Sebastian Vettel completed qualifying having set the fastest time in every session in Austin. The German beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position by a tenth of a second, with Mark Webber third and Romain Grosjean fourth, but the Frenchman has a penalty for a gearbox change and so will start ninth. Kimi Raikkonen thus moves up to fourth ahead of Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso. The top 10 was completed by Pastor Maldonado.
I did a quick visual summary of qualifying here: http://f1datajunkie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/f1-2012-united-states-qualifying-summary.html Comments appreciated…
I thought that was an impressive performance by Hamilton to get so close to Vettel. Any word on why Alonso struggled so much in Q3; he was slower than in Q2.
Could I also suggest ‘Newey pole sitter for new race’ or a variation thereof…
The question is how much quicker would Hamilton have been in the same car?
I’ll leave a comment here after quali. because hardly anyone does.
Alonso isn’t as far back as you’d think after Grosjean’s penalty & that he has Massa in front of him, who will immediately drop his trousers & give him the position.
So, FA has to make up three place before the end of the race to keep the WDC alive, assuming that SV wins.
With Alonso’s extraordinary launch-control (what IS it with that launch-control?) he should make up two of those at the start, maybe more if he can get off the ‘dirty’ side of the grid.
Back in the day, Formula 1 starts at the Nurburgring used to be four abreast, other circuits three, even Monaco. Such is progress that that isn’t safe any more, so now we have staggered rows of one. What I don’t get is that even when the track is so slippery that starting third is going to be better than starting second, they still stagger the grid. When there is a clear disadvantage to the even side, why not reduce the stagger, or even eliminate it altogether so that first and second start alongside one another? There would still be an appropriate advantage to being first rather than second, but at least the even-numbered starters would have a better chance of beating the man behind into the first corner.
That’s wonderful to know Joe, but up here in Canada the GP in Austin is irrelevant. The qualifying was live on TSN2, but they only have 3 million subscribers across Canada, the race itself will be on at 11.30PM tonight. On the french language RDS where qualy and the race are always live, qualifying was at half past midnight this morning and the race is at 10AM Monday morning! Even NASCAR’s final race is on TSN2, on TSN1 it’s football and more football. That really is an indication of how far interest in motor racing has slipped in the mainstream media here, I tell you, it’s a lost sport now.
Of course in the US the host broadcaster is SPEED which is in comparitavely few homes and I believe that Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett are, as usual, doing their coverage/commentary from the studio in Charlotte.
What a WONDERFUL way to get exposure for US Formula 1 !!!
Is he going to ‘shock’ us with another swear word on the podium, naughty boy. Who’s training these people that relic from the past Madonna?
In light of more recent events, Joe, I think your headline is more apt for the red team.