Vettel Formula One
Vettel Dominate, First Qualifying of the Formula One Season
Saying that it was a surprise to see Sebastian Vettel score the pole position today in Melbourne at the first qualifying session of the year would not be accurate. On the other hand, judging by the sounds of peoples’ reactions to just how blisteringly fast the reigning world champion went and by how much he destroyed the competition, few people expected such domination.
Vettel set a lap time of .8 seconds faster in his Red Bull than the second man on the grid, Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren Mercedes, while Vettel’s teammate, Mark Webber was third fastest, but .9 seconds slower than his teammate.
“Starting the season that way is how you want to,” said Vettel.
But he said it does not mean that he is going to dominate the race by the same degree.
“With the new tires it’s a bit racing into the unknown,” Vettel said. And indeed, the way the cars and teams react with the new Pirelli tires in the first race of the season could change everything. It could lead to unpredictable pit stops, and greater tire wear on certain cars than on others.
But Vettel’s performance was nevertheless extraordinary. And Webber was the first to admit it. He had only been hundredths of seconds off his teammate here last year, now he was nearly a second slower.
“Couldn’t get the times today,” said Webber. “I’m really disappointed.”
But Vettel’s pole position was far from the only story worth telling in this first qualifying session of the year. Hamilton clearly also did a great lap to sneak his McLaren Mercedes between the two Red Bulls, and his teammate, Jenson Button, was fourth fastest. So clearly the McLarens are doing better than winter testing indicated they would.
But the big stories of qualifying were particularly that the two HRT team cars failed to make it to within 107 percent of the lap times of the leading car in the first qualifying session. As a result, they will not take part in tomorrow’s race. The rule returned this year after nearly a decade, and HRT and its drivers – Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan – have become the first and immediate casualties.
At the Lotus Renault team, Nick Heidfeld failed to set a fast enough time to move out of the first qualifying session. Heidfeld qualified only 18th, while his teammate, Vitaly Petrov, qualified sixth. When we consider that Petrov was so often slower than his teammate, Robert Kubica, last year, we can only imagine where Kubica would have placed the other car had he been here this year. Kubica, of course, was replaced by Heidfeld this year after Kubica was seriously injured in a rally accident over the winter.
And despite Michael Schumacher returning for his second season after retirement in a car that was designed with more of his input over the winter, the German failed to make it to the final session, qualifying in his Mercedes only 11th while his teammate, Nico Rosberg, qualified seventh. But Schumacher’s final lap was valiant, as he made it just in time to try a final surge and just failed to make it to the final session by 0.089 seconds behind Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso. (Buemi qualified in a fabulous 10th position.)
I predict that the race will be just as exciting as this exceptional qualifying session. At least I hope it will! Vettel could just run away with the whole show.
Source : http://formulaone.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/vettel-dominates-first-qualifying-of-the-season/
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