Alonso rides his luck for Silverstone pole position

2012 British Grand Prix qualifying

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Fernando Alonso came perilously close to being eliminated during the second part of qualifying for the British Grand Prix.

But after a lengthy rain delay he returned to the track in time to claim a place in the final ten – despite a close call on a yellow flag.

He edged Mark Webber by less than five-hundredths of a second to claim his first pole position since Singapore 2010.

Q1

Rain had begun to fall before Q1 started so a string of cars were lined up at the exit of the pits waiting for the green light.

When it began, Kamui Kobayashi led them out and set the quickest time while others grappled with traffic. Kimi Raikkonen had to take avoiding action and drive off the track while trying to overtake team mate Romain Grosjean.

The rain soon eased leaving all the drivers on-track gradually improving their times on the intermediate tyres. But there was a sting in the tail: the rain returned at the end of the session, forcing some to make extra runs.

They included the two McLaren drivers, who queued up in the pits for a second set of intermediate tyres with two-and-a-half minutes to go. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest middle sector time but was unable to improve on 14th.

But it was worse for his team mate: Jenson Button was on course to improve before he reached the slippery final sector. But the track had caught out Timo Glock, who spun at the start/finish straight, bringing out the yellow flags. That left Button 18th and out of qualifying.

“I can normally drive a racing car in the wet but not today,” he rued afterwards, adding that at least he had a supply of fresher tyres for the race.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

18Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’48.044
19Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1’49.027
20Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’49.477
21Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1’51.618
22Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1’52.742
23Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’53.040
24Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1’54.143

Q2

By the time the second part of qualifying had begun the rain had worsened. Once again all the cars were queued up at the exit of the pit lane, only this time with full wet weather tyres on.

There were three significant exceptions – the Ferrari pair and Bruno Senna left the pits on intermediate tyres and instantly regretted the decision. They tip-toed around as the rain hammered down before returning to the pits for full wet tyres.

The damage was already done, however. After the likes of Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton scraped in sub-two minute laps, Alonso and Massa found it difficult just to keep their cars on the track.

Alonso caught a lurid slide at the exit of Chapel, narrowly missing the barriers. Massa also went off and Schumacher had multiple off-track excursions. With not just Alonso, but also Hamilton saying the conditions were too dangerous, the session was red-flagged.

It took over an hour and a half for the session to be restarted. When it did, most of the cars resumed on wet-weather tyres.

Sergio Perez was one driver who stuck with intermediates for the restart. It cost him dearly. Having sat at the top of the times during the suspension he ended up 17th and slowest.

A late effort by Paul di Resta put him ninth and when Romain Grosjean spun at Vale it looked like the Force India driver was safe.

But late improvements by Alonso and Vettel dropped him out of the final ten. Replays showed Alonso had passed through the yellow flag sector on his best lap, but it remains to be seen whether the stewards will agree he slowed sufficiently.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’57.009
12Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’57.071
13Nico RosbergMercedes1’57.108
14Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’57.132
15Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1’57.426
16Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’57.719
17Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’57.895

Q3

As the track continued to dry out the top ten shootout was conducted with most drivers on intermediate tyres.

Hamilton started the session on wets but quickly switched them for intermediates. But he never seemed to have the pace to challenge for pole position and was fighting the McLaren around ever millimetre of Silverstone tarmac.

Michael Schumacher also began with full wet tyres and briefly went fastest before switching to intermediates.

While he headed for the pits Mark Webber and Alonso took over the contest for pole position. Alonso claimed the fastest time back with his last effort but in the meantime Webber was charging into the final sector.

Webber crossed the line less than five-hundredths of a second slower than the Ferrari. He later told his team he’d been held up “by Di Resta” – presumably having mistaken Nico Hulkenberg for the other Force India.

Schumacher got his intermediate tyres up to temperature quickly enough to qualify where he finished the last race – third. Vettel, who was also on course for a quick lap before losing time in the final sector, took fourth.

Top ten in Q3

1Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’51.746
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’51.793
3Michael SchumacherMercedes1’52.020
4Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’52.199
5Felipe MassaFerrari1’53.065
6Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’53.290
7Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’53.539
8Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’53.543
9Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’54.382
10Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault

2012 British Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo

Author information

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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132 comments on “Alonso rides his luck for Silverstone pole position”

  1. Did Kimi have KERS during Q3?

    1. Apparently not.

      1. Was it gone again? I heard they fixed during red flag…

        1. nope it wasn’t fixed..

