Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix during Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at the Interlagos circuit. The Red Bull driver, who clocked a 1:26.479 in a delayed and sodden final shootout, led Mercedes rival Nico Rosberg by more than six tenths of a second, with Fernando Alonso third.
Ahead of Q3, race control issued a total of four 10-minute delays to proceedings, with rainfall increasing after the second qualifying phase. When the action finally resumed, the drivers switched to Pirelli’s Wet tyre compound, having contested the opening two segments on the Intermediate rubber.
After the first sequence of runs, it was Vettel who led the way, but the Intermediate crossover point arrived much sooner than the drivers had first anticipated. A mad dash back to the pit lane then ensued, before a final run battle for pole position.
With the track constantly improving, Vettel proceeded to deliver his stunning benchmark, ending up 0.623 seconds clear of Rosberg. Ferrari driver Alonso set the third fastest time to secure his best grid position since Bahrain, edging out Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.
The Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne, who were close to missing the Q2 cut earlier in the afternoon, ultimately starred en route to seventh and eighth positions, with Felipe Massa and Nico Hülkenberg rounding out the top ten.
Despite a top five showing in Q1 and team-mate Grosjean’s pace, Heikki Kovalainen failed to make it past the second qualifying hurdle in 11th, admitting afterwards that he was “simply not quick enough” as his battle to get to grips with the E21 continues.
Force India’s Paul di Resta and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas followed in 12th and 13th positions, while McLaren suffered its first double Q2 elimination of the season. Sergio Pérez – who crashed after the chequered flag had dropped – edged out team-mate Jenson Button to finish 10-9 ahead in the intra-team qualifying battle.
Adrian Sutil was the last of the runners to fall in the second qualifying stage. The Force India man is due to start just ahead of Williams rival Pastor Maldonado and Sauber’s Esteban Gutiérrez, who were the biggest names to drop out in Q1.
With the constant rain yielding no opportunities to surprise, it was business at usual at the back of the grid. Charles Pic outpaced Giedo van der Garde for Caterham honours, with Marussia’s Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton bringing up the rear.
