~ Can Seb KIC it - Yes, he can :D (Red Bull Qualifying report) ~ Sebastian Vettel landed his sixth pole position of the season at the Korea International Circuit, his third in a row after also starting from the front in Singapore and Italy. Mark Webber qualified third, behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, but will start from 13th, due to the 10-place grid penalty he received after the Singapore Grand Prix. Sebastian made light work of the opening two segments of the one-hour session and then set the early pace in Q3 with a lap of 1:37.202. But when his close rivals failed to improve on their second runs, Vettel, who had been the last to exit pit lane for the final laps, could afford to relax, especially as his last warm-up lap had been compromised. “It was close today,” he said after sealing his 42nd career pole position. “I had a very good lap in Q3 on my first attempt and thought I would find it hard to do better. On my second attempt I caught Kimi on the warm-up lap and didn’t have time to drop back, but fortunately the first lap was good enough. “Mercedes was strong and seem to be comfortable in the middle sector,” he added. “We’re good in sector one this year, which is a surprise as that’s mostly straights. We improved the car from yesterday as I wasn’t entirely happy with it after the second practice. In terms of conditions, we should be okay if it’s dry or wet tomorrow. It’s not clear if we get some rain from the typhoon, but let’s see what happens.” Mark, meanwhile, said that he was happy with third place in the session, admitting that the team had sacrificed outright lap time, instead targeting set up for a race that is likely to be trickier because of his penalty. “We had to take a bit of pace out of the car for qualifying, not much, but it was about how we would compromise between qualifying and the race tomorrow,” he said. “I’m pretty happy, I could be two positions further up but that would mean, with the penalty, I would be 11th rather than 13th. It was a pretty tight qualifying with the two Mercedes, Seb and myself. Tomorrow’s race will be interesting, I will be out of position, but we’ll fight and come back through. I think we improved the car in some areas from yesterday.” Fourth place went to Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Nico Rosberg was fifth for Mercedes, ahead of the twin Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who finished sixth and seventh respectively. It was a good day for Sauber, for whom Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth, with team-mate Esteban Gutierrez ninth. It’s the first time the team has had both drivers in Q3 since last year’s Japanese GP. Tenth place went to Kimi Raikkonen. All will move forward one place on the grid, as will McLaren’s Sergio Perez (11th) and Jenson Button (12th) and 13th-placed Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo. Team Principal Christian Horner praised the performance of both Seb and Mark, and also that of engine partner Renault, who reached a significant milestone thanks to Sebastian. “An exciting qualifying today and a great first run in Q3 for Sebastian, which proved to be the lap that achieved the pole position. It was a very strong performance from Mark and it’s a shame that he now has to take a 10-place penalty, but we’ve set the car up with that in mind and hopefully he can make good progress tomorrow. Congratulations to Renault on achieving their 208th pole position, which matches the all-time record of Ferrari.”
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:51:37 +0000
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