Webber stuns Vettel with pole position in Korea

2012 Korean Grand Prix qualifying

Posted on

| Written by

Mark Webber claimed a surprise pole position for the Korean Grand Prix.

He had missed the last part of final practice with a technical problem and seen the other Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel lead throughout qualifiyng up until the final lap of Q3.

But a terrific last lap from Webber saw him snatch pole from his team mate.

Q1

Vettel did a single lap in Q1 which beat the fastest time at that point by six tenths of a second, easily enough to see him progress to Q2.

Narain Karthikeyan had a dramatic spin at turn three following a problem with his front brake. He returned to the pits but was unable to set a time.

As the track improved the drivers who returned to the track on super-softs found considerable improvements. The Saubers moved up to fourth and fifth followed by the two Toro Rossos.

That left some of those who had not done a second run looking worried. Fernando Alonso returned to the track on super-soft and only posted a modest improvement.

It was enough to move him up one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver was in real danger of being eliminated in Q1, and was only spared the embarrassment when Bruno Senna abandoned his last effort.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

18Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault1’39.443
19Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault1’40.207
20Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’40.333
21Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth1’41.317
22Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth1’41.371
23Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1’42.881
24Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth

Q2

As in the first session Vettel only needed one lap to put his car at the top of the times, although his margin was reduced.With that he was happy to stay in the pits while everyone else did a second run.

Alonso took second, two-tenths of a second slower, and just 13 thousandths faster than Hamilton.

However several drivers’ attempts to improve were stymied by a problem for Daniel Ricciardo, who stopped at turn 11. “I think something with the gearbox,” he told his team. “I tried to upshift and it went to neutral.”

Kimi Raikkonen was one of the drivers who improved after the yellow flags came out. He moved up to fifth, which pushed Button down to 11th, and out of Q3.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’38.441
12Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’38.460
13Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’38.594
14Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’38.643
15Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’38.725
16Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.084
17Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.340

Q3

Vettel kept up his run at the top with a 1’37.316 at the beginning of Q3. “A very tidy lap,” was race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin’s verdict, who added there was perhaps a little more time to find in the second sector.

Alonso split the Red Bulls, taking second ahead of Webber. Massa backed him up in fourth with Hamilton fifth.

But having slipped to third, Webber hit back in a big way with his second lap. He produced a very clean final run, edging Vettel’s time by less than a tenth of a second.

Time and again we’ve seen Vettel produce a late flying lap to take pole position in these circumstances – but not this time. He stayed second, sealing a second consecutive one-two for Red Bull.

Hamilton moved ahead of Alonso with his last effort, taking third on the grid. That left the Ferrari driver fourth ahead of Raikkonen, and the pair will have their team mates directly behind them on the grid.

Top ten in Q3

1Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’37.242
2Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.316
3Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’37.469
4Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’37.534
5Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’37.625
6Felipe MassaFerrari1’37.884
7Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’37.934
8Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’38.266
9Nico RosbergMercedes1’38.361
10Michael SchumacherMercedes1’38.513

2012 Korean Grand Prix

    Browse all 2012 Korean Grand Prix articles

    Image © Red Bull/Getty images

    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...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    125 comments on “Webber stuns Vettel with pole position in Korea”

    1. Alonso and Hamilton did excellent job, Webber either. Tomorrow would be interesting unless 2 Red Bulls run away from the rest of the grid, or team order deployed.

      1. Lets hope it doesn’t come to that!

        1. Considering Webber’s typical snail pace at the start and Vettel starting on the dirty side of the grid, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lewis lead in turn 1. If not then, than surely he should get at least one Red Bull by the end of the first sector due obvious reasons.

          Luckily, even with DDRS, Red Bull have about equal top speed than my grandfather’s 1973 Honda Civic which is missing all but one cylinder.

          1. @Kingshark P3 is not a good place off the start. If you get a better start than even P1 and P2, you’re boxed in. The track is rather narrow into T1 – you have no space on the right, but P2 is coming on the left. Look at the 2011 start – Button made a flying start from P3 but gets boxed in as the poleman swerves right for the braking into T1.

