Petrov narrowly misses top ten as penalties reorder the grid

2011 Indian GP qualifying analysis

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Vitaly Petrov, Renault, Buddh International Circuit, 2011

Here’s all the data from qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix.

Qualifying times in full

  • Vitaly Petrov missed out on a place in Q3 by the narrowest of margins. He matched Jaime Alguersuari’s Q2 time to within a thousandth of a second. Alguersuari progressed in Q3 because he had set the time time three minutes earlier. Had Petrov been able to replicate his Q1 time he’d have made it through.
  • It mattered little in the end as he was one of five drivers to get penalties after qualifying. The others were Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and both HRT drivers.
  • Timo Glock will be allowed to start the race despite failing to beat the 107% time due to his gearbox problem. See the updated grid here.
  • Hamilton said he decided to save his tyres when he realised he wasn’t going to be able to beat Sebastian Vettel to pole position: “I was only a tenth down going into the penultimate corner, but I chose to abort the lap and save the tyres for tomorrow as it’s going to be a long race.”
  • Kamui Kobayashi said Sauber struggled with tyre warm-up as they had in Korea: “The pace of the car was certainly good enough for Q2, I was convinced about it and I also think our race performance should be alright. However, in qualifying it took me a lot of time to warm up the tyres, and then in the end I was unlucky. I had just started my final flying lap when Felipe [Massa] came out of the pit lane in front of me.”
DriverCarQ1

Q2 (vs Q1)

Q3 (vs Q2)
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull1’26.2181’24.657 (-1.561)1’24.178 (-0.479)
2Lewis HamiltonMcLaren1’26.5631’25.019 (-1.544)1’24.474 (-0.545)
3Mark WebberRed Bull1’26.4731’25.282 (-1.191)1’24.508 (-0.774)
4Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’26.7741’25.158 (-1.616)1’24.519 (-0.639)
5Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’26.2251’25.299 (-0.926)1’24.950 (-0.349)
6Felipe MassaFerrari1’27.0121’25.522 (-1.490)1’25.122 (-0.400)
7Nico RosbergMercedes1’26.3641’25.555 (-0.809)1’25.451 (-0.104)
8Adrian SutilForce India1’26.2711’26.140 (-0.131)
9Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso1’26.6081’26.161 (-0.447)
10Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso1’26.5571’26.319 (-0.238)
11Vitaly PetrovRenault1’26.1891’26.319 (+0.130)
12Michael SchumacherMercedes1’26.7901’26.337 (-0.453)
13Paul di RestaForce India1’26.8641’26.503 (-0.361)
14Pastor MaldonadoWilliams1’26.8291’26.537 (-0.292)
15Bruno SennaRenault1’26.7661’26.651 (-0.115)
16Rubens BarrichelloWilliams1’27.4791’27.247 (-0.232)
17Sergio PerezSauber1’27.2491’27.562 (+0.313)
18Kamui KobayashiSauber1’27.876
19Heikki KovalainenLotus1’28.565
20Jarno TrulliLotus1’28.752
21Daniel RicciardoHRT1’30.216
22Narain KarthikeyanHRT1’30.238
23Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin1’30.866
24Timo GlockVirgin1’34.046

Team mate comparisons

Compare the best times of each team’s drivers in the last part of qualifying in which they both set a time.

