The First Corner - What will happen at The Start?
- Published on May 21st, 2011 by Adam MilleneuveAfter a rather exciting qualifying session with some unexpected results such as a Williams in the top 10, a 7-time champion in the top ten and Sebastian Vettel not grabbing pole position, it's time to look to the start for Sunday's grand prix.
Earlier this week we asked 'who or what, if anything can stop Vettel' - one suggestion was to have him not start at the front and well, thanks to Mr Webber we have that exact scenario with the Aussie looking to lead the way into turn 1 - if he can get a decent start that is. It will be a refreshing change to see Vettel having to battle from the outset, especially when his main rival is likely to be the driver he shares the garage with.
Elsewhere, Hamilton will be as racey as ever but likely to be struggling a little with his flat-spotted tyre from qualifying (not allowed to change it!) and then behind him there's the super-chirpy Fernando Alonso who surprised himself and everyone else at Ferrari with a second row qualifying performance. We already know the Ferrari has great race pace, so it's fairly likely that the Spaniard will be aiming for a podium and he has a great chance of taking the McLaren of Hamilton as the lights go out.
Having rookies up in amongst the front runners is always a worry and from we have to go on - i.e not much, Pastor Maldonado is a somewhat unknown entity and could cause an 'interesting' opening lap.
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So what do you all see happening after the lights go out at Circuit de Catalunya?
Here's how the field will line up for the start
 | Mark Webber | |||
| Row 1 | Red Bull |  | Sebastian Vettel | |
| 1'20.981 | Red Bull | |||
| 1'21.181 | ||||
 | Lewis Hamilton | |||
| Row 2 | McLaren |  | Fernando Alonso | |
| 1'21.961 | Ferrari | |||
| 1'21.964 | ||||
 | Jenson Button | |||
| Row 3 | McLaren |  | Vitaly Petrov | |
| 1'21.996 | Renault | |||
| 1'22.471 | ||||
 | Nico Rosberg | |||
| Row 4 | Mercedes |  | Felipe Massa | |
| 1'22.599 | Ferrari | |||
| 1'22.888 | ||||
 | Pastor Maldonado | |||
| Row 5 | Williams |  | M.Schumacher | |
| 1'22.952 | Mercedes | |||
| - | ||||
 | Sebastien Buemi | |||
| Row 6 | Toro Rosso |  | Sergio Perez | |
| 1'23.231 | Sauber | |||
| 1'23.367 | ||||
 | J.Alguersuari | |||
| Row 7 | Toro Rosso |  | Kamui Kobayashi | |
| 1'23.694 | Sauber | |||
| 1'23.702 | ||||
 | H.Kovalainen | |||
| Row 8 | Lotus |  | Paul Di Resta | |
| 1'25.403 | Force India | |||
| 1'26.126 | ||||
 | Adrian Sutil | |||
| Row 9 | Force India |  | Jarno Trulli | |
| 1'26.571 | Lotus | |||
| 1'26.521 | ||||
 | R.Barrichello | |||
| Row 10 | Williams |  | Timo Glock | |
| 1'26.910 | Virgin | |||
| 1'27.315 | ||||
 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | |||
| Row 11 | HRT |  | N.Karthikeyan | |
| 1'27.809 | HRT | |||
| 1'27.908 | ||||
 | J.D'Ambrosio | |||
| Row 12 | Virgin |  | Nick Heidfeld | |
| 1'28.556 | Renault | |||
| - |
Driver character graphics courtesy of Unlap.co.uk - purveyors of fine motorsport related threads...
Comments and Discussion
Interesting qualifying times!
Vettel will need the start of his life to be in contention tomorrow. He's starting on the dirty side and it's a very long run down to turn 1. Both the McLarens could be past him by then.
Lewis tends to have brilliant starts froms the dirty side as well so i think he can deffinetly get vettel into turn one. Alonso on the other hand hasn't had great starts and he's on the dirty side jenson could get him. Schuy to possibly get past pastor felipe and rosberg from the dirty side of the grid Kamui to take sergio. I'll stop there the more predictions i make the bigger idiot i'll probably look. ^^
I assume that Red Bull can't repair the Kers on Vettel's car, if so he is going to be struggling off the start and may go back a few places?
Hamilton is my favorite and I'm sure he'll make a good start. But watch out for Button. He's so good with his tyre management. And as much as it hurts me to say this, Alonso is looking really strong. I'd like to see Weber get a win, too. This all applies IF Vettel has an off day. And believe me it REALLY hurts me to admit this!
Webber on pole with a 1'36.468? Interesting!
Sorted the times out, they were in fact the qualy times from Turkey - slight gremlin in the machine there! Good point about the long run down to turn 1, sure will be a interesting sprint!
supposedly he'll have KERS for the race. Those Red Bull folk are clever.
Yep
Those times were from Turkey!
Great race! Hell of a start for Alonso. McLaren looking really good, Button is Zen. Kinda getting boring with RB. Adrian Newey is THE man- most important person in F1 IMO.
What did I say? msc on the dirty side overtakes his team m8 on the clean side and 3 grid positions ahead in the first lap. The rest of what I said on the other hand couldn't possibly have gone more wrong!!!