            I am confident that by T4 – Vettel will lead, by hook or by crook (by bad Webber start, or by team order)

            1. @raymondu999 Team order? I don’t think they’d do that on lap 1, would they? A bit risky with others so close.

          2. @kingshark

            luckily, even with DDRS, Red Bull have about equal top speed than my grandfather’s 1973 Honda Civic

            I appreciate the pun, but Red Bull were actually very competitive in the speed traps. That pun applies more to McLaren or indeed to a lesser extent Ferrari.

            1. @vettel1 Wasn’t that down to their special DRS though? I guess we’ll see in the race.

      2. Because only Ferrari are allowed to use team orders,… Right?

        1. P3 is not a good place off the start. If you get a better start than even P1 and P2, you’re boxed in. The track is rather narrow into T1 – you have no space on the right, but P2 is coming on the left. Look at the 2011 start – Button made a flying start from P3 but gets boxed in as the poleman swerves right for the braking into T1.

          Actually, the track is very wide everywhere. What makes you think Hamilton will try the outside, rather than the inside?

          I am confident that by T4 – Vettel will lead, by hook or by crook (by bad Webber start, or by team order)

          Team orders after 4 corners? Doubt it, and I highly doubt any Red Bull will be leading by the first sector. Their top speed is too mediocre for that.

          1. @Kingshark there is no space to the outside in T1. I’ve been here for all three races – the track is not wide enough to go around the outside of T1 at the start.

            Hamilton, like I said, will not be able to even go for the inside, because the stretch isn’t long enough for P2 to lose too much. Unless he drives through Vettel he can’t physically BE on the inside. Not to mention diving for the inside at T1 at the start means you have a compromised run down 1.5km of straight. Also the last start we had here there was no difference between clean and dirty sides – not enough to make a difference to the start order.

            Don’t forget the two Red Bulls are quicker than Hamilton through Sector 1 this weekend. They lose the DDRS in the race, but so too will McLaren (yes, that has slipped under the radar, introduced at Spa). The Red Bulls have also always geared their last gear for DRS-limited top speed anyways.

            I’m not saying team orders after 4 corners – I think Seb will make a better job of the first sector legitimately. Even if it was a team orders thing, it would probably be early on, probably as early as Lap 2 – then have Webber hold the pack up as Seb romped away.

            1. I think Vettel will be ahead too within a few laps. Just by pressing hard and Webber under instruction not to defend too aggressively. Though personally I’d be happy to see a bit of Istanbul-type action, I doubt it will happen!

              Given he really has to win, Hamilton has to choose between being aggressive in the first few laps or being Alonso cool and hoping McLaren can put together a race-winning strategy with Vettel not pulling away into the sunset. Hmm. So green light for aggressive maybe.

          2. @kingshark

            Doubt it, and I highly doubt any Red Bull will be leading by the first sector. Their top speed is too mediocre for that.

            I don’t see any logic in this. Last year McLaren’s top speed advantage over Red Bull was slightly bigger than yesterday, yet it was Vettel who was all over Hamilton on the first sector and overtook him going into T4.

          3. @Kingshark so as I was saying, about the starting grid…

        2. @f1fannl At least Ferrari are honest enough to openly admit they do. Which is better than Horner’s philosophy of 2010 where team orders weren’t a part of Red Bull culture.. blah blah. and yet ensuring he does everything to make Vettel come out on top

          1. “For sure we don’t have team orders”

            Yes, very open.

          2. Red Bull hasn’t tried to hide team orders – they have shown in the past that when they want Webber to move over they will tell him. Whether or not he listens is another story.

          3. Ferrari never admitted to using team orders in 2010. Otherwise they would have been heavily fined.

      3. Team orders are Webbers continual “Dodgy” starts when he is anywhere near Vettel on the grid.

      4. Key to prevent successful team orders will be drivers jumping Vettel off the grid, if Hamilton or Alonso manage to split the Bulls it will harder to deploy team orders favoring Vettel.

      5. I think the Ferrari is better than what people are saying, I think race pace will be on their side.

    2. Never underestimate the weather and webber!

      all we need now is for alonso and vettel to take each other out and for Raikkonen and Hamilton to move up, and suddenly we are back to a 4 horse race!

