Hats off to Mark Webber, with Abu Dhabi being the first of his final 3 races of his F1 career it’s clear he’s aiming to go out on a high.
The first session saw the younger teams bowing out along with Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez. Adrian will need a super awesome strategy to continue Force India’s run of points on Sunday… keep an eye out for that.
Round 2 was rather alarming for Fernando Alonso who missed out on chance to fight for pole, with only managing 11th best, behind his team mate, Massa who out qualified him again. Jenson Button also sounded like he needed a sit down with some tea and cake after missing out on getting through to Q3. Sahara Force India’s hopes of a top 10 grid slot rested with Paul Di Resta, but sadly the Scot could only muster 12th fastest.
Standout performances in Q2 for Perez, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg who finished 5th, 6th and 7th fro McLaren, Toro Rosso and Sauber. It was a closely matched session, so kudos to them for making it happen.
As we enter the final session, to predict anyone besides Vettel (or ‘Phettel’ as everyone seems to be calling him now) would be nuts. Yes the Mercedes duo would have a chance and maybe even Grosjean too, but as the fastest time was set by the 2013 World Champion, it looked to be sewn up. Until Mark Webber went out and put together a magical lap to steal pole from his team mate.
For Mark’s sake I hope he can ‘do a Vettel’ on Sunday and take a win and end his career on a high. He deserves that.
The Starting Grid:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Webber | Red Bull/Renault | 1'39.957 | - |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull/Renault | 1'40.075 | 0.118 |
| 3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1'40.419 | 0.462 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1'40.501 | 0.544 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus/Renault | 1'40.542 | 0.585 |
| 6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber/Ferrari | 1'40.576 | 0.619 |
| 7 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Renault | 1'40.997 | 1.040 |
| 8 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1'41.015 | 1.058 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'41.068 | 1.111 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1'41.111 | 1.154 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1'41.093 | 1.136 |
| 12 | Paul Di Resta | Force India/Mercedes | 1'41.133 | 1.176 |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Mercedes | 1'41.200 | 1.243 |
| 14 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1'41.279 | 1.322 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams/Renault | 1'41.395 | 1.438 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Renault | 1'41.447 | 1.490 |
| 17 | E.Gutierrez | Sauber/Ferrari | 1'41.999 | 2.042 |
| 18 | Adrian Sutil | Force India/Mercedes | 1'42.051 | 2.094 |
| 19 | G.van der Garde | Caterham/Renault | 1'43.252 | 3.295 |
| 20 | Charles Pic | Caterham/Renault | 1'43.528 | 3.571 |
| 21 | Max Chilton | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'44.198 | 4.241 |
| 22* | Jules Bianchi | Marussia/Cosworth | 1'43.398 | 3.441 |
