The first ever qualifying
session at the Buddh circuit outside New Delhi saw
Sebastian Vettel once again out of reach for all the
other 23 drivers as the Red Bull man scorched to his
thirteenth pole of the season. Having run competitively
in all three free practice sessions, Fernando Alonso was
pleased to have made it onto the second row, by setting
the fourth fastest time. Second fastest was Lewis
Hamilton for McLaren, followed by Mark Webber in the Red
Bull, while in between the two Ferraris, as Felipe Massa
set the sixth time, was fifth placed Jenson Button in
the second McLaren. However, the order for the front
three rows of the grid tomorrow will not follow the
qualifying time sheet. Lewis Hamilton incurred a penalty
for a yellow flag infringement on Friday and drops three
place to fifth, thus sharing row 3 with Felipe. The
front row now becomes an all-Red Bull affair, as Webber
moves to second place. Fernando slides across Row 2 to
be third with Button next to him.
Fernando therefore looks well placed to aim to end the
first Indian Grand Prix looking across the track from
the podium. His team-mate will have a more difficult
time, even if Row 3 is a good starting point. After he
had set his time in Q3, Felipe was pushing hard to move
up the order, when he rode the kerb at Turn 8. This was
not a benign small step but a larger type of kerb and
the impact destroyed the front right suspension of the
150º Italia. From this point on, the Brazilian was just
a passenger as there was no way he could steer the
Ferrari. It ended up spearing the barriers at the side
of the track. Fortunately, the driver was able to get
out unaided and escaped any injury. The team mechanics
now have plenty of work to do to repair the damage,
while tomorrow, the Brazilian will have one less set of
Soft tyres, as they were damaged in the incident. The
team strategists will now look at the best way of
managing his race, because, having brought the Hard tyre
as the “Option” here, to be on the safe side on an
unknown track, Pirelli reckons the difference in time
between the Hard and the faster Soft, is of the order of
2 seconds per lap, which is a very big difference.
Tomorrow’s 60 laps will be a step into the unknown, not
just because it is the first ever Indian Grand Prix, but
also because the green track surface will continue to
evolve throughout the race, while the dirt off the
racing line means that overtaking will need to be
tackled with real convinction. It promises to be an
interesting and a significant afternoon in the history
of Grand Prix racing.
Stefano Domenicali: “First of all, I
wish to congratulate the organisers of this Grand Prix.
Bringing Formula 1 to India is a great achievement and
they and Bernie Ecclestone deserve the credit for it.
This country is growing rapidly, even if there are sharp
contrasts, but never before have we seen our sport
welcomed with such enthusiasm and interest from the
general public. As for qualifying, I have to say our
car’s overall performance was good: being less than a
tenth off the front row – Vettel was once again
untouchable – means that we are not looking too bad at
this track. We are obviously disappointed for Felipe,
who has been very quick all weekend: accidents like this
can happen, but the important thing is that the driver
is fine. Usually, our race pace is better than our
outright performance in qualifying: let’s hope that is
also the case tomorrow and we can leave India with a
good result under our belt.”
Fernando Alonso: “It was important to
get onto the front two rows, as it’s easier to fight for
a good result from here. I don’t think there’s much of a
difference between the two vertical lines of the grid
because the ideal line on the start-finish straight goes
down the middle, so both sides are quite dirty. In fact
the dirt off the racing line could be a problem for
overtaking with whoever initiates the move having to
give it everything without hesitating. So far, this
weekend has gone as expected and now we will try and do
a good job tomorrow. It would be very nice to bring home
one of the trophies that will be handed out to those who
make it to the podium on Formula 1’s debut in India. I
came very close to the front row, which is a bit of a
surprise. In recent qualifying sessions, we have not
managed to get as close as this to our main rivals and
already yesterday we looked reasonably competitive.
Usually, on Sunday our performance level is better but
that does not automatically mean that we will be
fighting for the win. There are too many unknowns, even
more than usual and then, we have seen how things can
change from one track to another. In Suzuka, we came
within a whisker of the win and in Singapore we were not
competitive. We will be doing our best, that’s for
sure.”
Felipe Massa: “What happened on my last
timed lap was a real shame. Today, we had the potential
to secure a good placing, as Fernando demonstrated and
as can also be seen from the fact my sixth best time was
set with a rather slow third sector. I came into Turn 8
and went over the kerb and the front right suspension
gave way in the impact with the raised orange part,
which in my opinion is too high at this point. It’s a
very fast corner, taken at around 215 km/h and it could
be arranged differently. These are details that need
improving for next year. I repeat, I am disappointed,
because the car has been going well all weekend long.
Now I find myself with one less set of Softs and with a
broken front wing. It was the new one, which we had here
for the first time and it delivered a bit extra in terms
of performance. Tomorrow, overtaking will be difficult
because of the dirt on track, but I think we will still
see a lot.”
Pat Fry: “I don’t know if our mechanics
will take home happy memories of this race, because
we’ve definitely given them a lot to do over the past
two days. Yesterday, there was an unexpected engine
change on Fernando’s car and today we have to repair
Felipe’s car. As for the performance we saw in
qualifying, the verdict is reasonably positive. The 150º
Italia proved to be very competitive in the first two
sectors of the track and given its characteristics, the
performance in the second is encouraging. However, we
struggled a bit more in the last one, especially when
compared to Vettel’s Red Bull. The new front wing allows
more room to manoeuvre when it comes to aerodynamic
balance, which is always positive. The Soft tyres seem
to be at their best on the second timed lap and
degradation appears to be lower than expected and
similar to what we saw in Korea, where the track was
equally smooth. We need to find the best strategy and,
in Felipe’s case, minimise the loss of one set of Softs
which were damaged in the accident.”
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