          1. If they didn’t fixed it, this mean he will run in race without KERS? I ask this because I know that they can’t have access to the car until the end of the race.

    2. Cant use kers in the rain anyway.

      1. Yes you can.

      2. You can use it even though it’s not helpful as when it’s dry. What you can’t use when wet is DRS.

        1. If you review the Q3 you’ll see that DRS was disabled from race control.

          1. Jani Karusalmi
            7th July 2012, 17:25

            Yeah, but KERS wasn’t

          2. Very very glad to see Grossjean beached in the gravel. Trying to barge his teammate off the track in Q1 was shoddy. They were not racing, they were setting quali lap times. Kimi needed the space. Gros had nothing to gain by driving him off track. This comes after he drove into the side of Kimi at the start in Valencia. I will always rejoice in bad luck for this boy. He is fast yes, granted, but also stupid. Hope his alternator goes pop early in the race .

          3. --- (@brazil2007)
            7th July 2012, 20:08

            @de Hooch: Grosjean did not try to force Kimi off. Kimi was faster than him, so he tried to get by him as he was going alongside a Sauber. There was simply no room. And he didn’t do anything wrong in Valencia, either. Kimi got by Grosjean without any problems, then Maldonado (what a surprise…) pushed him to the side, which meant that Kimi had to back off, letting Grosjean through.

            Anyways, Romain may be error-prone, but you have to remember that he’s essentially a rookie. It’s not like he wants to crash all the time.

      3. Ah forgive me. Got kers and drs mixed up.

    3. @toiago i dont think anyone used kers, problem wasn’t lack of power, it was getting the power down

  2. It was a long wait, but it was very exciting ! they were slidding around a lot, specially at the last corner! Some onboard shots were spectacular!

    Well done to Ferrari. Both drivers looked mighty in Q3! Sad Mark couldn’t spoil their party… but oh well! It’s gonna be exciting tomorrow!

    1. A mini moment of celebration… I had Mark for pole in the predictions thing here on F1Fanatic.

      1. @nick.uk I went with Button. The less said about that, the better.

        1. @andrewtanner LOL! that was a long shot considering: 1) he’s not been in best shape recently and 2) he “sucks” at Silverstone :P

          1. @fer-no65 Don’t you start ! I’ve already been laughed at on Twitter for it! I thought it was a good choice…until Glock decided to dance around on the track for the marshalls entertainment!

          2. @andrewtanner I’d have laughed at you on Twitter too, mate :P.

        2. @andrewtanner same here! Predicted BUT for pole. Looks like his 13th season is really an unlucky one

          1. @malleshmagdum One day, we’ll be right!

    2. @fet-no65
      I quite enjoyed the “long wait”. Its mote f1 time…

  3. Interesting how some cars seemed to perform much better on full wets than intermediates and vice versa. Not sure if any of it was down to lack of fresh tyres, but HAM got a mighty lap out of the full wets at the end of Q2 and then struggled on the inters in Q3 (as did both Mclarens during Q1 – 14th and 18th?).

    Other drivers, like ALO, were the opposite – scraping through Q2 on the full wets and then a great lap for pole in Q3. Maybe it’s down to these narrow operating windows we keep hearing about.

    1. Yep, as a mclaren fan Im hoping for full wet conditions! They definitely struggle getting heat into the inters. The red flag saved Ferrari’s bacon and no mistake.

    2. It appears to me that after the millions spent on car development, the hours spent by the drivers training to get into peak physical fitness and all the strategy decisions, on a rainy day it all boils down to the time of day quali starts. With different cars good on one tyre or the other and not both due to the narrow operating window. Had the quali started 30 mins earlier we would have had a different outcome.

