F1 Quals: Hungary 2011

Over the past six years, only once has the Hungarian Grand Prix been won by the polesitter.  So qualifying isn't that important, right?  Well, those other five races were won by the driver sitting second... so yeah, kinda important.  Let's see the provisional grid:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:21.740	1:21.095	1:19.815
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.636	1:21.105	1:19.978
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.038	1:20.578	1:20.024
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.130	1:21.099	1:20.350
5	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:21.578	1:20.262	1:20.365
6	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:22.208	1:20.890	1:20.474
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.996	1:21.243	1:21.098
8	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.237	1:22.000	1:21.445
9	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:22.876	1:21.852	1:21.907
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:23.067	1:22.157	No time
11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.976	1:22.256
12	The Red Menace	Renault	1:23.070	1:22.284
13	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:23.278	1:22.435
14	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:23.024	1:22.470
15	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.075	1:22.684
16	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:23.285	1:22.979
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.847	No time
18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:24.070
19	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Renault	1:24.362
20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:24.534
21	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:26.294
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:26.323
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:26.479
24	Custard d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:26.510
	Q1 107% Time		1:27.288

Yep, Vettel's back on pole, his eighth of the season.  But it wasn't until the final hot lap of Q3 that he had shown any real sort of pace, and he was still slower than #2 Lewis Hamilton in the Hungaroring's first and third timing sectors.  Then you have Jenson Button located right behind Vettel on the grid?  I'd say McLaren's back on the pace, yes. 

Meanwhile, Mark Webber has to be wondering which Elder God he's pissed off this week.  Sixth?  That's the best he could do?  When his teammate took pole?  C'mon, Mark... you're a likable guy, you're the underdog on your own team, you've got five-sixths of the world pulling for you, and this is the best you could do?  Perhaps more surprising is Felipe Massa coming home fourth... and beating HWMNBN in Quals for the first time this season.

You may notice Sergio Perez sitting there at 10th didn't set a time during Q3.  My suspicion is that he saw the true heavy hitters (McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull) out there throwing haymakers at each other and decided, "y'know, I think I'll just save my tires."  For most of the session, it looked like the two Mercedes drivers and Adrian F'n Sutil felt the same, cowering in their garages while the big boys engaged in their own private war.  It wasn't until the last minute possible that they came out, which makes me wonder why they even bothered.  Is Rosberg really going to make a difference from seventh, for example?  I don't understand exactly what they're doing there, but I'm not a F1 team strategist; it's probably something really deep and... um... strategery-like.

Race is on Sunday, and F1U! will be along sometime thereafter.  See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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