Stage is all set for the inaugural F1 Indian Grand Prix race on Sunday at the Buddh International Circuit which will begin in a short while from now.Sebastian Vettel’s dominating run in the season continued as the Red Bull racer scorched his way to pole position for Sunday’s inaugural Indian Grand Prix while Adrian Sutil kept Force India’s hopes of scoring points alive with an eighth-place start, in Greater Noida on Saturday.
The 24-year old Vettel clocked 1:24.178 to secure the 13th pole position of the season out of a possible 17, pipping McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.296 seconds.
Vettel, who has already secured the drivers’ championship, said the circuit is tricky and it makes for an interesting race on Sunday.
“I don’t know if being on the left or the right side of the track is really an advantage or not; there’s not one side that seems to be the clean side, as we tend to run down the middle. It was a good battle and after the first run it was very close, so I knew I had to do a little bit better on the second”.
“We decided to only do one timed lap each time, it was still a bit slippery, but overall I’m very happy. Tomorrow it is going to be a long race, we start starting the best possible position, so we’ll see what happens,” Vettel said.
Mark Webber (1:24.508) was third fastest but he will join his Red Bull teammate Vettel in the front row as Hamilton has been pushed back to fifth due to a three-place grid penalty he received for ignoring the yellow flag, on Friday.
Thus Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso will move to third from original fourth, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Up next is Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who crashed in the final seconds after hitting the raised part of a kerb.
India’s Narain Karthikeyan had finished in the 22nd position but has been forced to start from the rear of the grid after receiving a five-place penalty for impeding Michael Schumacher’s car in Q1 at turn 10.
Sutil pushed hard in the Q2 and the effort bore fruit as he managed to get into the Q3.
He did not run in the Q3, keeping in mind the tyre wear, and managed to stick to the eighth position.
Force India’s second driver, Paul di Resta did better than the final practice session in the morning, but could not make the Q3 and settled for 13th position after clocking 1:26.503, just behind Schumacher.
Hamilton was hopeful of a good result despite being pushed to the fifth place.
“It has been a good day today for me. A pity we had the penalty. A silly mistake from myself and I pay the price. I am optimistic. My first lap was very good. Overall very happy with my position. This is as good as I could get. The track is really great. The track is not breaking up. It is really fantastic to drive. Congratulations to the people who built the track,” he said.
Webber said getting to the front row was not easy on Saturday.”This new venue has been a good challenge for us. It was tricky to work out the right strategy for qualifying. The tyres weren’t easy for one timed lap, so we had to work out how to do the right strategy”.
“The first sector was tricky to get right on one timed lap. I could have done better in the first sector on my first lap in Q3; I couldn’t complete my second, as there were yellow flags after Massa’s incident. Overall it’s a good job for the team, we’ve come to a new venue, prepared well and we’ve laid a good foundation for a very good race tomorrow,” the Australian said.