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Tag: Sebastian Vettel

  • Sebastian Vettel takes pole: Canadian Grand Prix

    Sebastian Vettel takes pole: Canadian Grand Prix

    Vettel takes pole at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday. An FIA image

    Montreal, 9 June 2018: Sebastian Vettel took his 54th career pole position, beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in a tight qualifying session the Canadian Grand Prix that saw the top three drivers separated by less than two tenths of a second.

    Ferrari set the pace in the opening session with Vettel going quickest. The German swapped times with team-mate Kimi Räikkönen before he settled into P1 with a lap of 1:11.710. Hamilton slotted into third despite a nervous moment at, with the Briton finishing just over a tenth of a second behind Vettel. His Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished the session fourth ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

    At the bottom of the order, only four drivers from the session would drop out after Haas’ Romain Grosjean exited the session right at the start. The Frenchman left his team’s garage soon after the green light had gone on to signal the start of Q1. But as he applied some power in pit lane, a huge plume of smoke erupted from the rear of his car and he was immediately told to stop his car. He would play no further part in the session.

    Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson hit trouble as well early on, with the Swede smacking the wall on the exit of Turn 9 and damaging the car. He thus sank to the bottom of the order as the session developed.

    Ahead of the final runs Fernando Alonso slipped into the drop zone in P16 but the McLaren driver found more pace in his final run and jumped to P14 ahead of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne. That meant that Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was eliminated in P16 ahead of Williams’ Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, with Ericsson in P19. Gasly’s prospects had been hurt by having to revert to an older spec Honda engine ahead of the session after a problem was detected on his upgrade power unit in FP3.

    At the start of Q2 both Mercedes and Ferrari opted to run with ultrasoft tyres at the start and Valtteri Bottas set the initial pace with a time of 1:11.514. The put him ahead of Vettel and Räikkönen. Hamilton sat behind after locking up on his lap. Verstappen though took hypersofts and set the quickest time of the first runs with a lap of 1:11.472.

    In the second runs the Mercedes and Ferraris went back out on hypersofts. Vettel, though, abandoned his lap, but not due to wanting to settle on ultrasofts. The German felt he was severely hampered by drivers on slower laps and so steered back to the garage. In the end all the Ferrari and Mercedes settled on their ultrasoft times.

    Ricciardo, who had been off the pace of his team-mate throughout practice, suddenly seemed to find a sweet spot with his RB14 and on his second run he jumped ahead of Verstappen to claim top spot with a lap of 1:11.434. Verstappen settled on his opening time and took P2.

    Eliminated at this stage were Haas’ Kevin Magnussen who finished in P11 ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and the McLarens of Alonso and Vandoorne.

    In the first runs of Q3 Hamilton was first onto the timesheet with a time of 1:11.227, but team-mate BOT blasted past that with a good lap of 1:10.857. Räikkönen then slotted into P2 with a lap of 1:11.095.

    Vettel, though, went even quicker and he took provision pole with a time of 1:10.776. Verstappen then jumped ahead of Hamilton to sit fourth at the end of the first runs, just 0.001s behind Räikkönen.

    And there was no halting the German in the final runs. Räikkönen was the first to crack, running wide in the first sector and ruining his chances. Hamilton then made a mistake at the hairpin to exclude himself from the battle for pole. And when Bottas failed to improve Vettel’s 54th pole position was secure.

    Max Verstappen might have had a say in it after setting the quickest first sector time of the session on his final run. But the Red Bull driver lost time in the following two sector and ended the third ahead of Hamilton, Räikkönen and Ricciardo. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was seventh ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon, the second Renault of Carlos Sainz and the second Force India of Sergio Pérez.

    2018 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:10.764
    2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:10.857 0.093
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:10.937 0.173
    4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.996 0.232
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:11.095 0.331
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:11.116 0.352
    7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:11.973 1.209
    8 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:12.084 1.320
    9 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:12.168 1.404
    10 Sergio Perez Force India 1:12.671 1.907
    11 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.606 1.842
    12 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:12.635 1.871
    13 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:12.661 1.897
    14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:12.856 2.092
    15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:12.865 2.101
    16 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:13.047 2.283
    17 Lance Stroll Williams 1:13.590 2.826
    18 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:13.643 2.879
    19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:14.593 3.829|
    20 Romain Grosjean Haas.

  • Vettel becomes most successful season qualifier in F1 history: A Pirelli view

    Interlagos, November 26, 2011  –  Today was the first qualifying session for Pirelli’s new P Zero Yellow soft compound tyre, making its competition debut in Brazil, which will actually form the basis of the medium tyre in 2012. As well as the soft compound, the other nominated tyre for the Brazilian Grand Prix is the current P Zero White medium.

    Two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel used the Pirelli tyres to become the driver who has scored the most pole positions in one season. By claiming his 15th pole position at the 19th and last grand prix of the year, the Red Bull Racing driver beats the record established by Nigel Mansell that has stood since 1992.

    Qualifying got underway in ambient temperatures of 27 degrees centigrade with cloudy conditions, underlining the risk of rain that is frequently a feature of the Brazilian Grand Prix. In order to get in a lap as quickly as possible, most drivers headed straight out at the beginning of qualifying one, with both Red Bulls, both McLarens, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg using the P Zero White mediums to get through to qualifying two. The sudden rush caused plenty of traffic on one of the shortest circuits of the year, adding to the challenge for the drivers.

    It was a similar story during qualifying two, but this time all the drivers went straight onto the P Zero Yellow soft tyres in order to maximise dry running, with rain clouds just two kilometres away. The top drivers completed just one run during qualifying two, in order to maintain as many fresh soft tyres as possible for the final session.

    Conditions remained dry for qualifying three, with different approaches from the top runners on the P Zero Yellow tyres. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg both completed a slower lap to warm up the tyres followed by a fast lap, while the Red Bull Racing cars and McLaren’s Jenson Button were straight onto a quick lap.

    Vettel set a time of 1m12.268s on his first run and then beat his own benchmark during the second run with a time of 1m11.918s on the soft tyres. His team mate Mark Webber qualified second ahead of the two McLarens. Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher went out on the medium tyre but did not set a time.

    Vettel also went quickest during the final free practice session this morning, held in dry and warm conditions, with a time of 1m12.460s on the P Zero Yellow: fractionally ahead of McLaren driver Jenson Button.

    Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “It was interesting for us to see the performance of our new compound in qualifying conditions, and I’d like to congratulate Sebastian Vettel for breaking the record of the most number of poles in one season with a spectacular lap: I actually had a bet with one of my colleagues that somebody would get under the 1m12s mark today. After the threat of rain didn’t materialise, it turned out to be a reasonably straightforward qualifying, but most people are expecting a much more mixed up race tomorrow. That’s obviously going to have a huge impact on the strategy, so we may well see our P Zero Orange wet tyres and P Zero Blue intermediates making their final appearance of the year.”