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Saturday, 09 June 2012 19:58 |
 Formula One result from the FP3 practice and qualifying sessions at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal - Sebastian Vettel equals Nigel Mansell Formula 1 career pole positions as Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin instructs: "OK mate, well done, you did a very good job, usual procedure, P2, P1, finger."
Red Bull Racing's reigning champion Sebastian Vettel blasted to a dominant pole by posting not only the fastest lap, but the second fastest time in Q3 to be the sole driver with times below the 1'13 mark and lead McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the head of the grid.
Vettel was 0.303 seconds quicker than Hamilton, the highest margin between the two quickest lap times all weekend.
Alonso and Hamilton both appeared to be on target to challenge for pole on their final runs before the chequered flag, but fell short of the Germans time to face the start lights ahead of Australian Mark Webber, the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, a confident Felipe Massa and the Lotus E20 of Romain Grosjean whose team-mate Kimi Raikkonen starts from twelfth.
Force India's Paul di Resta was eighth, an unhappy Michael Schumacher starts from ninth and Jenson Button 10th in the McLaren.
2012 F1 Canada - FP3 results:
| Pos. |
N° |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
Gap |
Laps |
| 1 |
1 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull |
1'14.442 |
|
22 |
| 2 |
5 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
1'14.448 |
0.006 |
17 |
| 3 |
4 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren |
1'14.712 |
0.27 |
19 |
| 4 |
2 |
Mark Webber |
Red Bull |
1'14.724 |
0.282 |
21 |
| 5 |
18 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Williams F1 |
1'14.755 |
0.313 |
22 |
| 6 |
6 |
Felipe Massa |
Ferrari |
1'14.767 |
0.325 |
21 |
| 7 |
7 |
Michael Schumacher |
Mercedes AMG |
1'14.796 |
0.354 |
19 |
| 8 |
10 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus F1 |
1'14.873 |
0.431 |
20 |
| 9 |
9 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Lotus F1 |
1'14.977 |
0.535 |
21 |
| 10 |
12 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India |
1'14.992 |
0.55 |
22 |
| 11 |
11 |
Paul di Resta |
Force India |
1'15.067 |
0.625 |
19 |
| 12 |
15 |
Sergio Perez |
Sauber F1 |
1'15.112 |
0.67 |
21 |
| 13 |
14 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Sauber F1 |
1'15.126 |
0.684 |
24 |
| 14 |
19 |
Bruno Senna |
Williams F1 |
1'15.237 |
0.795 |
22 |
| 15 |
3 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren |
1'15.327 |
0.885 |
22 |
| 16 |
16 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Toro Rosso |
1'15.498 |
1.056 |
19 |
| 17 |
21 |
Vitaly Petrov |
Caterham F1 |
1'16.268 |
1.826 |
24 |
| 18 |
20 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
Caterham F1 |
1'16.545 |
2.103 |
20 |
| 19 |
22 |
Pedro de la Rosa |
HRT F1 |
1'17.705 |
3.263 |
21 |
| 20 |
24 |
Timo Glock |
Marussia F1 |
1'17.974 |
3.532 |
23 |
| 21 |
23 |
Narain Karthikeyan |
HRT F1 |
1'18.189 |
3.747 |
21 |
| 22 |
25 |
Charles Pic |
Marussia F1 |
1'18.684 |
4.242 |
23 |
| 23 |
17 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
Toro Rosso |
No time |
|
3 |
| 24 |
8 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes AMG |
No time |
|
1 |
2012 F1 Canada - Qualifying results:
| Pos. |
N° |
Driver |
Team |
Session 1 |
Session 2 |
Session 3 |
| 1 |
1 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull |
1'14.661 |
1'14.187 |
1'13.784 |
| 2 |
4 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren |
1'14.891 |
1'14.371 |
1'14.087 |
| 3 |
5 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
1'14.916 |
1'14.314 |
1'14.151 |
| 4 |
2 |
Mark Webber |
Red Bull |
1'14.956 |
1'14.479 |
1'14.346 |
| 5 |
8 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes AMG |
1'15.098 |
1'14.568 |
1'14.411 |
| 6 |
6 |
Felipe Massa |
Ferrari |
1'15.194 |
1'14.641 |
1'14.465 |
| 7 |
10 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus F1 |
1'15.163 |
1'14.627 |
1'14.645 |
| 8 |
11 |
Paul di Resta |
Force India |
1'15.019 |
1'14.639 |
1'14.705 |
| 9 |
7 |
Michael Schumacher |
Mercedes AMG |
1'14.892 |
1'14.480 |
1'14.812 |
| 10 |
3 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren |
1'14.799 |
1'14.680 |
1'15.182 |
| 11 |
14 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Sauber F1 |
1'15.101 |
1'14.688 |
| 12 |
9 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Lotus F1 |
1'14.995 |
1'14.734 |
| 13 |
12 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India |
1'15.106 |
1'14.748 |
| 14 |
16 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Toro Rosso |
1'15.552 |
1'15.078 |
| 15 |
15 |
Sergio Perez |
Sauber F1 |
1'15.326 |
1'15.156 |
| 16 |
19 |
Bruno Senna |
Williams F1 |
1'14.995 |
1'15.170 |
| 17 |
18 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Williams F1 |
1'14.979 |
1'15.231 |
| 18 |
20 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
Caterham F1 |
1'16.263 |
| 19 |
21 |
Vitaly Petrov |
Caterham F1 |
1'16.482 |
| 20 |
17 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
Toro Rosso |
1'16.602 |
| 21 |
22 |
Pedro de la Rosa |
HRT F1 |
1'17.492 |
| 22 |
24 |
Timo Glock |
Marussia F1 |
1'17.901 |
| 23 |
25 |
Charles Pic |
Marussia F1 |
1'18.255 |
| 24 |
23 |
Narain Karthikeyan |
HRT F1 |
1'18.330 |
Q1 107% time: 1'19.887
Select 'Play' below to listen to audio
|
Sebastian Vettel
"It's difficult to say why the gap is big. The whole weekend has been very smooth, we learned a lot a bout the car recently and didn't make the most out of the car recently. I have had a clean weekend, we trusted the car we had, we just followed the track. then it was good in all three sessions but it was tight. I thought it would be decided by 0,1s but it was more, so that's good. Anyway Lewis starts just 8 metres behind me, but I’m looking forward to the race.