  4. Can’t believe I was only 4 tenths off guessing pole! Will be interesting to see who came the closest. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong guy, but still…

  5. Great Session. Q2 and later part of Q3 was really exciting. Good to see Ferrari got pole.

    1. Yeah, i was lucky it was delayed , got home from work 10 mins before the restart. Great watching.

  6. You can’t fault Alonso’s pole lap, but I was very surprised to see Alonson make it through to Q3.
    In Q1, going by the TV graphic, Button was -1.5 sec up on P17 until the final sector with waved yellows. He slowed and was +1 over his best time. So you it looks like he lost 2.5 secs in the final sector.
    Then in Q2 you have Alonso who improves his time to edge out Di Resta with double waved yellows in sector 3.
    Now either Button slowed too much, or Alonso is not slowing enough.
    I can therefore understand why DiResta felt agrieved with being knocked out this way.
    Perhaps Alonso was slower in sector 3 than his previous laps, but it did surprise me.

    1. In Q1, the last sector was also a lot wetter, that’s why Button lost so much time.

    2. That’s interesting, because maldonado passed Grosjeans beached car, and the commentators (ben edwards and DC) said that he was on course for a very similair time given his previous sectors, but in fact he went significantly faster than his previous personal best.
      Any help?

    3. It wasn’t his fastest lap in the last sector, as Keith pointed out during the session, but I wonder what “slowing down enough” really means in the regulations.

      I mean, how much should you slow down ?

    4. When asked whether he was concerned about setting his fastest time in Q2 under waved yellows, Fernando Alonso replied: “I didn’t set a green (fastest) sector (time) in that particular lap with the yellow (flags). So I don’t have any worries.”

      1. Which, I’ll mention, will be the most obvious defense, and thus, a standard line. And possibly not reflective of his opinion.

    5. Perhaps Alonso was faster in the first two sectors than in the previous lap and slowed down in the third sector and even with that he finished ahead of forests. The telemetry will show but he did the best job out there.

  7. when alonso qualified tenth and come back to win the race ,wonder what he gonna do when he on pole

    1. Finish 10th…

      1. Lol :)
        Although the way this seasons been going, that wouldn’t suprise me (I would hate to see that happen though)

    2. Aditya Banerjee (@)
      7th July 2012, 19:02

      Lap the field.

      1. If Alonso wins tomorrow from pole, I am very confident that he’ll win the drivers championship this season.

        Why? Because not only is he a brilliant driver, but then Ferrari have proven themselves to be competitive in all three types of circuits. A mechanical grip circuit as Monaco, a top speed circuit as Canada, and a downforce circuit at Silvestone. They have a complete car and a complete driver, what’s going to stop them?

    3. @smokinjoe his alternator will fail.

      1. @fer-no65 well everything for alonso looks to good to be true at the moment.I got a nasty feeling that some thing may went wrong for him today

  8. Well, that was crazy and quite exciting. Haven’t seen yellow flags so ill-timed for so many drivers at once in quite a long time, either. Ouch.

  9. Keith, what do you think about Alonso reaching Q3 with that last lap under yellow? Legal or illegal?

    1. he set a pretty slow final sector so i’d be surprised to see him penalised.

      remember with yellow flags & faster times its about sector times rather than total lap time.

    2. maldonado is the one I’m concerned about

    3. @wallbreaker I couldn’t make a fair call on that without seeing video replays of him and other drivers going through the same corner around that time and earlier in the session, or telemetry from Alonso’s car on different laps.

      We have seen some very tough penalties for this in GP2 and GP3 this year. But I always wonder if they treat those drivers a bit more harshly than F1 drivers.

      My hunch is, Alonso is smart enough to work out how much to back off.

      1. @Keith-Collatine I rest my case

      2. Sky Sports showed on onboard of Alonso going through the yellow flag zone. It seemed to me that he did back off enough, as it did to Martin Brundle who was commentating over the footage.

        1. I saw it but you’d need to be able to compare it to him going through there the lap before for reference.

          At any rate, it seems the stewards aren’t looking into it.

      3. Someone suggested that Alonso’s last sector (the one with the red flag) had actually been slower than his previous effort, might have been Ben Edwards or Gary Anderson.

  10. Is Alonso’s yellow flag issue in Q2 under investigation by the stewards or is he safe?

  11. schumacher was on it in those conditions. had his inters been up to temperature I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him on pole

    1. Had anyones inters been up to temp they would have been in contention.

  12. Surprising lack of pace from Williams and McLaren, especially the latter considering there was a lot of talk about their upgrades.

