Motorsports Mondial

Mark webber grabs pole from Vettel for the British GP.

Off throttle gate doesn’t stop Red Bull from locking out front row.

Ferrari extremely happy with third and fourth.

Sebastian Vettel: “I am happy with the result, as I think it is important to qualify in the front.

It was not an easy session with the conditions changing. It was easy to go wide and go into travel like Fernando, so all in all it was very tight.

There’s not much between the cars and if you get a chance to try again you could find a sniff here or there. It was a good step today.”

We kept our heads cool, We thought there might be a lot of talk, so we are happy when we jump into car, because we are allowed to focus on what is important. Tomorrow a is long race, the tyres will be very important. It is a bit of driving into unknown tomorrow from the start, but we will see.

I think it was a difficult session with the conditions changing. When it starts to rain on different parts of the circuit, it is quite difficult to see where it is wet or where it is fine.

It’s a shame we could not get the second run, but it was a very good result for us today, especially wit the amount of talk going into qualifying and race here.

It’s good to see that we are still on top of our game and still can produce reasonable quick laptimes. I am quite happy, this circuit is quite tough on tyres so we’ll see what we get tomorrow.”

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   
 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m30.399s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.431s  + 0.032
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m30.516s  + 0.117
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m31.124s  + 0.725
 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.989s  + 1.590
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m31.929s  + 1.530
 7.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m31.933s  + 1.534
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.128s  + 1.729
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.209s  + 1.810
10.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.376s  + 1.977
Q2 cut-off time: 1m32.588s                                   Gap **
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m32.617s   + 0.977
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.624s   + 0.984
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.656s   + 1.016
14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m32.734s   + 1.094
15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m33.119s   + 1.479
16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m33.805s   + 2.165
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m34.821s   + 3.181
Q1 cut-off time: 1m35.132s                              Gap *
18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.245s   + 2.575
19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m35.749s   + 3.079
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m36.203s   + 3.533
21.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m36.456s   + 3.786
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m37.154s   + 4.484
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m37.484s   + 4.814
24.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m38.059s   + 5.389

 

 

Quaife-Hobbs clinches maiden pole

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs has claimed his first GP3 pole position in Silverstone today after setting the fastest lap in today’s qualifying session.

The Marussia Manor Racing driver’s best lap of 1:51.190 was nearly fourth tenths clear of second place man Lotus ART’s James Calado ensuring an all British front row for Race 1 at Silverstone Circuit this afternoon.

In stark contrast to yesterday’s torrential conditions, this morning the teams were greeted with dry and bright conditions, albeit with a slightly damp track, and all thirty drivers headed out on track with Pirelli P Zero slick tyres. Carlin’s Tom Dillmann was the first car to complete a flying lap and go top until the rest of the field got up to speed.

Mid-session was dominated by the MW Arden duo of Lewis Williamson and Series leader Mitch Evans, along with eventual poleman Quaife-Hobbs. The trio constantly swapped fastest laptimes, until Jenzer Motorsport’s Nico Müller found some extra time around the 5.891 km track to go top of the timesheet with a 1:52.285 lap.

But with five minutes left on the clock Williamson was back on top and looked string for his second pole of the season. It was then a frantic final minute which saw Williamson, Calado and finally Quaife-Hobbs heading the grid and taking his, and Marussia Manor Racing’s first ever GP3 pole. Valencia race 2 winner Calado sealed a British 1-2, with Evans taking third ahead of Alexander Sims in fourth for Status Grand Prix.

Next up for GP3 Series is Race 1 this afternoon at 16:20 local time.