  • Daniel Ricciardo and Narain Karthikeyan shared a team for the first time this year. Ricciardo prevailed by a slim margin over the home driver: “I was up on my team mate but made a small mistake,” said Karthikeyan.
  • Unlike Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber wasn’t able to get a second lap in: “It was tricky to work out the right strategy for qualifying. The tyres weren’t easy for one timed lap, so we had to work out how to do the right strategy – lots of teams tried different styles to get the best lap time out of the car. The first sector was tricky to get right on one timed lap. I could have done better in the first sector on my first lap in Q3; I couldn’t complete my second, as there were yellow flags after Massa’s incident.”
TeamDriverLap timeGapLap timeDriverRound
Red BullSebastian Vettel1’24.178-0.3301’24.508Mark WebberQ3
McLarenLewis Hamilton1’24.474-0.4761’24.950Jenson ButtonQ3
FerrariFernando Alonso1’24.519-0.6031’25.122Felipe MassaQ3
MercedesMichael Schumacher1’26.337+0.7821’25.555Nico RosbergQ2
RenaultBruno Senna1’26.651+0.3321’26.319Vitaly PetrovQ2
WilliamsRubens Barrichello1’27.247+0.7101’26.537Pastor MaldonadoQ2
Force IndiaAdrian Sutil1’26.140-0.3631’26.503Paul di RestaQ2
SauberKamui Kobayashi1’27.876+0.6271’27.249Sergio PerezQ1
Toro RossoSebastien Buemi1’26.161-0.1581’26.319Jaime AlguersuariQ2
LotusHeikki Kovalainen1’28.565-0.1871’28.752Jarno TrulliQ1
HRTNarain Karthikeyan1’30.238+0.0221’30.216Daniel RicciardoQ1
VirginTimo Glock1’34.046+3.1801’30.866Jerome D’AmbrosioQ1

Sector times

Here are the drivers’ best times in each sector.

  • Jenson Button came under scrutiny as he was the first driver to pass through the scene of Massa’s crash as the yellow flags came out. The sector times show nine other cars were quicker than him through sector two, which Button was almost at the end of when Massa crashed. There has been no indication he, or any other drivers who passed through the yellow flag zone, might get a penalty.
  • Red Bull are strong in sectors two and three but not in the first where straight-line speed is all-important.
DriverSector 1Sector 2Sector 3
Sebastian Vettel41.277 (5)22.226 (1)20.675 (1)
Lewis Hamilton41.009 (1)22.521 (5)20.944 (4)
Mark Webber41.407 (7)22.261 (2)20.840 (2)
Fernando Alonso41.097 (2)22.371 (4)20.944 (4)
Jenson Button41.099 (3)22.931 (10)20.920 (3)
Felipe Massa41.359 (6)22.295 (3)21.057 (6)
Nico Rosberg41.214 (4)23.054 (12)21.157 (7)
Adrian Sutil41.728 (8)22.918 (9)21.494 (14)
Sebastien Buemi41.747 (9)22.868 (7)21.404 (10)
Jaime Alguersuari41.962 (15)22.821 (6)21.430 (11)
Vitaly Petrov41.756 (10)22.896 (8)21.328 (8)
Michael Schumacher41.764 (11)23.070 (13)21.369 (9)
Paul di Resta41.843 (12)23.176 (15)21.484 (13)
Pastor Maldonado41.944 (14)23.074 (14)21.478 (12)
Bruno Senna42.036 (16)22.938 (11)21.549 (15)
Rubens Barrichello41.877 (13)23.382 (17)21.565 (16)
Sergio Perez42.097 (17)23.355 (16)21.684 (17)
Kamui Kobayashi42.129 (18)23.569 (18)21.873 (19)
Heikki Kovalainen42.862 (20)23.839 (20)21.864 (18)
Jarno Trulli42.970 (21)23.826 (19)21.956 (20)
Daniel Ricciardo43.075 (22)24.485 (21)22.477 (23)
Narain Karthikeyan42.805 (19)24.885 (23)22.320 (21)
Jerome D’Ambrosio43.544 (23)24.855 (22)22.467 (22)
Timo Glock44.488 (24)26.114 (24)23.253 (24)

Speed trap

Here are the drivers’ maximum speeds.

