Vettel's Monaco poleposted in F128 | 05 | 2011
RED BULL'S Sebastian Vettel continued his domination of the 2011 F1 season when he clinched pole position — the 20th of his career — for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix. Scots rookie Paul di Resta again outqualified his more experienced Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil. The 25-year-old from Bathgate lines up 14th on the grid, immediately ahead of the German.
Vettel though was again the class act; the current world champ's best time of 1min 13.556secs was 0.441secs ahead of the McLaren of second-placed Jenson Button, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only manage seventh.
Vettel's team-mate and last year's winner Mark Webber starts third alongside the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, with Michael Schumacher's Mercedes fifth.
The top 10 is completed by Felipe Massa's Ferrari in sixth, with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes eighth ahead of the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Sauber's Sergio Perez didn't post a time after he crashed heavily towards the end of the session causing qualifying to be stopped while rescue crews lifted him from he wreckage. He was later able to talk with medics.
Button meanwhile said that the slippery nature of the circuit and a long wait in the pitlane for the green light to be shown both hampered his performance when the session resumed.
"It was very slippery but we wanted to get out early to push on the out-lap," said Button, who secured only his third front row start since joining McLaren at the start of 2010 as nobody managed to improve their times.
"But there wasn't any tyre temperature because we sat a the end of the pit lane for two and a half minutes. At least I did a good lap in Q3; much better than the Q2 laps." And Di Resta (pictured) was pleased with his performance.
"Yeh, I've got to be happy with that," the Scot smiled afterwards. "The car was just getting better and better as the session went on, so I'm well pleased to be starting 14th and ahead of my team-mate."
CLICK HERE to see more images of Paul in today's Monaco GP qualifying
Monaco Grand Prix, Qualifying Times:
1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault — 1m13.556s;
2. Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m13.997s + 0.441;
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault — 1m14.019s + 0.463;
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari — 1m14.483s + 0.927;
5. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes — 1m14.682s + 1.126;
6. Felipe Massa, Ferrari — 1m14.877s + 1.321;
7. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes — 1m15.280s + 1.724;
8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes — 1m15.766s + 2.210;
9. Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth — 1m16.528s + 2.972;
10. Sergio Perez, Sauber-Ferrari
Q3 cut-off time: 1m15.545s Gap **
11. Vitaly Petrov, Renault — 1m15.815s + 1.540
12. Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth — 1m15.826s + 1.551;
13. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber-Ferrari — 1m15.973s + 1.698;
14. Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes — 1m16.118s + 1.843;
15. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes — 1m16.121s + 1.846;
16. Nick Heidfeld, Renault — 1m16.214s + 1.939;
17. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m16.300s + 2.025;
Q3 cut-off time: 1m16.813s Gap *
18. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Renault — 1m17.343s + 2.136;
19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault — 1m17.381s + 2.174;
20. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari — 1m17.820s + 2.613;
21. Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m17.914s + 2.707;
22. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin-Cosworth — 1m18.736s + 3.529;
23. Tonio Liuzzi, HRT-Cosworth — No time;
24. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT-Cosworth — No time.
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Jim McGill