July 09, 2011

F1 Quals: Britain 2011

Rain clouds above Silverstone for the Qualifying session for the 2011 Grand Prix of Great Britain are a normal sight, but the storm clouds in the pit lane gave hope that perhaps, just maybe, the Red Bull dominance may have been broken by the blown diffuser ban.  So, was it?  Here's the provisional grid:

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:32.670 1:31.673 1:30.399
2 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:32.977 1:32.379 1:30.431
3 HWMNBN Ferrari 1:32.986 1:31.727 1:30.516
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:32.760 1:31.640 1:31.124
5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.230 1:32.273 1:31.898
6 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:34.472 1:32.569 1:31.929
7 Elder Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:32.702 1:32.588 1:31.933
8 Gandalf Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:34.324 1:32.399 1:32.128
9 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.186 1:32.295 1:32.209
10 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.581 1:32.505 1:32.376
11 Adrian F'n Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:34.454 1:32.617
12 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:34.145 1:32.624
13 Slappy Schumacher Mercedes 1:34.160 1:32.656
14 The Red Menace
Renault 1:34.428 1:32.734
15 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:33.532 1:33.119
16 Grizzly Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:35.132 1:33.805
17 Heikki Kovalaineninnie Lotus-Renault 1:34.923 1:34.821
18 NKOTT STR-Ferrari 1:35.245

19 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:35.749

20 Tim O'Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:36.203

21 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:36.456

22 Custard d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:37.154

23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:37.484

24 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1:38.059


Q1 107% Time
1:39.156


Nope.  Time to face facts: nothing is going to stop Red Bull, short of land mines and anti-tank weaponry.  Even the lousy weather helped Red Bull today, as it began drizzling in Q3, just as people were beginning their last-ditch attempts to knock Webber and Vettel off the front row.  When you're taking some of the turns at Silverstone at 160mph, suddenly having a puddle in front of you tends to (excuse the pun) dampen the spirits of the drivers.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm hoping that the Ferraris can do something on Sunday to gore the Bulls... maybe Massa will be ordered to go to ramming speed heading into Turn 1.  Because that's about the only way we're going to hear something other than the Austrian anthem being played on the podium for the winning constructor.

Well, that or rain.  One of the two.  Fortunately, we've got a chance of the wet stuff for Sunday.  See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:43 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 381 words, total size 15 kb.

1 It's good to see Force India showing up in Q3.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 09, 2011 02:24 PM (+rSRq)

2 Below is the gap in qualifying time this year between vettel and hwmnbn in 1/1000 seconds. I would say Ferrari is about to stop RBR.


1445 932 1413 802 783 927 185 479 85


Posted by: dogbox at July 09, 2011 03:26 PM (8et0N)

3 Dogbox, that's a wonderful little statline, but let's look at the gap between either Vettel or Webber and HWMNBN at the end of the races in seconds:

31.7  57.2  25.5  10.0  +1 Lap  1.1  DNF  10.8

Being close in Qualifying is nice, great even, but when that doesn't translate over to the racetrack it's pointless.  Monaco is the only race where HWMNBN is closer than 10 seconds to the leading Red Bull, and we all know just how weird that race was.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 09, 2011 08:08 PM (3tp4g)

4 Nice to see Kobayashi's experience with flight yesterday didn't hurt him in quals, either.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at July 09, 2011 09:06 PM (pWQz4)

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