The exhilarating qualifying session (Q3) of the inaugural Korean Grand prix (Part 5)
After the first two sessions, the Red Bulls, Ferraris and McLarens were looking equally strong and it was quite unpredictable up till then that who would outclass in the final race. Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, Robert Kubica and Rubens Barrichello joined the top five drivers to perform in the final qualifying session.
Massa was on a strong form during this session and was looking to do the same damage to his team’s rivals. However, he was done with two sets of softs. The battle for the vital pole positions began after a ten-minute break and Mark Webber was the first driver to come onto the track and was on a set of soft tyres.
Hamilton, Button and Alonso also joined the track out of their garages. Alonso was disputing track positions with Button on this outlap but he backed off and found some space. Vettel was also on soft tyres and he rolled out of the garage sometime after the early group of runners.
Massa was a set of tyres down as compared to his rivals and was waiting in the Ferrari garage while Mark Webber flashed across the line and he was the first driver to begin a timed lap in the final session. Webber hit the apex of Turn 3 and barrelled down the next straight towards the twisty part of the course. Alonso was able to set a very rapid first sector at 51.973s by the 3 minute marker while Webber’s first sector time was slower at 53.0s as he made a slight error in Turn 1.
Webber rolled the ball with a 1m36.917s lap before Hamilton beat his time by almost 8 tenths of a second. Alonso was quicker with a handy 1m35.927s while Barrichello timed in an early sixth position time of 1m38.148s.
Kubica grabbed the third place with a 1m36.824s lap while Massa was finally heading out on his sole set of fresh tyres. Vettel pulled out a rapid final sector as he went second to Alonso while Button was only able to secure the sixth place after a dirty mistake on his flying lap. Hamilton had a moment of oversteer and headed back into the pits before bouncing over the grass.
After 6 minutes into the 10 minute session, Alonso headed the order followed by Vettel, Hamilton, Kubica and Webber in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively.
The cars headed out again on fresh tyres while Mercedes drivers Schumacher and Rosberg chose to complete just one run up until now but joined the racetrack with just 3 minutes remaining in the session. While Schumacher and Rosberg began their timed laps, Webber was also out on track again with another pair of soft tyres.
Webber started the lap and hoped to score the pole position but he was aware that he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to do so. Massa’s first sector was poor on his latest run and was unlikely to improve any further. Webber now moved into the part of the track where his Red Bull RB6 was feeling more comfortable but he was 2 tenths of a second down on Alonso after the first sector.
With just 1 minute remaining in the session, Alonso was slightly off his earlier best in the first sector. After the 10 minutes completed, the cars continued their final runs in their cars to try and improve their times. Webber hammered across the line and moved up into the second place with a time of 1m35.973.
Hamilton stayed in fourth place with a 1m36.062. It was down to Vettel now. It was the Red Bull duo versus Fernando Alonso in their final run for pole. Vettel was very close to Alonso’s time after the first two sectors.
Tags: