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Qualifying - Hamilton beats Button to Sepang pole
24 Mar 2012
Even McLaren had their doubts tat they could beat Mercedes in qualifying in Sepang on Saturday, but an almost perfect 1st-run lap by Lewis Hamilton & a great 2nd-run lap fr Jenson Button secured the front row 4 them.
Hamilton lapped in 1m 36.219s despite a late lock-up mistake in the final corner, 2 take his 2nd successive pole position of the season, while Button pushed thru 2 2nd with 1m 36.368s 2 edge out Michael Schumacher, who screwed 1m 36.391 out of his Mercedes on his 1st run. Neither he nor team mate Nico Rosberg made a 2nd run, however, suggesting tat the team need 2 conserve tyres as the W03 is known 2 be hard on its rubber in races.
Mark Webber & Kimi Raikkonen both lapped in 1m 36.461s, the Australian doing the time 1st 4 Red Bull, & the Finn’s gearbox change yesterday drops his Lotus fr an excellent 5th 2 10th place 4 the start.
Tat was the some consolation 4 Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who was only 6th on 1m 36.634s but had chosen 2 qualify on the hard Pirellis, & now moves into a fortuitous 5th place start. Romain Grosjean was right with the German, lapping his Lotus in 1m 36.658s ahead of Rosberg’s 1m 36.664s.
Fernando Alonso was 9th in the Ferrari on 1m 37.566s but starts 8th, as Sergio Perez starts 9th aft lapping his Sauber 10th in 1m 37.698s.
Pastor Maldonado didn’t help his chances with an off exiting Turn 11 @ the start of Q2, in which Raikkonen was fastest on 1m 36.715s. The Venezuelan continued aft the gravel had been cleaned fr his Williams but failed by a 10th 2 dislodge Perez & thus ended up 11th on 1m 37.589s.
Felipe Massa was closer 2 Alonso but still didn’t make Q3, with 1m 37.731s in the 2nd Ferrari, & behind him it was incredibly close. Williams’ Bruno Senna was 13th on 1m 37.841s ahead of Force India’s Paul di Resta on 1m 37.877s, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 37.883s & Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 37.890s, with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi 17th on 1m 38.069s.
As Mark Webber set the initial pace with 1m 37.172s, Q1 weeded out Jean-Eric Vergne, who had 2 abort his final run 4 Toro Rosso & was left 18th on 1m 39.077s. Behind him Heikki Kovalainen pipped Caterham team mate Vitaly Petrov, 1m 39.306s to 1m 39.567s, though the Finn takes a 5 grid place drop to 24th place 4 a Safety Car passing transgression in Melbourne.
Timo Glock fended off Marussia team mate Charles Pic, 1m 40.903s to 1m 41.250s, 4 21st and 22nd, & the HRTs made it beneath the 107 percent time of 1m 43.974s with 1m 42.914s for Pedro de la Rosa and 1m 43.655s for Narain Karthikeyan.