Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel seized his second pole position in a row while Formula One leader Jenson Button could qualify only sixth for his home British Grand Prix on Saturday.
The pole, in a time of one minute 19.509 seconds, was the fourth of Vettel’s Formula One career and third of the season. Barrichello lapped in 1:19.856 with the fuel loads yet to be revealed.
“I think we have done a step forward,” said the 21-year-old German, whose victory in China makes him the only driver other than Button to have won a race this year.
The Briton has a 26 point lead over Brazilian Barrichello, and is 32 ahead of Vettel, with 10 races remaining. guardian.co.uk
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Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber will start from third in Sunday’s race.
Italian Jarno Trulli was fourth for Toyota and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima was fifth for Williams ahead of Button.
Vettel was out early on in the top-ten shootout Q3 and delivered a time of one minute and 20.863 seconds to go top for Red Bull before he was supplanted by Barrichello for Brawn GP and then Webber, who jumped clear by four-tenths of a second.
It was a hotly-contested session with little more than a second separating the top ten drivers midway through Q3 as they delayed briefly for fresh tyres in readiness for their final runs.
“It’s a typical English early summer’s day I suppose,” said Brawn’s boss Ross Brawn. “We would have liked Bridgestone to have brought the softer tyres with them, but we have to make the best of it.” AFP
British Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
There was futher woe for the passionate Silverstone crowd, with world champion Lewis Hamilton—who won last year’s race with a superb display in wet conditions—qualifying in a career-low 19th on the grid to continue his dismal season.
Hamilton’s chances were scuppered by a nasty-looking accident involving Adrian Sutil in his Force India, leading to the session being red-flagged with 24 seconds remaining.
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This meant the McLaren driver was prevented from improving on his time, although close-friend Sutil was fortunate to walk away unscathed after careering into a tire wall when his brakes appeared to falter.
“I did the best I could,” Hamilton said. “I was pushing on that last lap, as hard as I could, but it was nothing special. We were just dead slow.
“The race is over, but we’ll keep fighting and hopefully put on a good show for the fans. I’ve had incredible support from them. They’re the ones that really get me through it.” CNN International
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