2011 Chinese Grand Prix grid

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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Row 11. Sebastian Vettel 1’33.706
Red Bull
2. Jenson Button 1’34.421
McLaren
Row 23. Lewis Hamilton 1’34.463
McLaren
4. Nico Rosberg 1’34.67
Mercedes
Row 35. Fernando Alonso 1’35.119
Ferrari
6. Felipe Massa 1’35.145
Ferrari
Row 47. Jaime Alguersuari 1’36.158
Toro Rosso
8. Paul di Resta 1’36.19
Force India
Row 59. Sebastien Buemi 1’36.203
Toro Rosso
10. Vitaly Petrov No time
Renault
Row 611. Adrian Sutil 1’35.874
Force India
12. Sergio Perez 1’36.053
Sauber
Row 713. Kamui Kobayashi 1’36.236
Sauber
14. Michael Schumacher 1’36.457
Mercedes
Row 815. Rubens Barrichello 1’36.465
Williams
16. Nick Heidfeld 1’36.611
Renault
Row 917. Pastor Maldonado 1’36.956
Williams
18. Mark Webber 1’36.468
Red Bull
Row 1019. Heikki Kovalainen 1’37.894
Lotus
20. Jarno Trulli 1’38.318
Lotus
Row 1121. Jerome d’Ambrosio 1’39.119
Virgin
22. Timo Glock 1’39.708
Virgin
Row 1223. Vitantonio Liuzzi 1’40.212
HRT
24. Narain Karthikeyan 1’40.445
HRT

107% time in Q1: 1’41.941

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    38 comments on “2011 Chinese Grand Prix grid”

    1. That was a monster time by Vettel. My jaw dropped when I saw his time.

      1. Testament of how pathetic all these regulations are.

        1. 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.

      2. He knocked my pole prediction out the park.

    2. Nick Heidfeld again!! :O
      He’s not doing a good job of living up to the Mr Consistant nickname!

      1. Well his team mate kind of threw a wrench in the works there.

      2. 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

    3. Petrov ruins whole Renault…someone have to stop Vettel.

      1. “Renault ruined whole Renault”
        fixed

    4. 0.042 between the McLarens. But what a job by Rosberg, denied Alonso 4th even with a Red Bull out of the way.

    5. 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

      1. Even better, look how far ahead he was! He was nearly on the McLarens, that was a special lap.

      2. I love your 3rd point!
        I don’t love your 2nd though!

      3. All good points indeed.

    6. 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.

      1. 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.

        1. 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.

        2. 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.

    7. 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.

    8. 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!

    9. Alonso qualifies in 5th for the 3rd race in a row

      1. Yeah .. he really should have put that car in P4 today. Lets hope he doesn’t drop another few places at the start again..

    10. sutil schumacher would have gone to q3 if they were not caught in the traffic, am sure they had the pace to do it.

      1. 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..

        1. 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.

    11. Top 6 in the exact same order as in FP3 :)

      1. Nope. FP3 was VET, HAM, BUT, ROS, MSC, MAS. Qualifying was VET, BUT, HAM, ROS, ALO, MAS.

    12. 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?

      1. …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.

    13. It will be interesting to watch Schumi and Webber.

      1. 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.

    14. 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.

    15. 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.

    16. 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.

    17. 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.

    18. Damn, it is time for McLaren to spy on the Redbull-Team. I’m getting sick of hearing the German Anthem every freaking week.

    19. I will fix my eyes on 3 of the top 4 drivers with the exception of Button.

    Comments are closed.