Third pole position for Vettel at Shanghai
Button second, Hamilton third. Webber out in Q1.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel took easily his third consecutive pole in the 2011 season ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Vettel set a best time of 1:33.706, beating by 0.715 seconds McLaren’s Jenson Button (1:34.421) and by 0.757 Lewis Hamilton (1:34.463).
Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg finished fourth fastest (1:34.670), Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fifth fastest (1:35.119), Felipe Massa sixth fastest (1:35.145), Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari seventh fastest (1:36.158), Force India’s Paul di Resta eighth fastest (1:36.190) and Sebastien Buemi ninth fastest (1:36.203).
Lotus Renault GP’s Vitaly Petrov – tenth fastest – couldn’t run in Q3 after a last minute gearbox failure in Q2 which forced the race stewards to red flag the session for a few minutes.
Adrian Sutil qualified 11th ahead of Sergio Perez, Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Nick Heidfeld and Pastor Maldonado.
Mark Webber qualified only 18th after being eliminated in Q1. The Australian had issues with his KERS since the start of the session and was kept on the harder tyres at the end of Q1 while everyone else near the knockout zone went for options.
2011 Chinese Grand Prix, Qualifying Session results:
| Pos. | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:35.674 | 1:34.776 | 1:33.706 | 14 |
| 2 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.924 | 1:34.662 | 1:34.421 | 13 |
| 3 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:36.091 | 1:34.486 | 1:34.463 | 11 |
| 4 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:35.272 | 1:35.850 | 1:34.670 | 19 |
| 5 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:35.389 | 1:35.165 | 1:35.119 | 18 |
| 6 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:35.478 | 1:35.437 | 1:35.145 | 18 |
| 7 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:36.133 | 1:35.563 | 1:36.158 | 16 |
| 8 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:35.702 | 1:35.858 | 1:36.190 | 17 |
| 9 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:36.110 | 1:35.500 | 1:36.203 | 16 |
| 10 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:35.370 | 1:35.149 | no time | 11 |
| 11 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:36.092 | 1:35.874 | 14 | |
| 12 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.046 | 1:36.053 | 16 | |
| 13 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.147 | 1:36.236 | 11 | |
| 14 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:35.508 | 1:36.457 | 16 | |
| 15 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:35.911 | 1:36.465 | 15 | |
| 16 | 9 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1:35.910 | 1:36.611 | 11 | |
| 17 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1:36.121 | 1:36.956 | 17 | |
| 18 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:36.468 | 8 | ||
| 19 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1:37.894 | 7 | ||
| 20 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1:38.318 | 10 | ||
| 21 | 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:39.119 | 8 | ||
| 22 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:39.708 | 8 | ||
| 23 | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1:40.212 | 9 | ||
| 24 | 22 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:40.445 | 9 | ||
| Q1 107% Time | 1:41.941 |
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