"The hole in the floor didn't make all the difference. It was a shame it went this way, illegal, legal, illegal, but we don't see the importance in the performance of the car. The impact is minimal, but the car works well as a whole, not because of a hole, but as Lewis Hamilton said it was difficult to get the tyres switched on today, but we managed to get our work done and we were in good shape throughout qualifying, so I'm looking forward to the race.
"We had to change the car and close the holes or slots, but it went pretty well. There wasn't a lot of time to react, but some teams brought some steps too. We had nothing big but pushing hard to improve the car all the time. It was important to have a clean Friday, focusing on ourselves and we tried to get the best out of every run, chipping away with each run. The gap for Lewis was a bit of a surprise, because here the gaps tend to be small, but I'm very happy with the gap I had.
"The tyre works pretty well, as we've seen in Monaco, so Jenson's strategy can work, but depends on how the race will pan out. Two years ago we started high up the grid on the hard compound but it didn't work in the race. Tomorrow is going to be interesting to make the tyres work, as it's always hard here, but I'm looking forward to the race.
"It will be difficult to get the tyres to survive many laps, but for us it was easier than yesterday. For us the cooler it is the more in trouble we are. I hope that trend continues if it's warmer tomorrow. But we've seen a lot of things can happen on Sundays, so we'll have a plan in our head but everything can change and we have to react to circumstances.
"It will be important to have a good start but life is a bit easier when you are at the front. We defend the position at the start of the race, which is tight. This is a crazy place, it has delivered many crazy races in the past, for sure the SC will be in action, it may work for you or against you, but you have the best you can, have the best pit stops you can and react to whatever changes occur.
Lewis Hamilton
"It was harder for us today. We worked for the tyres in T3 to try and get the tyres to switch on. We fortunately had a new set for Q3 and could get to the front row, so we'll push hard tomorrow The tyre strategy is clear, but we were struggling in qualifying as the temperatures had up. I didn't expect to be this far up and I think Jenson didn't have any ore new tyres for Q3. I still had one new super soft tyre left, so I used it.
"Fortunately I'm in a reasonable position but even though we had a good long run yesterday, with the higher temperatures it will be difficult. We can still have a good race tomorrow and score strong points. Of course I want to win but these guys are phenomenally quicker and I don't think we have the pace for them. We'll see that tomorrow.
"I think it's possible to have more stops than in Monaco, two or three, but on Friday we saw some runs that showed that some cars will be able to do one stop only. But it will depend on the temperature, as from Friday to Sunday the temperature looks like going up a lot.
Fernando Alonso
"The car felt very good since yesterday, when we tried new parts. I'm much more happy with the balance of the car but this is the first step. It will never stop the development, but we're extremely happy now and thank you to all the guys in the factory. We expected to suffer a bit here, but we had no problems whatsoever and managed to repeat our best Qualifying position of the year. This is a circuit where we didn't expected to be strong, so clearly the new upgrades work.
"On the final run I didn't improve but that's normal here, so you're gaining or losing milliseconds corner by corner. I lost a little bit on the last sector but that was the limit of the car. This has been a smooth weekend for us, Felipe and I immediately felt the step in the performance of the car from the start of the weekend. We are in the same position to start as in Barcelona, we scored an important podium there, in Monaco it was another important podium and here we're quick, so we're competitive in three different types of circuit and this is encouraging.
"You never know what can happen ion the races this year, so we'll see, but as Lewis I feel it will be nice to win here, it's been a good track for Ferrari, we have lots of fans, it's 30 years since Gilles died, so it would ne nice to win. But these two guys were quicker than us today so we have to do better tomorrow to win.
"I'm very happy with Felipe's P6, as he has all the support from the team and for me. His start of the season was hard, but since Barcelona he's been doing a good job. This is the normality and that's what I expect him to be competitive until the end of the season. The exception was the first four races.
"This is a crazy championship, with so many different winners, but the teas at the front are always Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus and I don't think the orders hasn't changed much from the last few years.
Quotes courtesy Agnes Carlier
F1SA.com
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