Red Bull dominate qualifying once more

Red Bull continued their dominance of qualifying this season with Sebastian Vettel beating his teammate Mark Webber to pole as the team locked out the front row for the third race in succession.

Team boss, Christian Horner, praised Vettel’s lap with one breath and that shot a warning across rivals who have questioned the cars legality saying on the radio “Well done Seb, who needs ride height control.” The team is at the centre of the latest technical storm to engulf Formula 1 as teams seek reasons as to why Red Bull has consistently been the qualifying pace setter. The FIA addressed the situation midweek but with Red Bull having always stated they had no such system Horner took the opportunity on Vettel’s in lap to state the teams case again.

Mark Webber must have felt he had done enough for a second consecutive pole before Vettel’s superb lap in the dying moments of Q3. The German actually had to copy Webber’s setup after being outpaced throughout the weekend. The Australian seemed disappointed afterwards saying “It was a good battle and definitely a good lap from Seb.”

Fernando Alonso may already be in trouble with engines after two failures but the Ferrari driver will start third tomorrow after another solid qualifying effort. The Spaniard was beaten easily by the Red Bulls; finishing 0.4 seconds back. The good news is that he has three cars between himself and his teammate, championship leader Felipe Massa. Massa has generally struggled here in the past and it seems unlikely that he will fare too much better in the race tomorrow.

McLaren had expected to be quicker than 5^th and 6^th but Button and Hamilton will find themselves in the middle of the pack as they head to turn 1. The team will have to hope for miracles from their F-Duct if they are to challenge for the podium. Nico Rosberg lines up ahead of them in 4^th after once again outpacing Michael Schumacher who struggled throughout the session and must be counting down the days until the Mercedes team release its upgrades.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was the man who joined the three new teams in failing to make it out of Q1 and with Paul di Resta showing well in his practice sessions the Italian will know that performances such as these will not be tolerated for long, especially with Adrian Sutil once more making it into Q3 and qualifying 10^th to show the car has decent pace. Liuzzi has been inconsistent in Formula 1 and the clock is ticking on him to show that he should remain in what is now potentially a consistent point scoring car.

With rain expected for the race tomorrow and drivers in the midfield may well get an opportunity to shine and score points, but with Red Bull on form once more it seems unlikely that Vettel and Webber will be caught.


Chinese Grand Prix – Qualifying
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:36.317 1:35.280 1:34.558
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:35.978 1:35.100 1:34.806
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:35.987 1:35.235 1:34.913
4. Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.952 1:35.134 1:34.923
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.122 1:35.443 1:34.979
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:35.641 1:34.928 1:35.034
7. Massa Ferrari 1:36.076 1:35.290 1:35.180
8. Kubica Renault 1:36.348 1:35.550 1:35.364
9. Schumacher Mercedes 1:36.484 1:35.715 1:35.646
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:36.671 1:35.665 1:35.963
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:36.664 1:35.748
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.618 1:36.047
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.793 1:36.149
14. Petrov Renault 1:37.031 1:36.311
15. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:37.044 1:36.422
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:37.049 1:36.647
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:37.050 1:37.020
18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:37.161
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.278
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:39.399
21. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:39.520
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.783
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:40.469
24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:40.578