    1. Very confusing for Mclaren. On dry warm tracks they overheat their tires. On cold wet tracks they cant get heat into their tires.

      1. It’s identically the same scenario for them in the dry as well. (Valencia + Bahrain & China respectively)

  13. It’s a massive grey area, and they can’t base it purely on being slower than you’re best sector time when in a green flag, as there are many more contributing factors. The rain and track was much worse in the opening 10 minutes of Q2, when they red flagged it, so obviously any sector time after the red flagis going to be quicker. Also, say you spin it but keep the car running, and therefore your sector time is massively skewed, and then in the very next lap someone else spins but doesn’t keep the car running, and the yellows come out. You slow down but complete your lap, and it’s faster than your previous lap. Should the lap be cancelled because you set a PB in that sector under a yellow flag, despite slowing down? The FIA will have to look at telemetary from Ferrari to determine whether he slowed down enough, and I hope he did, it’s been far too long since Ferrari have been on pole, and Alonso is showing everyone why he is the best driver in Formula 1 right now.

    Unrelated, but why are all the commentators getting in a tizzy about how good Hamilton is in the wet? I haven’t seen this so called amazing ability from him? Sure the 2008 win was pretty special, but really it was no more amazing than Alonso in Malaysia earlier this year, or any better than any other wet race i have seen for that matter.

    1. They often make stuff up to improve the story.

      1. @sam3110 I think we’re on a similar boat here. Strangely, the last time Hamilton has REALLY fully demonstrated excellence in mixed/wet conditions in a race situation was back in China 2010, since then nothing he hasn’t come to fruition in the specified conditions, there were glimpses back in 2011 in the form of Canada, Hungary & Silverstone during the race although he’s either crashed out prematurely or the track had fully dried out during the race. In terms of impression + dominance in lap-times, like I said, the last time I’ve literally seen the former was China 2010, you can argue in races such as Korea 2010 & Malaysia this year, Lewis had issues with understeer & getting temperature into the tyres respectively.

        Spa 2010 & 2011 qualifying (in changeable conditions), Lewis has pulled out fantastic laps in the final minutes of qualifying to get a front row grid slot. Furthermore, I think Lewis has in recent seasons focused more on improving in other areas rather than bank on a particular weekend on wet weather, he still says as of today he adores driving in mixed/wet conditions & even mentioned it again earlier this weekend & I still believe his natural, thrilling ability in those conditions has not disappeared one bit but overall, the setup has to be right & comfortable, he needs to be on the right tyres but personally I do think the commentators & pundits rely on expectation from Lewis in those conditions rather than possibility & hope.

      2. I think it is because the win of 2008 Silverstone, where he lapped everyone bar Heidfeld and Barichello, doing so with more than a minute ahead of the 2nd.

    2. I think HAM has always been one of the fastest in wet conditions, but has thrown away a few good positions (Hungary vs Button springs to mind).

      He did put in a lap that was much faster than anyone else managed on full wets in Q2 today, but I think this year in particular the skill of a driver in the wet can be easily out-weighed by the combination of car and Pirelli tyre.

      Had full wets been required for Q3, I epect we would have seen HAM on pole and ALO a lot further back. It’s a bit of a lottery for the drivers, so it’s hard to compare them when some cars are so much better on one tyre than another. It’s been a similar story for much of the season, it’s just magnified by the wet conditions.

      1. but I think this year in particular the skill of a driver in the wet can be easily out-weighed by the combination of car and …… tyre.

        I think thats alway been the case for any tyre.. all depend on how quickly one can get heat into them which depends alot on setup and the car…

    3. Fuji 2007, Silverstone 2008.

  14. I personally enjoy long delays during an F1 weekend as I have more time of F1 and who can complain?

    Jenson was unlucky when rain intensified during the final corners of his final lap and as we saw, Club was horrible.
    @PM that is a LOTTERY!

    What was Kamui thinking? I mean formal shoes? Yuck!

    I felt for Romain. He could have been in this fight. Really sad.

    Alonso, wow, that was a great lap but you carry more luck in such qualis than others in the dry but it was nonetheless a show as to why he is the championship leader.

