UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Vettel makes his mark

Red Bull have Silverstone sorted

The rain didn’t make an appearance during qualifying for the British Grand Prix, but the red flags did. The first session was halted just as Lewis Hamilton began his final lap when Adrian Sutil buried the Force India, in big style, into the tyre barriers having suffered a brake problem, and that was that. Hamilton’s season goes from bad to worse and the World Champion will start on the back row, just ahead of the STR of Sebastian Buemi.

Sutils time was good enough for 18th – the young German is fine and cleared to race – alongside the second STR of Sebastien Bourdais, and the final faller in the first sector was Giancarlo Fisichella in the other Force India.

The second session saw the second McLaren fall as Heikki Kovalainen could get no more, and both BMW’s of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld also failed to make the cut. Nelson Piquet found this the best he could do, too, and it came as something of a surprise to see Felipe Massa fail to get the Ferrari into the top ten.

In all sessions things had looked to be going Red Bulls way, with Mark Webber taking the fight in no small way to Sebastian Vettel, and this looked to be a fight for pole between those two as the Brawn challenge was looking shaky.
Webber’s first run was easily good enough for the top spot, but things seemed to go awry with his final shot and despite the fastest third sector of all on his final flyer he could only manage third.

The difference between the Australian and the second place man, Silverstone specialist Rubens Barrichello, amounted to mere thousandths of a second, but it was that man, Vettel, who showed them all the way. 1:19.509 is a clear three tenths ahead of the Brawn driver, and we have to wait to see who has the fuel to go farthest.
Joining Webber on the second row will be Jarno Trulli, the Italian looking good in the Toyota all weekend, and row three will see the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima – driving very well of late and looking extremely good around here – and the Brawn of Championship leader Jenson Button, who simply did not get the car to do what he wanted it to today.

Nico Rosberg lines up seventh in the second Williams with Timo Glocks Toyota for company, and past champions Kimi Raikkonen, for Ferrari, and Fernando Alonso in the Renault complete the top ten.

The revisions to the Red Bull have clearly made a considerable difference, and the Brawn is suffering from the cool temperatures. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer, and this could be a very interesting fight indeed. All being well, however, it has Sebastian Vettel’s name written all over it.

**Note - We apologise for lack of commentary on qualifying - normal service will resume for the race.

Written: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:26:15