      1. I wouldn’t be surprised if Webber doesn’t put up too much of a fight if Hamilton sends one up the inside. Make no mistake, I’m sure he wants Red Bull to win the constructors but Vettel win a 3rd drivers? No chance.

        1. @john-h – If Webber deliberately hinders Vettel’s championship pursuit then don’t be expecting him in Red Bull colours next year, contract or no contract.

          1. That is true.

          2. Well, if you clasify not “destroying Hamilton’s race” to quote a race engineer, it’s not really deliberately hindering Vettel.

            Come on, remember being told at Silverstone to move aside and him refusing? Tell me, what car does Mark still drive these days?

      2. Hehhehe.

        Where’s GRO?

        1. @jcost, GRO is right behind his teamate and next to Massa who is right behind his teamate, both Gro and Mas are quick starters, recipe for…..?

    3. Did anyone notice Red Bull pit wall after quali? They looked as if they’ve just lost a pole, instead of winning it.

      1. @brace
        yup, all of them had straight faces, i noticed that too. one can understand they expected and wanted vettel to be on pole, given the championship battle, but its a bit insulting towards webber.

        1. @andrewf1 Technically it shouldn’t matter to them which driver qualifies where with respect to their positions but obviously that’s not the case.

      2. what’s new… Same old same old… I really hope Webber gets some lady luck & punishes them tomorrow!

        1. And look who choose to stay with them one more year.

          1. I think this year he should have held off until the end of the season…

          2. Mark stayed because of Mr Adrian Newey, and the fact that Red Bull have the budget to give equal spec cars at each race. It is in their best interests to give Mark AND Vettel the best cars they can so that they can demolish the constructors title. The fact that Helmut Marko and some of the other management crew are blatantly behind their golden boy is just one of those ‘facts of life’ that Mark has to deal with. The simple fact is, political BS aside, they still turn out a car that Mark is able to win races with (e.g. Silverstone and Monaco). That’s why he stays. He would not necessarily have that opportunity at other teams (e.g. Ferrari).

            I don’t like Red Bull’s politics, and I’m sure Mark is less than thrilled either, but he’s still won ALL of his races with Red Bull.

            1. Who is the other management crew you talk of? I remember reading that Webber negotiates his contracts directly with Dietrich Mateschitz. He also co-owns a GP3 team with Christian Horner. So I would assume he has pretty solid relationships with both of them. So taking those two out of the equation who are the remaining management crew that are apparently behind “their golden boy”.

            2. I’m one of those who believe Marko’s fave driver is Vettel and I think it is because Vettel is better than Webber, not because his eyes are greener.

            3. I think Webber owes Red Bull as much, if not more than the other way around. Good point about the wins, about the near-WDC victory. If I remember correctly coming into Abu Dhabi in 2010 he was ahead of Vettel on points.

              And considering the context of Marko, I empathize as to his preference for the German golden boy Vettel.

            4. And Webber “has a life” in England ,lives not far away from RBR, that has to be a consideration.

      3. You are reading way too much into it, since we didn’t see the pit wall until a minute or so after Red Bull had claimed 1-2. Whoever was on the radio, sounded genuinely joyful when informing Webber about his pole position. Webber’s pole position is not a problem for Red Bull or Vettel – if Mark is still leading towards the end of the race, Red Bull may just order him to let Vettel pass.

    4. Wonder if they’ll penalize Grosjean, Kimi and all those that went faster after Ricciardo parked his car on the track.

      I guess they should be penalized. Iit’s the old discussion: surely a personal best isn’t “slowing down enough” but what is it, then?

      1. Grosjean said he lost about 7 tenths from the yellow, so I guess he should be OK. Kimi was less clear on how much he slowed down, but from what Renault mentioned earlier they should both be fine.

        1. If Grosjean lost 7 tenths due to the yellow then he could have been on pole.

          1. Except that he lost time in Q2, not Q3.

      2. @fer-no65

        Apparently they wont be penalized. I think it is down to stewart inconsistency again, sometimes they hand out penatlies easily for sutch things, sometimes it seems like nothing have happened. But handing out a penatly in this case wouldnt change mutch to the drivers they knocked out, which is the biggest problem I think.

