Sebastian Vettel takes US Grand Prix pole as Fernando Alonso qualifies eighth – Formula 1 news
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel scores the pole while rival Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, finishes the qualifying round at eighth position for the United States Grand Prix.
The qualifying round, that took place on Saturday, saw the defending champion leading all other drivers on the track and ending up with the pole. Vettel was also the driver with the quickest time in all the previous three practice sessions.
On the other hand, Vettel’s championship rival of this season, Alonso, was third in the first two practice rounds and fourth in the third practice. However, the Ferrari driver initially qualified at ninth position only to be moved ahead one place after Lotus
F1’s Romain Grosjean was given a five place penalty.
Vettel’s pole did not come easily to him as he was involved in a strong competition with the McLaren driver, Lewis Hamilton. The whole season has been similar as both drivers have been in the same competition in many races. Even though Hamilton has not been
enjoying a good season due to the McLaren’s reliability issues, he still has scored six pole positions until now which is one more than Vettel. Vettel was the successful one in this qualifying since he was 0.109 seconds faster than Hamilton.
Alonso kept struggling with tyre temperatures throughout the qualifying. During the second round of the qualifiers, the Spanish driver was in fourth position but the temperature problems continued into the last round and his final position was at ninth.
Red Bull’s second driver, Mark Webber, was third quickest being 0.5 seconds behind his teammate. Since Webber ignored a weigh check during the first qualifying round, he might be in for some penalty sanctioned by the stewards.
Grosjean, who had qualified in fourth standing after Webber, was given the penalty and will now be starting from the ninth position instead of Alonso. The penalty was a result of a gear box change after the final practice session.
Grosjean’s penalty has been fruitful to the five drivers behind him as Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Nico Hulkenberg and Alonso all move one place ahead respectively.
With Vettel starting the race on Sunday from the front and Alonso behind at eighth, the championship fight has just become even more interesting.
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