British Grand prix qualifying

June 20, 1:27 PMFormula One ExaminerTerrence Connolly

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Red Bull Renault’s Sebastian Vettel will sit on pole for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Vettel’s pole position will be his second in a row in 2009 and is the 4th pole in the young driver's short career. Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello grabbed the second spot on the grid, while Vettel’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber rounds out the top 3 with the 3rd spot. Vettel seemed extremely pleased with all the new aero mods on his Red Bull racecar.

“It's been a fantastic weekend so far from beginning to end. All the parts we have brought here seem to be working well, so we have made a good step forward. From beginning to end it was very close to being perfect."

 
F1 Championship leader, Jenson Button from Brawn GP, had his most disppointing qualifying run of the season , 0.8 of a second behind Vettel, he will start from 6th on the grid. So it was Button’s Brawn team mate Barrichello who was able to at least score a position on the front row of the grid. Rubens saved his best lap for the last session of knockout qualifying, …” it was the best lap of the weekend in Q3 where I took the extreme of the car. I need to check if I breathed during the lap because it was such a nice one. Silverstone has always been quite good and I want to thank all my engineers for their hard work because we found a good balance and I’m pleased to be in the middle of them (the Red Bulls) at least. It’s going to be hard to beat them tomorrow but that’s what I’m here for.”

But Mark Webber apparently thought he might have done even better then the third spot on the grid, if not for a big mistake by Kimi Raikkonen from Ferrari. “I would have liked a slightly cleaner run on my last Q3 lap.” said Webber. “ Kimi (Räikkönen) was, I don’t know, drinking some vodka or dreaming or something… I don’t know what the hell he was doing. He should have been on the right and he’s on the racing line, dreaming, so that wrecked my rhythm into Stowe, I was very tight into there and so..."

So with both Red Bull’s in the top 3, it really is their race to lose. Barrichello is due for some good luck to start rolling his way, but it seems to me that the Red Bulls are just dialed in. Vettel is the clear favorite, but somehow I just have a feeling that Mark Webber will pull this one off and score the very first victory of his long career this Sunday at Silverstone.

British Grand Prix Starting Grid

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault - 1′19.509
2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes - 1′19.856
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault - 1′19.868
4. Jarno Trulli, Toyota - 1′20.091
5. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota - 1′20.216
6. Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes - 1′20.289
7. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota - 1′20.361
8. Timo Glock, Toyota - 1′20.490
9. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari - 1′20.715
10. Fernando Alonso, Renault - 1′20.741
11. Felipe Massa, Ferrari - 1′18.927
12. Robert Kubca, BMW - 1′19.308
13. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes - 1′19.353
14. Nelson Piquet Jnr, Renault - 1′19.392
15. Nick Heidfeld, BMW - 1′19.448
16. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India-Mercedes - 1′19.802
17. Sebastian Bourdais, Toro Rosso-Ferrari - 1′19.898
18. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes - 1′19.909
19. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes - 1′19.917
20. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari - 1′20.236