        1. ‘stewart inconsistency’ ? Did you see the telemetry of the cars in that corners?? Me neither.

      3. @fer-no65 If Alonso or Ferrari didn’t say nothing about this, then everything is alright.

    5. I didn’t hear this on the radio:

      Vettel/Rocquelin full radio read: “Why did you not tell me about Massa?” “What was I supposed to say? He was on a timed lap, a green time”

      http://twitter.com/virtualstatman/statuses/257001703243669504

      1. Haha, funny.

      2. I was wondering what Vettel was yelling about, he thought Massa was on an in lap?

      3. Vettel messed up s1 badly so that was just a lame obvious attempt to save face. Hopefully the team are similarly unmoved when he demands them to “do something” about webber tomorrow.

        1. Yeah, because having someone enter the pits in front of you going slower on the racing line and causing turbulence in a high speed corner before the start finish strait when you start your lap obviously doesn’t affect your time in any way….

      4. Vettel does seem to have a genuinely unpleasant side to him, in spite of the best efforts of his PR team. There was today’s bizarre lashing out at Rocky, as well as the ‘but I want to win’ and ‘do something’ messages at the 2011 and 2012 Hungarian races respectively. Not to mention the Karthikeyan cucumber comment (which he didn’t apologise for) and the finger pointing at the Pirelli guy in the Spa paddock. It seems that he can’t quite compute the idea that it might occasionally be his own fault that he cannot brandish his finger.

        1. You call it an “unpleasant side”. I call it “Killer Instinct”. If he wasn’t so vocal about every little thing, he wouldn’t have become the youngest two time WDC.

          1. I call it both things.

          2. I appreciate he has a killer instinct. For me though, that has showed itself in his ability throughout his title years to pull brilliant Q3 laps out of the bag, to control races from the front and to refocus himself after his 2010 Korean GP engine blow to produce perfect performances when they were most needed in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. These petulant, brattish outbursts are unnecessary and make me wonder whether the nice guy image we see away from the track is a manufactured facade.

            1. artificial racer
              14th October 2012, 1:53

              That’s a bit of a stretch. Have you ever competed in something? I’m normally a nice guy… but get me losing in a video game for example and I’m prone to yell some rather unflattering things at the walls.

            2. artificial racer
              14th October 2012, 1:56

              I guess the bigger point here is that saying “why didn’t you tell me about Massa”? is a pretty benign outburst and was made in the moment of finding out he lost pole. By the time of the driver interview he was fine and admitted losing time in the second sector regardless of Massa. But with less than a tenth, the Massa thing could easily have made the difference. Webbah’s lap had a mistake in the final sector.

          3. Oddly enough, the rest of us call it “whining” … you know, that thing everyone accuses Hamilton of doing but without providing actual proof of it.

        2. Maybe he’s mocking all time the greatest Schumacher ?

      5. I am not a fan but I don’t see anything wrong with this. He is just asking a question about something he didn’t understand and in a noise environment.

    6. A great lap from Webber, and a good chance in the race with Vettel on the dirty side and Grosjean well placed to take out Hamilto, Alonso, Raikkonen and Massa :)

      1. Nah, I predict that this time he will break so early in the first curve that he will be hit from behind by the german armada (Hulkenberg, Rosberg & Schumacher).

    7. Webber didn’t just stun Vettel with his pole lap; I have a feeling 90% of the pole predictions in the F1Fanatic predictions championship just went wrong. I hope Mark has a good result tomorrow as well, he needs it. In particular, I hope he still leads after the first lap, so we can see what he can do in clean air.

      In case Webber and Vettel are P1 and P2 at the end of the race, I hope Webber will not hear any “Sebastian is faster than you” messages over the radio. I don’t think RBR will, or should, issue the order if Alonso is still behind Vettel, though. If Alonso is ahead of the Red Bulls with Webber ahead, then it would be a little more reasonable to ask Webber to move over, and then it will be interesting to see if Webber complies…

      1. @adrianmorse

        I have a feeling 90% of the pole predictions in the F1Fanatic predictions championship just went wrong

        You’re not far off – 84.35%:

        https://www.racefans.net/predictions-championship/f1-fanatic-predictions-championship-race-by-race-statistics/

        1. Wow, that’s huge.

        2. Actually, that’s 96.71 % wrong predictions ;)

          1. I think he was referring to the fact that most people picked Vettel.

        3. Hmm, nice page that one, never seen before.

        4. I think & if i’am not wrong that i am part of the 3.29% who chose Webber

      2. In case Webber and Vettel are P1 and P2 at the end of the race, I hope Webber will not hear any “Sebastian is faster than you” messages over the radio.

