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Red Bull Racing
driver Mark Webber has claimed his second consecutive pole position,
following his pole in Britain two weeks ago, setting a time of 1m30.079s at
the Nurburgring on Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tyres. This was comfortably
faster than his pole time of 1m32.230s in 2009 (the last time that the
German Grand Prix was held at the Nurburgring) although on that occasion
qualifying was held in damp conditions.
Red Bull remains unbeaten in qualifying since the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix
in November, claimed by Nico Hulkenberg for Williams in mixed weather
conditions. However, for the first time in 14 races, World Championship
leader Sebastian Vettel is not on the front row and will start third, behind
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton.
Conditions for qualifying were overcast, although the day remained dry, with
14 degrees centigrade ambient in the afternoon. The majority of the top
drivers used the P Zero White medium tyres to get through Q1, before
switching to the P Zero Yellow soft tyres from Q2 onwards.
During final practice this morning, held in cool temperatures of 12 degrees,
Red Bull’s World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel went quickest on the
soft tyres with a time of 1m30.916s, to the delight of his home fans.
This remained the quickest lap of the weekend until Q3, which four of the
six German drivers currently in Formula One took part in. Webber completed
two runs during the final session, topping the time sheets on both
occasions, using P Zero Yellow tyres to claim the ninth pole position of his
career and his third of this season.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “Despite the
threatening skies, the rain held off, which enabled us to see a great duel
from start to finish of qualifying. We saw a bit of tactics, with the teams
trying to save their soft tyres for the race, but the predictions for
tomorrow indicate rain, which is obviously going to throw all the strategy
out of the window if it materialises. The data from the weekend so far shows
that our tyres are lasting for a long time – we could probably get 60 laps
out of a set of the mediums – so under normal circumstances we would
probably see some teams trying a one-stop strategy. It seems unlikely though
that the circumstances are going to be completely normal, so there will be a
lot of thinking about the right set-up tonight.”
PIRELLI FACTS OF THE DAY
- During the last German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 2009, there were
1.5 pit
stops per car.
- The time spent in the 377-metre pit lane at this circuit is approximately
18 seconds. |
