Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of a high-pressure shoot-out in Q2 after the session was resumed after more than an hour waiting for the rain to stop and the track to dry. It was still very damp but the times were faster and Hamilton ended up more than half a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India, followed by Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikonen, Pastor Maldonado, a last-minute Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
Out went Paul di Resta, the two Saubers, Nico Rosberg, the two Toro Rossos and Bruno Senna.
Joe, there’s some mention of drivers breaking the yellow flag rules to go faster than Di Resta and reach Q3. Is there a clear cut rule on procedure for this? Will it simply be a 5 place penalty (perhaps still leaving them in the top 10) or is there the flexibility in the rules to simply disqualify their Q3 runs?
It is to do with sectors. Alonso got through but was not in the same sector as the yellow flag
Actually Alonso did pass through the yellow flags, but the onboard view does appear to show him momentarily lifting off as he passed Grosjean’s car. He should be fine.
Ah right. I wasn’t able to follow events because Eurosport felt that the Tour de France and the British Superbike World Championship are more important than an over-running F1 qualifying.
I’m not sure the French really “get” this F1 malarkey these days.