        I’m fairly certain that if Webber is leading from Vettel… Horner will fix the pit stop strategy to make Seb come in front.

        1. an interesting thought!

        2. Look at you with all your Horner will do this and that. I really doubt its as simple as Horner pressing the “mess up pit stop” button seeing how Webbers mechanics have to be the ones that do the messing up on purpose. Unless ofcourse Horner decides to start streaking in the middle of Marks pit stop.

          1. nope but he does have a magical clutch slip button he keeps up his sleeve ;)

          2. I really doubt its as simple as Horner pressing the “mess up pit stop” button

            There won’t be any button of such sort. However, Vettel tends to be easier on the rubber than Webber, which means, if Webber pits first and gets out in traffic on cold primes and Vettel stays out for an extra 2 laps in clean air on used options, at the front, he’ll easily pass Webber during his stop.

            This is routine for Red Bull.

            1. Than it seems like its Webber’s fault not Vettels. You cant expect the team to compromise Vettel’s strategy because Webber is harder on his tires.

            2. Actually, we don’t know how long Webbers tyres last as they always change them while he is still making fast laps, inevitably he is on older tyres than Vettel towards races end, of course Vettel usually has the advantage of clean air.

          3. Actually if the Red Bull’s race off into the distance, that might liven the race up a little!

        3. You’re right. Webber often always has little problems with his car. On the rare weekends when he has no technical issue he often performs well. I fully expect Webber to lose p1 tomorrow if Sebastian is p2, even if it’s at the start. Some people cant handle the thought of anyone other than Ferrari being team order villains though…

          1. Some people cant handle the thought of anyone other than Ferrari being team order villains though…

            I think a lot of them hate the hypocrisy of team orders. Lets not forget that Horner made some holier than thou statements regarding team orders in 2010, and that he said Red Bull would never adopt team orders.

            He made those statements when Webber was leading the championship so that Vettel doesn’t drop out of the WDC hunt.. lets see if he abandons his philosophy this time around

      3. I’m not sure wether Red Bull will make Webber relinquish the lead to Vettel, I really don’t think he’d appreciate that given he deservedly got pole position with a fanatstic lap.
        However, I’m sure Webber is an intelligent guy; Vettel realistically is the only Red Bull driver capable of challenging Alonso in the driver’s championship, so for the good of the team he really ought to let Vettel challenge for the win.
        Until race day we will not know but another thought: what’s to say Webber would hold onto position anyway? Vettel is usually a better starter than Webber (albeit he is on the dirty side of the track) as Japan proved, and most likely if he doesn’t get by during the first few corners he will be within the DRS detection zone and, come lap 3, will be able to get a run on him (given how long the DRS zone is/how good Red Bull’s DDRS is).
        I just hope Webber doesn’t do anything unnecessary, such as hold him up if he happens to be faster or intentionally make life difficult for Vettel if he tries to make a pass. I guess we’ll see who’s victorious when the flag drops (you never know it could be Alonso or Hamilton to take it).

      4. Choose webber :) feels good

    8. Sankalp Sharma
      13th October 2012, 7:30

      there’s a high probability of Vettel and Alonso losing out to hamilton and raikkonen at the first corner respectively. And Webber may make one of his not so unusual poor starts.

      1. Korea may usurp Budapest as the dustiest track in the calendar. And when you’re literally in the countryside, with very little infrastructure to speak of besides the actual course, dust and dirt are even freer to go wherever the wind takes them.

        1. Sankalp Sharma
          13th October 2012, 7:36

          true story. You forgot India though!

