Category: Formula 1

The pre-race expectation and early practice form came to be in this morning’s qualifying at the 2012 United States Grand Prix. Which means Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) has claimed yet another pole position, the 36th of his career.

Yet, the margin of Vettel’s pole was not expected. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren, 1:35.766) got within a tenth of Vettel’s best time (1:35.657), to claim P2. From there it was a further four tenths back to Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:36.174).

Conventional wisdom says Webber may have a slight advantage from P3 over Hamilton when the lights go out, due to the lack of off-line grip at the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin. But we all know that nothing conventional usually happens with Mark Webber’s starts; unfortunately his good getaways are the exception, rather than the rule.

Romain Grosjean (Lotus) again showed he has great potential by qualifying in P4 (1:36.587), but a gearbox change before qualifying means he will start the race from P9. His teammate, and most recent race winner, Kimi Raikkonen (1:36.708) will benefit, moving up to P4. Here he will find himself alongside fading great Michael Schumacher (Mercedes, 1:36.794).

For the championship battle, the big news is that Fernando Alonso (1:37.300) was out-qualified by his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa (1:36.937). After the Grosjean grid reshuffle Massa will start from P6, alongside Nico Hulkenberg (Force India, 1:37.141). While Alonso may be afraid to see himself in P8, alongside Grosjean.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) will be disappointed with his failure to progress from Q1, managing only enough for P18. Daniel may have grounds to feel unfairly affected by a late yellow flag caused by HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan, although he also complained about a lack of tyre performance afterwards. Ricciardo’s plight was compounded by teammate Jean-Eric Vergne making it into Q2 and he will start four places ahead in P14.

So far the consensus seems to be the new track in Austin is a winner. And while most people think the spectacular climb and wide entry into turn 1 should result in a trouble-free start to the race we have a sneaking suspicion the first corner of lap 1 could be a talking point for a while to come.

Due to the time difference between Australia and the US, you’ll need to tune into watch the race bright and early at 6am (AEDST) on Monday morning. With both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships able to be won by Vettel and Red Bull make sure your alarm is set.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images & Vodafone McLaren Mercedes]

Lewis Hamilton has claimed a well earned pole position for himself and McLaren during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix overnight. Hamilton has been fast all weekend so far, so seeing him top the time sheets (1:40.630) was no real surprise.

Red Bull hasn’t had the smoothest weekend, with another KERS issue for Mark and a brake problem for Sebastian suffered during practice. But there’s bigger news and we’ll get to that major hiccup soon. First, though, it’s nice to see Mark Webber (1:40.978) out qualify his teammate. He’ll start the race from P2, it’s the first time he’s been on the front row at Yas Marina.

But the big news surrounds world championship leader Sebastian Vettel. He qualified in third position (1:41.073), and was asked by his team to stop immediately on the side of the track before returning to the pits. The advice came from Renault and they said there was a bona fide fuel issue. On inspecting the evidence the FIA accepted Red Bull’s claims.

However at the end of each qualifying session all cars are to have enough fuel on board to supply a 1 litre sample for testing purposes. Vettel’s car only had 850ml on board and he has been disqualified from the qualifying results.

The FIA statement reads, “The Stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the Competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The Competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.”

Although, Christian Horner explains further why they have chosen to start Vettel from pit lane.

“During the slow-down lap following the final run of Q3, Renault instructed to immediately stop Sebastian’s car on the circuit due to an issue with the fuel system,” said Horner.

“After speaking with the stewards, who accepted the situation of force majeure for technical reasons for the car to be stopped, unfortunately, for reasons yet to be fully understood, 850ml of the required one litre was pumped out of the car following post-race checks.

“As a result, the FIA has excluded Sebastian from qualifying and we will withdraw the car from Parc Ferme in order to investigate further. Therefore Sebastian will start from the pit lane for tomorrow’s race. We will need to make the most of Mark’s strong front-row grid position and Sebastian will have a busy evening ahead of him.”

That’s massive news and could have dramatic implications for the drivers’ championship. It will also come as a big relief for Fernando Alonso, who could only managed the seventh best time in his Ferrari (1:41.582). With the revised starting grid, he’ll now start from P6. Alonso is only 13 points behind Vettel and a good race could see him regain the championship lead.

The usual Toro Rosso result applied, Jean-Eric Vergne missed the cut into Q2 and then Daniel Ricciardo finished just one place ahead by returning the slowest time in the second qualifying phase.

[Source: Formula1.com | Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]