Motorsports mondial

Vettel takes his 14 th pole of the season matching Nigel Mansell

Sebastian Vettel: “I don’t know, there is no box in the car that I open and get it from, To be honest I would not say I’m surprised, but we expected to be closer than in practice, much closer.

McLaren were very quick straightaway yesterday in particular and I wasn’t happy with car. I wasn’t happy with myself. Overnight we tried to find out where the problem was. I think this afternoon it was already quite a bit better, but this is a tricky place with different conditions.

In Q2 we were quite close to reaching Lewis and we thought in Q3 we would have a chance. In the first run in Q3 I pushed a bit too hard, but in the last run I was able to have a good start in the lap.

When I crossed the line I looked up to the monitor and I couldn’t read the laptime, but the green was good so I was very pleased.

It is going to be a long race, a fun race, as we have seen all weekend,” he said. McLaren are very competitive on the long runs as well, and they will be very quick in the race.

Also we need to see from some people behind. We have to focus on ourselves, try to get a good start. It will be a long fight to the chequered flag. I am confident and ready.”

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m38.481s
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m38.622s  + 0.141
 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m38.631s  + 0.150
 4.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m38.858s  + 0.377
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m39.058s  + 0.577
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m39.695s  + 1.214
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m39.773s  + 1.292
 8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m40.662s  + 2.181
 9.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m40.768s  + 2.287
10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes
Q2 cut-off time: 1m40.554s Gap **
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m40.874s  + 2.440
12.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m40.919s  + 2.485
13.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m41.009s  + 2.575
14.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m41.079s  + 2.645
15.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m41.162s  + 2.728
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m41.240s  + 2.806
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m41.760s  + 3.326
Q1 cut-off time: 1m42.605s Gap *
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m42.979s  + 3.197
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m43.884s  + 4.102
20.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m44.515s  + 4.733
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m44.641s  + 4.859
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m44.699s  + 4.917
23.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m45.159s  + 5.377
24.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosoworth   no time

Photo: gp2media

Fabio Leimer claimed his maiden GP2 Feature Race win today at Yas Marina Circuit.

The Swiss racer took a lights-to-flag victory with a dominant drive, and in spite of his closest rival Luiz Razia’s best efforts to try and reduce the gap, Leimer remained in perfect control of his Racing Engineering machine all race long and was never in danger. Jolyon Palmer in third pocketed his first GP2 podium finish.

When the lights went off, Leimer launched from pole position perfectly. Behind him, Dani Clos made a slower start from P2 and then found himself caught in between Josef Kral and Razia. With no space to go to at Turn 1, Clos and Kral came together ending the Rapax man’s race prematurely and sending the Czech into a spin. The incident allowed Razia and Palmer to get past and free to chase Leimer. But the Swiss drivers pace proved to be difficult to match for Palmer who in turn had to look into his mirrors to try and keep a charging Esteban Gutierrez at bay. The Lotus ART man made a blazing start from P8 and looked hungry for more after a disappointing qualifying result. But the poor Mexican’s hopes for a podium today were crushed when he had to re-enter the pits in order to repair a damaged rear wing sustained when he was hit by Stefano Coletti at Turn 1 on the first lap.

With Leimer maintaining a good gap at the front, Razia’s only hopes of stealing the lead was during the mandatory pitstops, but the Swiss man pitted two laps after the Brazilian. He re-emerged second ahead of Razia and behind Palmer who pitted a lap later and handed the lead back over to the Racing Engineering driver.

Behind the Leimer/Razia duo, Palmer who had had a rather lonely first stint, then had to hold off pressure from Marcus Ericsson. The iSport ace started from thirteenth on the grid and made a perfect start that put him in P8. His pace enabled him to move up to P4 after his pitstop on Lap 13 and he kept on pushing until the last lap. However, that was not enough and Palmer retained his first podium finish.

At the chequered flag, Leimer who had clocked in the fastest laptime for good measure savoured his victory ahead of Razia and Palmer, and pocketed a perfect thirteen points. Ericsson finished fourth ahead of Kevin Ceccon. The final three points-paying places were claimed by GP3 graduates Tom Dillmann, Antonio Felix da Costa (who recovered from P15 on the grid) and James Calado. The Lotus ART man will start from tomorrow’s reverse pole.