  • Since their recent exhaust-blown diffuser upgrade, the Toro Rosso cars have featured more often among the quickest cars through the speed traps.
  • Red Bull’s straight-line speed is particularly weak here – even slower than the likes of Virgin and HRT.
PosDriverCarSpeed (kph/mph)Gap
1Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso324.2 (201.4)
2Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso323.8 (201.2)-0.4
3Sergio PerezSauber323.4 (201.0)-0.8
4Rubens BarrichelloWilliams322.0 (200.1)-2.2
5Felipe MassaFerrari321.3 (199.6)-2.9
6Adrian SutilForce India319.7 (198.7)-4.5
7Paul di RestaForce India319.6 (198.6)-4.6
8Pastor MaldonadoWilliams319.3 (198.4)-4.9
9Kamui KobayashiSauber318.6 (198.0)-5.6
10Michael SchumacherMercedes318.3 (197.8)-5.9
11Nico RosbergMercedes318.0 (197.6)-6.2
12Fernando AlonsoFerrari317.2 (197.1)-7.0
13Jenson ButtonMcLaren316.5 (196.7)-7.7
14Lewis HamiltonMcLaren316.1 (196.4)-8.1
15Vitaly PetrovRenault315.9 (196.3)-8.3
16Bruno SennaRenault315.8 (196.2)-8.4
17Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin313.8 (195.0)-10.4
18Timo GlockVirgin313.6 (194.9)-10.6
19Daniel RicciardoHRT313.3 (194.7)-10.9
20Narain KarthikeyanHRT312.9 (194.4)-11.3
21Mark WebberRed Bull312.9 (194.4)-11.3
22Sebastian VettelRed Bull312.5 (194.2)-11.7
23Heikki KovalainenLotus308.3 (191.6)-15.9
24Jarno TrulliLotus308.3 (191.6)-15.9

2011 Indian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    23 comments on “Petrov narrowly misses top ten as penalties reorder the grid”

    1. Just that extra 0.001 would have been very helpful for Petrov because he would have only needed to start a flying lap in Q3 to secure 8th on the grid (13th with the penalty) with his car number being lower than Sutil and Buemi so a potential 3 grid spots missed there

    2. “Daniel Ricciardo and Narain Karthikeyan shared a team fir the first time this year.” for* just a small typo :)

      1. Fixed it, thanks Tyson.

        1. @keithcollantine also “failing to beat the 10% time” should be 107% I assume.

          1. Yep! Thanks.

    3. I guess this proves Narain isnt bad. I dont understand how so many people hate on him but he is a decent driver. I think now that he set an identical lap time to Ricciardo it is safe to say he has a chance to replace Webber at Redbull soon.

      1. I think Karthikeyan is not too bad a driver, although he probably is long past his peak by now. Still, there are quite a few drivers I think were more worthy of a drive for this year.

        1. @bascb
          Yeah, I agree that their could have been more deserving drivers but I do like having drivers from a wide variety of countries. Not saying nationality should be an important factor in choosing a line-up but just a welcome sight. I think he deserves a seat more than Maldonado in my opinion though.

          1. The same Maldonado who just outqualified his teammate by seven tenths of a second, and not for the first time this year?

            1. Yeah, the same Maldonado that has been out qualified 9 to 7 and out raced 6 to 5 by a driver who was never considered good and should have been out of the sport for many years by now.

            2. @dpod: Well, he’s doing considerably better than Hulkenberg did.

      2. @dpod yeah, I feel vindicated for saying he’s better than Badoer now :D

      3. @dpod Narain is no Vettel, but yet he has shown he can be quite matched with the other drivers. If he was so close to Ricciardo this either makes him a top driver or makes Daniel a mediocre one.

    4. My gut feeling for this race (and I only have one gut feeling about this race) is that Petrov will cause a collision again.

      1. Small typo in your post @MattHT, his name is spelled *Hamilton*
        :)

        1. @cacarella @mattht Now that’s just pure cynicism! ;)

      2. @mattht Well, at least Schumacher should be able to avoid him this time, starting in front of him and all.

        1. @andrewtanner How did I forget about the Petrov – Schumacher incident!?! It must be my old age.

          1. @cacarella I’m forever forgetting things. So much to remember in this sport.

    5. There are some huge gaps between team mates.

      Looks like a reasonably good weekend to have a Ferrari engine.

    6. Impressive job by Narain Karthikeyan, cleary the better of the Indian drivers.

      1. What irony…

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