    Can’t wait for tomorrow’s race.

    1. I dont think button was unlucky, he was off the pace all throughout the first qualifing session

      1. He was going for a top 3 with that lap. He was 1.5 secs quicker than the driver in 17th after sector 2.

    2. Jenson was unlucky when rain intensified during the final corners of his final lap and as we saw,

      I know there is a lot of Button love on this site, but please, Jenson was not unlucky. His qualifying performances are laughable

      1. Aditya Banerjee (@)
        8th July 2012, 8:40

        Very true. Jenson put himself in such a position that he was forced to pit with just about two minutes left on the clock. He couldn’t even come close to the times that the Toro Rossos were setting.

      2. In that case, you need to check whether you switched on the right channel to watch the qualifying yesterday.

        I am not a Button fan but I am a Formula 1 fan!

    3. I personally enjoy long delays during an F1 weekend as I have more time of F1 and who can complain?

      Me too. I dont care even if i have to watch the staff/drivers scratch their @#$/… lol

  15. angelo (@angelopellef1)
    7th July 2012, 16:17

    Astonishing Fernando

  16. i think this is the longest qualifying session i have ever seen Great pole by Fernando always ready to capitalize
    Di Resta complained in the radio about Alonso ignoring the Yellow flag but independently of what the stewards will decide i think it was a smart decision by Fernando because even if he will get a penalty now i think he will be ahead of P12

    1. Agree, it was a smart move by Alonso. Compare that to Button’s move in Q3, he should’ve had a crack at making it to the 17th spot and then let the stewards decide, but instead he’s now at 18th.

      1. The main difference between the two incidents, that Alonso had a clear view of where the accident happened, but Button did not know why are they weaving the flags, for all he knew there could have been 4 cars piled up at the s/f line, so he had to lift.

  17. Apart from the spectacular catch from the Q2 spin and the amazing Q3 lap, Alonso’s pole was down to luck and he doesnt deserve it.
    Firstly, Ferrari made the wrong tyre choice in Q2 and he was 15s slower in the increasingly heavy rain. Had they continued with Q2, it was sure elimination. However, FIA waited until the track had improved over start of Q2 before restarting it. This totally ruins all the effort and clever strategic decisions made by Sauber and the others using Extreme Wets at the start of Q2, and allows Ferrari to escape from their strategic blunder. The fact that he pleaded for the red flag meant that he wanted Q2 to be manipulated to save him from elimination.

    Then, the Grosjean yellow flag incident. Although I heard that he was down on his previous sector best, only a baby can be fooled if he claims that slowing down by 0.03s would be a safe speed when another driver spins in front of you. I did comment on the Live F1F Quali page that Button should have sped up, got into Q2 and accept the penalty, but many commented that safety is the most important, especially in these wet and dangerous conditions. The visibility was terrible, and had Alonso collided into the stationary Grosjean, a bigger accident could have occured. I do think Alonso should be penalised. Ultimately the numbers are meaningless, the fact was that he didn’t slow sufficiently to prevent a potential collision. Had Button done what Alonso did, he would be at the very least, got into Q2.

    At the end of qualifying, I felt cheated. Alonso cheated the clock, Sauber and the FIA. I felt cheated of Sauber being in the mix for pole. Alonso should have been 15th, nothing else said.

    1. if you hate Fernando & Ferrari just admit it you’re free to support/hate any one & any team
      but please do not hide your hate by feeling so sorry for Sauber

    2. Hey, Everyone did their best. That is all.

    3. Blah blah blah cry me a river. Stop appealing to stipe and mentioning overwhelming exceptions to defend your arguments for Christ’s sake.

    4. Alonso’s pole was down to luck and he doesnt deserve it.

      Uau. Amazing!

      1. Did you read the first part of the sentence which qualifies what you quoted above. After all, the qualifying report is titled ‘Alonso rides his luck’ so it would be blind to say that Alonso got there by pure skill.

        I don’t hate Fernando, just that he has too much luck and he/his team(s) can attempt to break a rule without making it seem like he did. See Singapore 08 and more

        1. @isaactham

          Did you read the first part of the sentence which qualifies what you quoted above. After all, the qualifying report is titled ‘Alonso rides his luck’ so it would be blind to say that Alonso got there by pure skill.

