Lewis Hamilton gave the 90,000 spectators at Silverstone exactly what
they wanted when he dominated qualifying for Sunday's 2013 Formula 1
Santander British Grand Prix.
Fastest in Q1 but only sixth as he
conserved rubber in Q2, the British racer put in the best lap on his
first run before brilliantly snatching back the momentary advantage of
Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg on his second run to claim pole by over
four tenths of a second.
Thus the Silver Arrows line up first
and second with 1m 29.607s and 1m 30.059s respectively. Behind them, Red
Bull's Mark Webber seemed set for third after shading team mate
Sebastian Vettel in their first runs, but the German just reversed that
by the end of their second with 1m 30.211s to 1m 30.220s.
To
cheer the crowd even more, Paul di Resta bounced back to fifth on 1m
30.736s after playing second fiddle to Force India team mate Adrian
Sutil for much of the session. The German was separated from the Scot by
Daniel Ricciardo, whose practice form for Toro Rosso held up with sixth
slot on 1m 30.757s.
Sutil was seventh with 1m 30.908s, with
Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen next up for Lotus on 1m 30.955s and
1m 30.962s apiece. Fernando Alonso had a disappointing run for Ferrari
to finish in 10th place on 1m 30.979s, which gives him a mountain to
scale in the race.
For a few moments it seemed that another home
favourite, Jenson Button, had just done enough to squeeze into Q3 with
1m 31.649s, but then Raikkonen launched a lap of 1m 31.592s to bump the
understeering McLaren out.
Felipe Massa also failed to get
through to Q3, after lapping his Ferrari in 1m 31.779s. Right behind him
was Jean-Eric Vergne, who spoiled one lap with a grassy moment exiting
Chapel in his Toro Rosso, then improved marginally to 1m 31.785s.
Sergio
Perez couldn’t better 1m 32.082s in the second McLaren, which left him
14th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber on 1m 32.211s and Pastor
Maldonado’s Williams on 1m 32.359s.
As Hamilton set the pace with
1m 30.995s, Q1 had seen Maldonado pip Williams team mate Valtteri
Bottas for the final Q2 slot, with 1m 32.512s to 1m 32.664s. Behind the
duo came Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez on 1m 32.666s, then Charles Pic
continued to head the final quartet for Caterham with 1m 33.866s to
Jules Bianchi’s 1m 34.108s for Marussia.
Pic’s team mate Giedo
van der Garde did only one lap since he gets a five-place grid penalty
from his collision with Webber in Canada, so though he was 21st fastest
on 1m 35.481s he’ll drop behind Max Chilton, who recorded 1m 35.858s for
Marussia
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