2011 British Grand Prix (Rd 9, Qualifying, July 9th)

© Creative Commons / Junafani

Mark Webber registered his second pole position of the season for the British Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver just nudged ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel in changeable conditions. Webber’s best of 1:30.399 proving to be three-hundredths too much for his German counterpart.

Ferrari locked out the second row with Fernando Alonso beating Felipe Massa to 3rd, while McLaren’s Jenson Button rounded out the top five, albeit 1.5 seconds shy of the pole.
A stellar effort by Paul di Resta (Force India) brought the Scot to the third row for the first time.

Di Resta had a 0.004 advantage over Pastor Maldonado in 7th, both of whom were comfortably quicker than Kamui Kobayashi (8th, Sauber), Nico Rosberg (9th, Mercedes) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren).
Several drivers attempted a late run in Q3, only for their laps to be rendered meaningless by growing rainfall.

Sauber’s Sergio Perez (12th) partners Adrian Sutil (11th, Force India) on the sixth row, with a disappointed Michael Schumacher in 13th.
The veteran missed out on the final section of qualifying by only two-tenths of-a-second. Schumacher headed both Renault’s (Vitaly Petrov, 14th; Nick Heidfeld, 16th) and the second Williams of Rubens Barrichello (15th). Heikki Kovalainen made it through to Q2 at the expense of the Toro Rosso’s.

Indeed Jaime Alguersuari led the Italian minnows out of Q1 (with half-a-second advantage over Sebastien Buemi).
The Toro Rosso pair lost their final run to inclement weather; however both had more than enough of an advantage over both Virgin Racing machine’s (Timo Glock, 20th; Jerome d’Ambrosio, 22nd) and Jarno Trulli’s Lotus (21st).
Vitantonio Liuzzi headed the final row of the grid. The Hispania runner pipped his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo to a 23rd starting position.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.399s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.431s  + 0.032
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.516s  + 0.117
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.124s  + 0.725
 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.898s  + 1.501
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m31.929s  + 1.530
 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m31.933s  + 1.534
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.128s  + 1.729
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.209s  + 1.810
10.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.376s  + 1.977
Q2 cut-off time: 1m32.588s Gap **
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m32.617s   + 0.977
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.624s   + 0.984
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.656s   + 1.016
14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m32.734s   + 1.094
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.119s   + 1.479
16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m33.805s   + 2.165
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m34.821s   + 3.181
Q1 cut-off time: 1m35.132s Gap *
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.245s   + 2.575
19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.749s   + 3.079
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.203s   + 3.533
21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m36.456s   + 3.786
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m37.154s   + 4.484
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m37.484s   + 4.814
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m38.059s   + 5.389
107% time: 1m39.156s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

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