          Alonso was fortunate today but you’d have to be blind not to see the skill that was evident in his pole position lap.

          Was fortune on Alonso’s side today? Yes.

          Does he deserve pole position? Absolutely – that was a superb lap. He showed the pace was in the car in final practice. A little bit of good luck going his way does not mean he didn’t deserve to be on pole position.

          1. TheGreatTeflonso
            7th July 2012, 19:16

            To be honest Keith I do feel the title for this post makes it sound like Alonso’s luck was what got him pole… Which is odd cos your posts don’t usually show slant.

            Oh well. It is good to see the best F1 driver show his obvious talent, but I would like to see him have the fastest car once. He hasn’t had the fastest car in a long time. I highly doubt the Ferrari is fastest in normal conditions, so I am hoping for slippery weather, but no torrential downpour.

          2. I don’t agree it does show “slant”. I think it’s entirely reasonable to say Alonso was lucky in this session. But it doesn’t diminish his achievement, contrary to what some people think.

        2. Yes, wrong quote, sorry for that:

          Alonso cheated the clock, Sauber and the FIA.

          I think your opinion at the moment is too emotionally driven. Singapore 2008 is a closed case, and who got involved into it was penalized. Putting others into that mix is not right. By the same logic every one at Renault should have known. Also McLaren should be considered a cheater because of 2007 incident, but I don’t think at all like that. Precedents are not proof of being at fault for an actual action.
          Was Alonso lucky? Yes. Was he there to capitalize on that luck? Yes, again.

    5. The fact that he pleaded for the red flag meant that he wanted Q2 to be manipulated to save him from elimination.

      Did you not hear Hamilton’s radio message shortly after alonso’s where he also said it was way too wet?

      all the driver radio’s i heard & all the interviews i have heard the drivers have all said they felt q2 shoudl have been red flagged, most think it shoudl have happened sooner than it did.

      1. Yes but Hamilton had no ulterior motive as he was 2nd, while Alonso clearly did. As Gary Anderson said on BBC, the session should have gone on, drivers/teams can choose if they want to brave out the conditions and run or not, if it’s too dangerous – stay in the pits! The first part of Q2 might as well not have run at all.

        1. @isaactham It’s not the first time in F1 when qualifying is red-flagged – it is a reasonal safety measure. But yeah, we should completely ignore the drivers’ opinions about stopping the session and listen to Gary Anderson who was trying to keep a F1 car on the track while making that comment. Even Paul Hembery in an interview for RTL said that the conditions in Q2 were overwhelming for the full wet Pirelli tyres (and he didn’t have any motives either). I don’t understand where the luck factor is for Alonso, he resumed the qualifying with the same type of tyres he had when the session was stopped.

          he didn’t slow sufficiently to prevent a potential collision

          Ha ha good one, if he managed to prevent that collision means that he WAS driving sufficiently slow. In the PC Alonso said that he slowed down under yellow flags (comparative lap times show it), the accusation that he didn’t slow down as much as a frustrated hater would have liked is just pathetic.

    6. Exactly! Not only did Ferrari use an illegal weather manipulation system, but it was clear from onboards from all 3 sessions that Alonso’s car was equipped with traction control. JB was my driver of the day, and he was clearly robbed of pole. He’s so smooth behind the wheel, and that should be worth P1, IMO. ;-)

      1. Yeah, that traction control is called ‘his right foot’. As much as I like JB, he got started with Q1 far too early. He and a few others could’ve waited – but then again it would be safer to register a lap in the early stages in case the weather got worse. But at least McLaren (or JB) should’ve pitted earlier for the 2nd set of inters and not wait until the very last moment when all drivers would be taking a higher risk to get further up – and hence Glock’s mistake. JB will have to pull his finger out tomorrow and get on the podium, otherwise he’ll have to kiss this year good bye if Alonso, Vettel, Webber, and Hamilton all score points above him.

        1. I think it’s a pretty well-known fact that Fernando’s right foot is a prosthetic, and this is where Ferrari have installed their illegal TC system.

      2. He’s so smooth behind the wheel, and that should be worth P1, IMO. ;-)
        maybe jason is way to smooth to properly heat up those front tyres

      3. haha, this is classic.