      2. Let’s wait and see if kimmi slowed down enough in q2 when the yellow flags were weaving and if hamilton and rosberg are mot penalized for their manouver in the pits

      3. The run to the first corner isn’t particularly long though if I’m not mistaken. As usual I expect a fast starting Alonso so I think the guys in front may need to be weary of a threat from behind, but he is on the dirty side of the track.
        As is Vettel, but he isn’t to shoddy at starts himself. I expect Webber to have to defend if not drop a few places.
        I really don’t know about Hamilton. He has a great opportunity to gain a place or two at the start, but with how he’s been driving round that first corner this weekend I don’t expect too much.
        I predict going onto the straight the order will be: Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton.

      4. The poor starts seem to have gone away this year, he does however often lose places by being careful in T1.

    9. Wow, really appreciate ESPN/Star Sports for their coverage, which hasn’t even aired yet.

      1. @scuderiavincero I had the bad luck of watching a GP through their coverage several times – absolutely the worst commentary I’ve ever heard. The color commentator, I’m sorry to say – seems to have no grasp on strategy, and oversensationalises a lot.

        Mind you the summariser – be it Mark Gallagher, Gary Anderson (now off to BBC) or Gary Paffett do great jobs. Just replace the color commentator.

        You have my sympathies.

        1. Being Malaysian, I’m stuck. While I’ve gotten used to the commentary, sadly the coverage has always taken a backseat to BBC and Sky.

          Enjoy it live in my stead my brethren!

        2. @raymondu999 Unfortunately I have to deal with their commentary every race weekend. I used to keep count of the number of mistakes Steve Slater made while commentating during a race. On an average
          1) He makes around 8 to 9 wrong driver identifications per race .. (maybe he doesn’t know how to look for the red and yellow colours on top of the car yet.. or maybe he doesn’t even know who the number 1 and number 2 drivers in the teams are). According to Steve Slater we had Kimi Raikkonnen on the grid on 2010
          2) At least 2 wrong team identifications during a race.. (Saubers, Williams and Force India always get mixed up)
          3) He sees cars magically slowing down or having problems whenever they aren’t in the background. Only one out of every 100 times is he right.)
          4) He is absolutely clueless about who have made pit stops and what tyre strategy they are on
          5) He is slower than the average human. At least 10 seconds have passed before Steve Slater realises it

      2. I feel sorry for you. Why don´t you just watch it on BBC with a VPN?
        In Denmark we have a commentator that repeatedly overlook even vital things, mix up drivers, thinks replays are things happening, live paired with an ex-racing driver co-commentator that sucks every remaining bit of excitement out of F1.
        I just couldn´t bear it anymore, and I have watched f1 on bbc since 2010. Sadly they only cover half the races live now, due to budget cuts, but the coverage is simply brilliant, with a second to none team of competent, professional and witty people. If someone crashes, they have a journalist on the spot right away to get a comment from the driver, and they walk in and out of team garages, as if it was their home. I feel like i´m almost there, when I watch f1 on bbc – love it!!!

    10. hamilton was purple up until the last sector, where his sector time was 4 tenths slower than that of vettel, that’s just frustrating that the red bull was so mighty through the last sector. nonetheless, good starting position, considering his first Q3 run where he was 7 tenths slower.

      also, how cool is raikkonen? first time ever on the new circuit, without laps done on the simulator (at least thats what he said), with a car which isnt on par with red bull, and he qualifies 3 tenths behind pole. great stuff

      1. It also looked like the new exhaust layout does in fact give them xtra performance and according to Allison its not even optimised yet and that bodes well for the last few races. I only wish they introduced it earlier.

    11. Nice to see Webber on pole again, although I think there is almost no chance Red Bull will allow him to win the race if Vettel can at this stage in the season. Vettel’s radio transmission and demeanour after being outqualified by Webber was cringeworthy just like some of Hamilton’s antics off the track recently.

      Bit miffed about Button not making it to Q3 as I was looking forward to watching him contend at the front from the start this weekend but hopefully he can still make a good recovery drive. In practice it looked like his Mclaren had a short final gear and slow max speed compared to rivals which does not bode well for his overtaking chances.

