Sebastian Vettel stormed to yet another pole position in the latest dominant display by his Red Bull team around the streets of Singapore. Vettel has the opportunity to be crowned the sport’s youngest ever double champion if things go his way during tomorrow’s race, and his eleventh pole position of the season will put him in the best possible place to wrap things up. But, teammate Mark Webber as well as the hungry McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will be determined to make Vettel work for it as they line up just behind the German.
Q1
The technical nature of the Marina Bay street circuit meant that tyre suppliers Pirelli opted to bring the soft and super-soft compounds to the tiny South-East Asian city-state for the teams to make use of this weekend. The leading contenders all began the first qualifying session of the evening on the soft compound, the first of whom to set a time was none other than champion-in-waiting Vettel with a 1’47.1. Webber’s first attempt was an entire second adrift of that of his teammate, but more encouraging was Hamilton’s opening run which was a tenth of a second quicker than Vettel. The other McLaren of Button was then able to shave a few more hundredths off the benchmark, but it didn’t take too long for normal service to be resumed – Vettel’s second lap was a lightning fast 1’46.4. Fernando Alonso failed to translate his impressive practice form into qualifying form, initially at least, as his first lap was only good enough to slot himself into fourth place behind Vettel and the two McLarens. Webber’s second lap left him trailing in fifth, still the better part of a second slower than the pacesetter at the wheel of the other Red Bull, ahead of Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher. By way of using the super-softs, both Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil were able to haul themselves into the top ten during the closing stages of the session, but one driver unable to make them count was Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. After the team’s planned upgrade package was canned after practice due to overheating issues, the black-and-gold cars were rather off the pace. On the soft tyres, Petrov could muster only a lowly nineteenth (putting him behind the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen on super softs), and could only improve by two positions after equipping the options. This put teammate Bruno Senna on the brink of elimination, but the inexperienced Brazilian responded well enough to secure his place in Q2 at the expense of Petrov, who consequently slipped back into the drop zone along with the six Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias.
Eliminated – Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Jerome D’Ambrosio (Virgin), Daniel Ricciardo (Hispania), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania)
Q2
Lewis Hamilton was the man who set the Q2 ball rolling, but unlike his competitors he posted his first, and what would later transpire to be his only, lap time of the session using the soft tyres. He did eventually attempt to set a time on the super softs, but was prevented from completing his lap after he sustained a puncture on his right-rear tyre. Despite this mishap, he still finished the session in eighth which still allowed him to compete for pole position later on. His 1’46.8 was topped first by Webber, Button and then Vettel, who were all benefitting from the extra grip of the super softs, Vettel holding P1 with an astonishing 1’44.9 when the session was red-flagged with just over nine minutes left on the clock. This was due to Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber clouting the barriers at the infamous double chicane of turn 10 having been airborne thanks to the Japanese hot-shoe mounting the particularly high kerbs in a rather over-enthusiastic manner. When the session resumed, everybody bar Vettel, Button, Webber and Alonso (who had set the fourth fastest time prior to the red flags) immediately made a beeline for the track, with Massa, Rosberg and Schumacher all besting Hamilton’s previous time set on softs. Behind the Briton, the battle for the final two Q3 slots boiled down to the two Force Indias of Sutil and Paul Di Resta along with the sole remaining Sauber of Perez. Ultimately, it was the Mexican that lost out by just a tenth, meaning that he would line up ahead of the two Williams drivers, as well as the young charges of Toro Rosso who qualified either side of Senna’s Renault and ahead of the stricken Kobayashi.
Eliminated – Sergio Perez (Sauber), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Bruno Senna (Renault), Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
Q3
Usually, Q3 is a tale of two halves, with the established top six runners going for two runs, and the remaining drivers choosing to preserve tyres by making just one. While the established top six runners did go out on their customary first laps at the very start of the session, no less than three of the other four decided that setting a time in Q3 simply wasn’t worth the bother. Thus, Rosberg cruised to an easy P7 on the grid, whilst Schumacher, Sutil and Di Resta all lined up in numerical order in eighth, ninth and tenth (which, incidentally, was the order in which they would have probably qualified anyway). Hamilton too did only one run, albeit at the start of the session, as the team wanted to claw back the set of tyres lost through the earlier puncture. This one lap was compromised by Hamilton trying to pass Massa, who was running ahead, in the final few corners of his out-lap; this impatience cost the McLaren driver momentum which would ultimately limit him to fourth on the grid. This would be enough to trump both Ferraris, Massa looking particularly lacklustre after qualifying almost a full second shy of fifth-placed Alonso. In the race for pole position, Button began promisingly enough after matching Vettel’s excellent Q2 time on his first run, but this perhaps unsurprisingly wouldn’t be enough to deny Vettel. The reigning champion was in no mood to relinquish the Red Bull stranglehold on pole positions in 2011, lucidly demonstrated by a barnstorming lap time of 1’44.4, an entire second clear of Webber’s disappointing first outing. The Australian’s second crack of the whip was however seven-tenths faster which was sufficient to overhaul Button to reach the front row – the Brit could only improve by one tenth at his second attempt, meaning that Vettel could afford to abandon his second lap safe in the knowledge that a twenty-sixth career pole was his.
Top Ten – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Jenson Button (McLaren), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Paul Di Resta (Force India)
My Prediction
Weather is yet to be a factor at Singapore, but with the race being nearly two hours long, tyre degradation certain will be. That said, it will take some rather more unpredictable variables to derail Vettel’s bid to take a ninth victory of the season:
1. Vettel, 2. Button, 3. Alonso, 4. Webber, 5. Massa, 6. Schumacher, 7. Rosberg, 8. Perez, 9. Sutil, 10. Di Resta
Button’s hitherto impressive race pace will see him take second place behind the all-conquering Vettel, ahead of Alonso whose often-improved race pace combined with Ferrari’s superior tyre preservation will just about get the nod over Webber, whose speed has recently been below par on Sundays. McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh’s recent call to arms for more aggression on the part of Hamilton will inevitably end in disaster, leaving Massa to take an uneventful fifth ahead of the Mercedes pair, Schumacher again getting the better of Rosberg. Perez will get by on just two pit-stops which will allow him to overhaul both Force India men who will sew up the final points positions finishing in the order in which they began.
However, the nature of the Singapore street circuit lends itself to an elevated degree of unpredictability as the safety car is an ever-present possibility – a Monza-esque cruise to victory for Vettel is far from guaranteed. Whatever happens, don’t forget to report back here tomorrow evening to read all about the night-time action.
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