Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Home » Sports » Motor Racing
Vettel claims British GP pole
Source: Agencies |
June 21, 2009, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RED Bull's Sebastian Vettel seized his second pole position in a row while Formula One leader Jenson Button could qualify only sixth for his home British Grand Prix yesterday.
Button's teammate and closest title rival Rubens Barrichello, whose last win was with Ferrari in 2004, took second place on the starting grid for Brawn GP with Australian Mark Webber third for Red Bull.
The pole, in a time of one minute 19.509 seconds at Silverstone, was the fourth of Vettel's Formula One career and third of the season. Barrichello lapped in 1:19.856 with the fuel loads yet to be revealed.
"I think we have done a step forward," said the 21-year-old German, whose victory in China makes him the only driver other than Button to have won a race this year.
The Briton has a 26-point lead over Brazilian Barrichello, and is 32 ahead of Vettel, with 10 races remaining.
Button struggled for grip after failing to get the car balanced to his taste and was gloomy about his chances: "I think it is almost impossible (to win)," he said. "I haven't had the pace all weekend.
"I was hoping for something a bit better, being sixth is a lot worse than I thought it would be. So it's going to be a difficult race tomorrow."
Webber slammed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, blaming the Finn for keeping him off the front row: "I had a big distraction from Kimi. He was totally asleep on the back straight," said the Australian.
"He sat on the racing line and basically didn't care."
Tenth-fastest
Raikkonen finished ninth on the grid, with Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa of Brazil in 11th behind Renault's two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain, who was tenth-fastest.
World champion Lewis Hamilton, who put in one of the all-time great performances in the wet to win for McLaren last year, suffered the worst qualifying performance of his Formula One career in 19th place.
Hamilton was unable to escape from the bottom group when Force India's Adrian Sutil crashed heavily into the tire wall at Abbey and the first session was red-flagged with 24 seconds remaining.
"I did the best I could. I was pushing as hard as I could. We were just dead slow," said Hamilton, who thanked the fans for their support.
"The race is over but we'll keep fighting and hopefully put on a good show for the fans," he said.
Sutil went to the medical center for checks after clambering from his badly damaged car, but was given the nod for today. The German blamed brake failure for the accident.
Italian Jarno Trulli qualified fourth for Toyota, with Japan's Kazuki Nakajima registering a career-best grid position with fifth for Williams.
Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen, who was on pole last year, also failed to shine in the uncompetitive McLaren and qualified 13th.
Button's teammate and closest title rival Rubens Barrichello, whose last win was with Ferrari in 2004, took second place on the starting grid for Brawn GP with Australian Mark Webber third for Red Bull.
The pole, in a time of one minute 19.509 seconds at Silverstone, was the fourth of Vettel's Formula One career and third of the season. Barrichello lapped in 1:19.856 with the fuel loads yet to be revealed.
"I think we have done a step forward," said the 21-year-old German, whose victory in China makes him the only driver other than Button to have won a race this year.
The Briton has a 26-point lead over Brazilian Barrichello, and is 32 ahead of Vettel, with 10 races remaining.
Button struggled for grip after failing to get the car balanced to his taste and was gloomy about his chances: "I think it is almost impossible (to win)," he said. "I haven't had the pace all weekend.
"I was hoping for something a bit better, being sixth is a lot worse than I thought it would be. So it's going to be a difficult race tomorrow."
Webber slammed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, blaming the Finn for keeping him off the front row: "I had a big distraction from Kimi. He was totally asleep on the back straight," said the Australian.
"He sat on the racing line and basically didn't care."
Tenth-fastest
Raikkonen finished ninth on the grid, with Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa of Brazil in 11th behind Renault's two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain, who was tenth-fastest.
World champion Lewis Hamilton, who put in one of the all-time great performances in the wet to win for McLaren last year, suffered the worst qualifying performance of his Formula One career in 19th place.
Hamilton was unable to escape from the bottom group when Force India's Adrian Sutil crashed heavily into the tire wall at Abbey and the first session was red-flagged with 24 seconds remaining.
"I did the best I could. I was pushing as hard as I could. We were just dead slow," said Hamilton, who thanked the fans for their support.
"The race is over but we'll keep fighting and hopefully put on a good show for the fans," he said.
Sutil went to the medical center for checks after clambering from his badly damaged car, but was given the nod for today. The German blamed brake failure for the accident.
Italian Jarno Trulli qualified fourth for Toyota, with Japan's Kazuki Nakajima registering a career-best grid position with fifth for Williams.
Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen, who was on pole last year, also failed to shine in the uncompetitive McLaren and qualified 13th.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