      4. What I don’t understand is why JB took some many laps and a new set of inters to get up to pace… Look who qualified above him… Senna and two Torro Rosso’s for christ sakes… And this is from a guy that won Canada in 2010 and Budapest last year – all wet. It’s all starting to get a little frustrating watching JB (and sometimes it wasn’t his fault either)… I’m just hanging out for Kimi to win his first race this year.

        1. @vho He Won in Canada 2011 in 2010 he came in 2nd. His main problem in Q1 was the trafic, he was behind 2 Caterhams, and he was constantly catching them, when the track cleared behind him, we used that gap, and made some better laps, but he still could not heat up the tyres. After he changed, he was clearly faster than those ahead of him, by the way did you see Lewis in P14?
          I think JB just might have a pretty good race, if he makes up some places at the start he can hang back and wait wile the usual suspects starts to spin out. Also having to brand new set of wets might help a little.

          1. @bag0 Yes, you are correct about Canada cos he only joined McLaren in 2010.
            But what I find astonishing is that he struggled to get heat into the tyres on the first set and then miraculously found the heat in the 2nd set within 2 laps. I think JB mentioned somewhere where he backed off too much to create a gap and eased his way into Q1 while everyone jumped on the quickest lap they can get asap.

            But the way the race turned out today – I think it’s time to kiss JB’s season good bye as the McLaren is no longer keeping up their development with the other teams… IMO Lotus and possibly Sauber are ahead. McLaren came here with so much promise but delivered very little.

    7. @isaactham You made my day more than the quali session did :)

      P.S. That was pure sarcasm

    8. LOL! This comment put me in tears. :D

  18. Ohh Caterham!!

  19. sid_prasher (@)
    7th July 2012, 17:01

    The best part was when Ferrari had P1 and P2….albeit briefly. Massa didn’t improve his time in his last run which is surprising.

  20. If tomorrow the teams start on full wets Lewis and Schumacher will have an edge , at least until the track conditions get better.

    Predictions are useless , the front-runners will be shuffled after the first pit stop in wet race conditions.

    1. I think you are wrong. I’m not sure but if the track is very wet the fia makes all the car to wear full sets and if it is like that it will start with the safety car. Also if it rain like today and it keeps raining hard. I wouln’t be surprise that the race is cancelled. The track is not the best at drying out but the biggest problem is the standing water .

    2. Sorry. Now I realized what you meant. What kind of advantage will they get?

      1. Schumacher in my view is the fastest man on wet conditions in that car and on this particular track , not only that but he is the Rain Master.

        Lewis on the other hand is at home in the second fastest car of the season (so far) and in my not so humble opinion the second best driver on wet conditions , although it seems that those intermediate Pirelli’s are not a good match for his Mclaren.

        In full wet conditions both of them are monsters.

        Alonso will always be Alonso , the fast starting Ferrari will help him protect his pole at the start.

        Webber in my view will not be putting to much heat on alonso , since he knows he has the best car and pushing will make him risk losing valuable points.

        Schumacher will be “pushing like a hell” ; he is thirsty for a win.

        The rest is the rest.

        1. Lewis on the other hand is at home in the second fastest car of the season (so far)

          I strongly disagree with this statement. Looking back over the last few race lap times, I would say the faster car is the red bull, followed by ferrari and then lotus. The mclaren is then next, but over the race laptimes they are pretty similar to the mercs.

  21. Anyone know what do the rules say if Q3 is wet like today and if by some chance the race starts dry, do the Q3 qualifiers still need to start on the tires they qualified with (inters/wets)?

    1. No, if the race is declared as dry at the start, they can choose any dry tyres.

    2. No, they’re allowed to change (did you really think they would be forced to start on wet tyres on a bone dry track?)

      1. @keithcollantine I certainly wish I could see that at least once in my lifetime.

  22. Raikkonen for Victory!!!! :)

  23. I tip Schumacher for victory. He was flying not only with inters, but also on full wets and just blew away Rosberg. Looks like Schumacher is really turning his luck.

    1. Schumi was definitely flying… every time the TV went to him he was flying off the track in Q3!!! LoL. But good luck to him, would be nice to see him win one.

