Although the team were expected to suffer in light of the FIA's ban on changing engine maps in parc ferme, Vettel proved that it is not the secret of their success.The reigning World Champ crossed the line with a 1:36.975, beating his team-mate Mark Webber to pole position by 0.188s. Lewis Hamilton qualified in third place with Fernando Alonso starting from P4.
Qualifying 1
It was warm and windy as the cars took to the the track in bright Valencia sunshine, the ambient temperature of 26C with the track at 44C.
There were no problems left over from a fairly uneventful morning practice and it was Nick Heidfeld's Renault setting the first P1 time at 1:41.897. All the top runners would try and get through this opening session using only the Medium (Prime) tyre and saving their Soft (Option) tyre for Q2 and beyond.
To get the medium tyres working, and up to temperature, the teams embarked on multi-lap runs. Mark Webber took the P1 time down to 1:40.429, team-mate Sebastian Vettel beat that with a 1:39.965, while Jenson Button edged that down a 1:39.605.
Vettel took over at the front again with a 1:39.356 and then Lewis Hamilton grabbed the spot with a 1:39.244. Not for long, Sebastain Vettel lowered the time to 1:39.116. It was already clear, though, that the McLarens were more than a match for the Red Bulls on the Prime tyre.
The Ferrari team had gone two ways on front-wing set-up with Felipe Massa sporting a double-element front wing and Fernando Alonso going for a triple. Alonso was using his to better effect.
Running into the last four minutes, the mid-grid teams had been forced to go for the soft tyres. Heikki Kovalainen had put his Lotus up into P15 using the soft tyres and so the others had to react. At this stage the main contenders for the unexpected exit were: 16.Barrichello, 17.DiResta, 18.Kobayashi with Williams' Pastor Maldonado yet to set a time.
Maldonado came out and delivered P6, Paul DiResta (after limited running on Friday thanks to Nico Hulkenberg damaging his car) jumped to P9, Rubens Barrichello disappeared off to P11.
These improvements started to push Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa towards the late 'teens. Rosberg jumped up to P4 on his set of softs which pushed Mark Webber to a perilous P17 (still sticking to his medium compound).
As the session reached its conclusion there were 20 drivers out on track with Massa opting to bolt on a set of soft tyres to make certain of his inclusion. That produced a lap time of 1:38.413, the fastest of Q1. And safety of course. It hadn't been too cautious an approach, he had been in P17...
Mark Webber managed to jump to P14 and when Kamui Kobyashi improved hhis position from P18 to P16, that left Jaime Alguersuari stuck in P18 with no laps left.
And so out went: 18. Alguersuari, 19.Kovalainen, 20.Trullim 21.Glock, 22.Liuzzi, 23.D'Ambrosio, 24.Karthikeyan.
Trulli managed to spin in the final corner to wreck his chance of beating Kovalainen in qualifying again, Mark Webber ended up an uncomfortable P16, but it was Alguersuari who was the big loser, having gone out in P18 in the last three races.
Qualifying 2
It was straight onto the soft tyres for the front runners now. Massa continued using his set from Q1 and produced a 1:38.566, Mark Webber beat it with a 1:38.058, Fernando Alonso edged ahead of that with a 1:37.930 and then Sebastian Vettel booked his place in Q3 with a 1:37.305.
Behind Vettel, Button slotted into P2 and then Lewis Hamilton took P2 off him. Just as the Ferrari team were thinking about making their times a little better, Pastor Maldonado slowed to an unexpected halt in a tricky position just off the racing line and had to be retrieved by crane. It brought the red flag out with 7.59 of the session still to run.
Vitaly Petrov and Sebastien Buemi had yet to set a time.
When the Williams car was cleared, there was no great rush out of the pits to complete a lap. With four minutes left to run the danger position were: 7.Massa, 8.Schumacher, 9.Heidfeld, 10.Sutil, 11.DiResta, 12.Barrichello, 13.Maldonado, 14.Perez, 15.Kobayashi, 16.Petrov (no time), 17.Buemi (no time).
Kobayashi improved to P13, Barrichello could only stay P12. Petrov overtook his team-mate to grab P9, Buemi stayed a disappointing P17, Michael Schumacher made himself safe with P6. Nick Heidfeld jumped back in front of his Renault team-mate to hold P9.
The symmetry of 2 Red Bulls, McLarens, Ferraris, Renaults and Mercedes getting into Q3 was then ruined by Adrian Sutil who slotted his Force India into P10 demoting Vitaly Petrov to P11.
So out went: 11.Petrov, 12.DiResta, 13.Barrichello, 14.Kobayashi, 15.Maldonado, 16.Perez, 17.Buemi.
Qualifying 3With engine maps having to be carried through from qualifying to the race it was all eyes on Red Bull to see if they could sustain their advantage at the front.
It didn't take long to realise that an upset was unlikely to be the case. Alonso set provisional pole with a 1:37.454, Lewis Hamilton took it from him with a 1:37.380 and then Sebastian Vettel went four tenths of a second faster with a 1:36.975.
The top six after the first runs lined up: Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Webber, Button, Massa. Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld and Michael Schumacher didn't go out at first and Nico Rosberg had the circuit to himself in the middle for his timed run.
Rosberg set P7 before the final flurry. Michael's one run put him a whisker shy of Rosberg in P8, Heidfeld didn't complete a whole lap and Adrian Sutil didn't bother going out at all.
Thus it was the front runners who were going to provide the action and Mark Webber showed that he can get within 0.2 of his team-mate by moving up to P2.
Behind him, though, it was mostly anti-climax. Alonso realised he was slower and came into the pits, Hamilton realised he was slower and came into the pits, Button was slower and didn't improve and got overtaken by Felipe Massa who squeezed up into P5.
Realising that he now had pole, Vettel didn't need to put in another lap and also came into the pits. Thus Vettel achieved his seventh pole out of seven for the year without major drama. Given the closeness of McLaren on the medium tyre and two DRS zones to overtake in, the race will be a lot tougher to dominate.
Times
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.975
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m37.163 + 0.188
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.380 + 0.405
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.454 + 0.479
5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.535 + 0.560
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.645 + 0.670
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.231 + 1.256
8. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.240 + 1.265
9. Nick Heidfeld Renault No time
10. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes No time
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m39.068s + 1.763
12. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.422s + 2.117
13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m39.489s + 2.184
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.525s + 2.220
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m39.645s + 2.340
16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.657s + 2.352
17. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.711s + 2.406
18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.232 + 1.819
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m41.664 + 3.251
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m42.234 + 3.821
21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m42.553 + 4.140
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m43.584 + 5.171
23. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m43.735 + 5.322
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m44.363 + 5.950
Source: Planet-F1
