012, 16:00
Or one of those walls…
hoshi (@hoshi)
22nd September 2012, 15:29
Two times in a row by Narain..he is really coming into some form now…
necrodethmortem (@necrodethmortem)
22nd September 2012, 16:04
It could be Pedro’s arthritis and cataract that’s beginning to slow him down.
LucaBadoerFan (@lucabadoerfan)
22nd September 2012, 18:45
i think as pedro knew he would be starting last (gear box penalty), there was little point stressing the tyres for one or two laps.
M30
22nd September 2012, 20:27
Ma Qing Ha is really piling on the pressure for his Ole’ Karkeys’ seat!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
22nd September 2012, 20:13
That is a brilliant front row. I imagine Hamilton will be very cautious and so he should be. He doesn’t need to win, Pastor needs it more. Hamilton has already been burned by Maldonado and will be keen to stop it happening again. I don’t think it’s a given that Maldonado will be reckless, that would be unfair of me but they are two naturally aggressive drivers which will be exciting.
@HoHum (@hohum)
22nd September 2012, 22:11
But Hamilton does need to win, do the math.
de Hooch
22nd September 2012, 23:05
we have a saying in Netherlands for someone in HAM’s situation with Maldo next door at the start : he will be “sh**ing in his pants”.