    2. I don’t understand how people are saying Schumi was flying?? Sure, he put in a solid lap to get in p3, but he had a couple of huge spins and was all over the place for most of quali.

      1. Those spins were aqua planing, cuz of his car’s low height.
        When they changed it, he was strong,; remember when he was on full wets he was competing with Alonso who had interns.
        As per the Q3 result, I believe it was a mistake going out on wets, while the track was perfect for interns. Although he could manage just one flying lap with his interns he got P3, while alonso and everyone else had interns since the start of Q3, meaning everyone else did have up to three hot laps on interns, which seem to come into their best temperature window on the 2nd or even 3rd lap.
        In other words, I believe that Schumi could have had pole today if he would have started Q3 on interns. I just hope rain comes down heavy tomorrow so we can see the rainmeister do this thing… ;)

  24. So much for McLaren’s advantage on this fast track… It seemed to be doused out by a bit of water…

  25. Is Murray Walker going to do do commentating tomorrow (or at least part of it) ??

  26. I also like to point out that even in those conditions you can clearly see that the Red Bull car has improved significantly and it wasn’t the hot track on valencia that gave them the edge.

    Mclaren , Lotus , Mercedes and Ferrari fans might want to keep their fingers crossed for more wet races , since Red Bull might blitz away from the rest in this second half of the championship.

  27. um, why hasn’t Alonso been investigated for setting fastest time with a yellow flag? Fernando International Assitance?

    Last week was safety car.

    1. TheGreatTeflonso
      7th July 2012, 19:19

      He was investigated and deemed that he slowed down. Um why haven’t you been investigated for obvious bias?

    2. Last week was safety ca

      I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or serious.

      1. Hopefully it’s the former. It would be just too sad if he was serious.

        1. I find on this site, if you’re going to be sarcastic, you have to lay it on REALLY thick, or few will get it. Hence my comment about Ferrari’s weather manipulating device, and the illegal traction control system installed in Fernando’s prosthetic right foot. :D

      2. Or he could be Helmut Marko.

  28. Alonso is still on fire but Ice Cool Schumi is warming up nicely.

    Great qualy,nail biting stuff,as Schumi says,”bring on the rain!”

  29. Any one else want Schumacher pull out a win as much as I would love it? Also if he would win do you think we would get the Schumacher jump on the podium? God I’d love to see that jump once more, he would be excited

  30. I didn’t see any onboards of Alonso, but during the live broadcast I thought I saw him correct a slide in the very corner that Grosjean was parked… I must have been wrong otherwise that doesn’t strike me as ‘sufficiently slowing down’.

    I’m a little bit worried by McLaren’s lack of pace on the intermediates. Hamilton said afterwards that he couldn’t switch on his tyres, and it looked like he would have been able to set a faster time on full wets, because in Q2 in much worse conditions he was only 1 second slower than his Q3 effort. The reason this worries me is that it is unlikely that tomorrow will be completely dry, or continually soaking wet (and if it is soaking wet it’s not likely they’ll race), so you would expect drivers to spend most of their time on intermediates.

    Good to see Webber and Schumacher up there, and I hope they can prevent our championship leader from extending his lead even further.

  31. Good title, by the way, @keithcollantine; as much as Button’s story of the season is switching on his tyres, Alonso’s is capitalizing on things that come his way, IMO.

  32. What a completely mad session…and subsequent comments following qualifying. Honestly, don’t get how some people think. Button was unlucky and Alonso displayed brilliant control for his pole lap.

    Anyways, yeah, great session. We had a different result from Caterham with an impressive .4s gap between Petrov and Kovalainen. Pity they couldn’t take advantage in the wet so I’m keen to see how their upgrades will fare up in the future. I was kinda hoping for the sun to shine as soon as Button went out, that way people would start to scrub their dry tyres and he would benefit from virgin rubber tomorrow.

    Shame that Sauber suffered so much after the resumption of Q2. Just realised that Kobayashi beat Perez so well done to him.

    Q1 was just crazy! The right man put it on pole, he didn’t benefit from others misfortune, he got in tune with the track and made only 1 slight mistake. Looking forward to watching it again tomorrow.

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