GP India, Vettel in pole position

Pole position for Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) in qualifying for the Formula 1 Indian GP. The world champion preceded Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) who however will be penalized by 3 positions on the grid for having ignored the yellow flags in free practice Friday. Third position for Mark Webber with the other Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Sixth was Felipe Massa with the other Ferrari, involved in an accident at the end.

In Q3 Alonso initially took the lead with 1.24.586 ahead of Massa, Hamilton and Webber. Shortly afterwards Vettel responded with 1.24.437 and Hamilton came in behind him with 1.24.476. On the second lap Webber also improved: 1.24.508, moving behind the Englishman.

Hamilton was unable to improve in the second run and did not complete his lap returning to the pits while Sebastian Vettel lapped in 1.24.178 to obtain pole position. In the final, Button managed to move up to fifth position, overtaking Felipe Massa, sixth, and ended up in the barriers after a failure of the right front suspension when passing over a curb. Fortunately the Ferrari driver was unharmed.

Seventh time for Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) ahead of Adrian Sutil (Force India).

Excellent qualifying for Toro Rosso with both cars in the top 10: Sebastien Buemi will start ninth ahead of his teammate, Jaime Alguersuari.

Outside the top ten were Vitaly Petrov (Renault), 11th, Michael Schumacher only 12th with the Mercedes GP, Paul di Resta (Force India) and Pastor Maldonado, 14th. Bruno Senna was only 15th in the other Renault ahead of Rubens Barrichello (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Sauber). The Mexican driver will also be penalized three places on the grid for the same infringement as Hamilton in free practice.

Eliminated in Q1 were Kamui Kobayashi, only 18th with Sauber, the two Team Lotus drivers, Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, the two HRTs of Daniel Ricciardo and Narain Karthikeyan and the two Virgins of Jereme D'Ambrosio and Timo Glock. The German did little driving due to a gearbox problem. Like Ricciardo, he will be penalized by five places on the grid for replacing the transmission.

F1 GP India, qualifying results and starting grid

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m24.178s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.474s + 0.296 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m24.508s + 0.330 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m24.519s + 0.341 5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.950s + 0.772 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m25.122s + 0.944 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m25.451s + 1.273 8. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 9. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m26.319s + 1.662 12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m26.337s + 1.680 13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.503s + 1.846 14. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m26.537. 1.880s + 15 1. Bruno Senna Renault 26.651m1.994s + 16 1. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 27.247m2.590s + 17 1. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 27.562m2.905s + 18 1. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 27.876m1.687s + 19 1 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 28.565m2.376s + 20 1. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 28.752m2.563s + 21 1. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 30.216m4.027s + 22 1. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 30.238m4.049s + 23. 1 30.866. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 4.677m24s + 1 34.046. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 7.857mXNUMXs + XNUMX