Come with me below the fold to see what went down at today’s 3-round Qualifying session at COTA…
Vettel pips Webber for Pole at Circuit of the Americas
Red Bull champ Sebastian Vettel outdueled teammate Mark Webber by just a little over one tenth of a second to claim Pole for tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix, putting together the day’s fastest lap at the very end of Q3. In windy conditions that played havoc with tire heat and aerodynamics, the 4-time Drivers’ Champion made it two Poles in the two seasons COTA has been in existence and will look to win his mind boggling 8th Grand Prix in a row.
Lotus’ Romain Grosjean grabbed 3rd position on the grid, getting on with the program and flying under the radar with all the tumult this week involving teammate Kimmi Raikkonen’s season-ending back surgery and Heikki Kovalainen’s coming into the team for the last two races. Kovalainen had an extremely impressive return to F1, getting through to Q3 and qualifying 8th.
Sauber’s excellent Nico Hulkenberg finished a sterling 4th and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will start 5th. Hamilton’s German teammate, Nico Rosberg, who had been a superlative qualifier this year, had an inexplicable 14th place time. It was also a mixed bag for Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso and hid bad back finishing 6th but Felipe Massa’s chassis looking very unstable and getting knocked out in Q2 with a time worth only 15th.
Williams’ young Finnish driver Valtteri Botas had a very strong effort and took 9th spot with fellow rookie Esteban Gutierrez finishing 10th and appearing to give Sauber two top 10 starting positions–he was later handed a massive 10-spot grid penalty for impeding Williams’ Pastor Maldonado. Sergio Perez outqualified his teammate yet again for 7th making McLaren’s decision to drop the young Mexican even more mysterious, with Button failing to advance from Q2 and only able to get up to 13th. To make matters worse, the English former world champion incurred a 3-spot grid penalty for passing under a red flag in Free Practice Session 1.
Top 10 Qualifiers at COTA:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:38.516 | 1:37.065 | 1:36.338 | 12 |
| 2 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:38.161 | 1:37.312 | 1:36.441 | 14 |
| 3 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:38.676 | 1:37.523 | 1:37.155 | 17 |
| 4 | 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:38.339 | 1:37.828 | 1:37.296 | 20 |
| 5 | 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:37.959 | 1:37.854 | 1:37.345 | 20 |
| 6 | 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:38.929 | 1:37.368 | 1:37.376 | 19 |
| 7 | 6 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.367 | 1:38.040 | 1:37.452 | 21 |
| 8 | 7 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1:38.375 | 1:38.078 | 1:37.715 | 21 |
| 9 | 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:37.821 | 1:37.439 | 1:37.836 | 24 |
| 10 | 12 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:38.082 | 1:38.031 | 1:38.034 | 20 |
Actual grid for Sunday with all penalties factored in (via Autosport.com):
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 4. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 7. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 8. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 9. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 10. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 12. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 14. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 17. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 18. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 19. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 20. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 21. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 22. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault
Full Qualy results here at Formula1.com as they ran.
Sunday’s US Grand Prix will start at 2PM Eastern and can be seen on NBC in the United States.