British Grand Prix – Qualifying

It’s warm and dry at the Silverstone circuit – air temp 24°C, track 35°C, wind 7m/s, humidity 52%

Sakon Yamamoto has replaced Bruno Senna this weekend in the HRT.

Qualifying Session #1 (Q1)
Lights turn green and the camera pans to the Force India garage where they’re still working on AS’ car
TG & JT first to head onto the track
TG 1:35.951
HK 1:35.233
TG 1:35.088
VP 1:32.467
JB held up by VL
FA 1:31.795
(FM P2)
NR 1:31.684
(RB P2)
LH runs a little wide in Club
SV 1:31.591
RB 1:31.424
MW 1:30.988
(SV P2)
(LH P2)
MW 1:30.858
(AS P2)
(FA P2)
SV 1:30.841
BBC report MW & SV are running different front wings
6mins left of Q1; SY is down in P24/last and is 0.8sec slower than KC (P23)
4mins left; bottom 7 are VL, TG, HK, JT, LdG, KC, SY
1min left; VL to P17, pushing JA to the drop zone
Chequered flag
(TG P19)
(HK P19)
Back of the grid will be: P18=JA, 19=HK, 20=TG, 21=JT, 22=LdG, 23=KC, 24=SY
If the 107% rule (which returns next season) was in force now, SY would be going home now.

Qualifying Session #2 (Q2)
FA is on track first, followed by teammate FM
FA 1:38.178
FM 1:35.449
JB 1:34.174 … on the soft (option) tyres
(NH P2)
LH 1:31.286
(SV P2)
(MS P2)
(RK P2)
FA 1:31.019
(FM P2)
MW 1:30.436 … and he’s on the harder tyres
Pit-car from JB saying he’s got very low rear grip … but he’s on the softer compound and that should give better grip than the primes
SV was on a fast lap but he’s aborted it and heads for the pits
6 mins left of Q2
VP coasting back into the pit lane; Renault mechanics are running down the pits to meet him
4mins left; bottom 7 are KK, RK, VL, JB, NH, SB, VP
NH has caught up to VL but they’re both on hot laps
MW 1:30.114
MS runs wide in Copse – on-board camera shows how much more rough the kerb is there this year
Chequered flag
JB can’t improve on P14 🙁
Middle of the grid will be: P11=AS, 12=KK, 13=NH, 14=JB, 15=VL, 16=VP, 17=SB
Wow, so the current World Champion won’t be in Q3
Pit-car radio for JB sounds like his engineer’s quite apologetic

Qualifying Session #3 (Q3)
Top ten shootout: LH, NR, MW, FM, FA, RB, SV, MS, RK, PdlR
The two Ferrari drivers are first out of the pit lane
FA 1:30.426
(LH P2)
MW 1:29.758
SV 1:29.695
MS, RK & PdlR are still in the pits – just a single fast lap for them?
5mins left; order is SV, MW, FA, LH, NR, RB, FM and the 3 with no times
MS & RK now take to the track
(RB P6)
(MS P8)
(RK P9)
FA angry that RB is setting off on another hot lap instead of taking to the pits
Chequered flag
MW can’t improve on P2
SV 1:29.615
(LH P4)
So the front of the grid will be: P1=SV, 2=MW, 3=FA, 4=LH, 5=NR, 6=RK, 7=FM, 8=RB, 9=PdlR, 10=MS

Provisional grid: SV, MW, FA, LH, NR, RK, FM, RB, PdlR, MS, AS, KK, NH, JB, VL, VP, SB, JA, HK, TG, LdG, KC, SY.