    12. Here’s Vettel’s angry team radio

    13. What was that all about with Massa. Why did Ferrari send him out just to have him come in again right when he’s setting green times? Where they afraid he was gonna beat Alonso? Or was it just to block Vettel?

      1. I’d like to know the answer to that as well.

      2. Or was it just to block Vettel?

        that’s payback

    14. @andrewf1 @brny666 the exhaust really working. But it might be too late for saving them…as for Kimi, yeah, unbelievable.

    15. oops looks like that link didn’t post correctly. Here it is again (sorry for the double post)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7lAoQUoaSw&feature=plcp

    16. I wonder how many of us expect Webber to remain in front of Vettel after the:

      a) first corner
      b) first lap
      c) first round of pit stops
      d) chequered flag?

      I’m definitely not expecting either of the last two. Vettel will get past, either through his own pace, strategy or team orders.

      1. That’s the case when Webber is directly ahead of Vettel. If there’s Alonso or Hamilton between them, they have nothing can do.

      2. a) You
        b) You
        c) You
        d) You

        1. I don’t get it, @aleksandr. I already said I’m not expecting c) or d).

      3. @estesark, Vettel will make a kamikaze dive down the inside of Webber, if Mark doesn’t move over and they crash, it will be Marks fault, if Mark does move over and Vettel gets ahead, it will be Marks fault.

    17. Bravo Webber, a pleasant surprise when I woke up. Unfortunately I don’t think he will fight for the win. The championship battle is so tight that even Webber understands he might gave up his place if the circumstances will allow it. I also feel Grosjean will not do his usual stuff tomorrow, his pattern seems to be one horrible start the other one good.

      1. Then drivers should be careful when he gets the exhaust!

    18. The look on Vettel’s face was priceless after quali

      He’s still a spoilt brat

      Pity red bull will ask Webber to let him past either at the first corner, pit stops or later in the race

      The only chance for webber to win us to have another car between him and seb

      1. I must admit I enjoyed that face a bit too :)

    19. I really hope Webber gets a well deserved win just to shut up all you Webber bashers. Give the guy a break.

    20. I think Webber has a real shot of victory here. I get the feeling he struggled with rear tyre degradation a little in the second half of the season, especially when in traffic, but this track is front-tyre limited, according to the Paul Hembery (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103364), and he shouldn’t be in traffic. Also, he looked very fast here last year too (only on the softs, not on the super softs), but he couldn’t get by Hamilton. As for his starts, they have not been spectacular, but nowhere near as bad as last year, and it’s only a very short run to the first corner.

      In the same autosport article, Hembery said that a one-stop was possible, and that may be very good news for Jenson Button. He doesn’t need to start on used tyres, so he should be able to do a few laps longer on his set of super softs. Whether he can challenge for the podium or even victory will depend on how much time he will lose in the first stint. If Mercedes is slow and he is stuck behind them, the leaders will probably earn a free pit stop over him.

    21. I really think Vettel will win it tomorrow; his pace at the start of the race is always scintillating

    22. I dont oversee any team getting in between the 2 redbulls for the 1st corner unless LH or Alonso try something extra agressive and cause a crash (LH of 2 years ago would most certainly try something, he seems to have outgrown that sort of dangerous driving). The team have to be smart and its better to lock out other team for the first corner and after building some lead they can then race against each other.
      If however they drive as individuals, I would expect someone to loose out a position and my bet is Webber getting passed by vettel in the 1st corner and maybe even Alonso by end of lap1.
      Let’s hope there is no crash tomorrow though and we have a race where none of the top 5 are taken out in the 1st corner.

    23. The body language of the three drivers says crash crash at the first corner.

    24. Vettel couldn’t hide his true feelings after the radio call of the result…………his reply was that of a spoilt brat !!
      I truly hope Mark gets a good start and Kimi comes flying past Vettel and ties down second place (one can only wish )
      A crash free start would be nice indeed !

    25. I had Alonso e/w for pole position so slightly disappointed he missed P3 by a tenth or so.

      On the plus side I had Rosberg to beat Schumacher and Raikkonnen to beat Grosjean so I’m slightly up.

      I’m now checking the prices for the race but there aren’t exactly great prices on offer

    Comments are closed.