Jenson Button says good qualifiers run means good race finish – Formula 1 news
Looking back at the last three races of the 2011 Formula 1 season, it looks pretty clear that the top Qualifier position will have a better chance to win the races, which was the same case in many recent years.
Jenson Button also has the same point of view but the Brit said, “Apart from Mark’s (Webber’s) race in China.”
However, as far as the Pirelli tyres form is considered, the last three races tell that it is anybody’s race.
In the Australian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel, showed good pace in the Qualifiers and won the first pole position of the 2011 season. His closest competitor in the Australian Grand Prix was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who qualified in second position. Hamilton
gave the German a good fight until his car’s floor was broken and he gave up the fight. Third in Australia was Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, who qualified in sixth place.
In the Malaysian Grand prix, the top three places were almost a carbon copy of Australian Grand Prix, as Vettel was once again winner after securing the pole position. Jenson Button finished behind Vettel with a gap of three seconds after qualifying in 4th position.
Third place finish once again went to Renault’s driver, but this time Nick Heidfeld took the charge and led the way for Renault.
“Apart from Mark’s (Webber’s) race in China, I think we’ve seen that it's difficult to make up ground if you're not right at the front because you're really at the mercy of a lot of other cars and their strategies. So getting quali right is crucial, and
we seem to be heading in the right direction,” said Button.
In Australia, the top two podium positions went to Hamilton and Vettel who started the race in 3rd and 1st positions respectively.
In the Australian Grand Prix, Mark Webber climbed up the ladder from 18th position on the grid and ended up third only 1.5 seconds away from Vettel.
Mark Webber had an off day in Qualifiers when he was sent out on the hard Pirelli compound by his team. Mark was too slow in his RB7 and ended up being caught in the lower ranked teams like Lotus and Virgin.
As the race started, the race attention was on the top ten drivers who did a fabulous job to make things interesting in the opening few laps. No one noticed Webber and his RB7 which was slowly gaining a commanding position in the midfield. Webber took the
third place from Button in the final couple of laps of the race.
Webber commented that saving the tyres in the Qualifiers can be a good strategy and then the race positions can be climbed as easily as was never possible before.
Button still thinks that Webber had a good day in Shanghai and no such performance is realistic in the upcoming races, but only time will tell what is the best strategy.
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