|
Red Bull Racing
driver Mark Webber has taken his second pole position of the season with a
time of 1m30.399s, following the Australian’s pole at the Spanish Grand Prix
in May. It is the eighth pole position of his career, continuing Red Bull’s
domination of qualifying this year.
Webber, the winner of the British Grand Prix last year, used Pirelli’s P
Zero Yellow soft tyres to set his quickest time, in a qualifying session
that was characterised by changing conditions.
After rain throughout Friday, the uncertain weather persisted today with an
ambient temperature of 19 degrees centigrade and a track temperature of 19
degrees as well. In Q1, conditions remained dry until 10 minutes from the
end, by which time Webber had already set a benchmark time on the P Zero
Silver hard compound tyres.
The track was damp at the start of Q2, ensuring that many of the leading
runners came out on the P Zero Blue intermediate tyres. As the track dried
the drivers progressively used the P Zero Yellow soft tyres – but with all
of them leaving it until the very last minute to set a time, it was a
frantic dash at the end to avoid the drop zone.
Conditions in Q3 started off dry, meaning that all the drivers headed out to
put in a banker lap on the P Zero Yellow soft tyre straight away. The two
Red Bull drivers were straight on the pace, with Webber leading Vettel, then
with just over two minutes to go light rain began to fall again.
This confirmed
the top positions, with a particularly fine effort from Force India’s Paul
di Resta to secure a career-best sixth on the grid (beating his previous
record of eighth in China) and a career-best seventh for Williams driver
Pastor Maldonado (beating his previous record of eighth in Monaco). Both
drivers used the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tyres to set their times.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “It’s been a
fascinating continuation to what has been an extremely unpredictable weekend
so far. The changing conditions meant that the teams had very little dry
running before qualifying, and with all the drivers forced to make the most
of a very limited window of opportunity to set a time, the pressure was on
right down to the last minute. In the end Webber made the best use of his
tyres at the right time, and that’s going to be the key to success again
tomorrow. The forecast is for drier conditions, but you never know what will
happen, particularly as the teams still have little data on the P Zero
Silver and P Zero Yellow tyre under racing conditions at Silverstone.
Strategy is going to be critical, and this presents drivers such as di Resta
and Maldonado with the opportunity to capitalise on their excellent
qualifying performances.” |
