Vettel bags Valencia poleposted in F123 | 06 | 2012
RED BULL'S SEBASTIAN VETTEL will start from pole position for tomorrow's European Grand Prix in Valencia, with Scot Paul di Resta lining up 10th, after what he admitted was "a missed opportunity".
The 26-year-old from Bathgate was disappointed not to start further up the grid after topping the timesheets in Q2 today.
"It's going to take a few hours to reflect on it," he said afterwards. "It was a bit of a missed opportunity.
"On the last lap, I tried as much as I could and unfortunately locked the rears and an inside wheel as well at Turn 17. The lap was identical to Q2 at that point and it would have been the same probably.
"We were the quickest car in Q2 and if I could have repeated that lap time in Q3 I would have been a couple of rows higher up the grid."
In Q2, Di Resta powered his Sahara Force India VJM05 to a fastest time of 1min 38.519secs, but was lass than half-a-second slower in Q3, clocking 1:38.992.
The Scot's Q2 time would have been good enough to put him sixth on the grid, and Di Resta suspects he could have improved on that lap in the final sector without his mistake.
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"Looking at it realistically P4 was possible," he said. "If I'd improve in the last sector then possibly P3. It was in there.
"The positive side is we've showed we're very competitive, but I don't have to tell, if you look at the sector times, what happened.
"It cost us a lot of positions, but that's the difference from an exceptional lap to the one I had.
"But I will focus on the positives because we have been strong in all the sessions, the car is well dialled into the circuit, and I think we will have good race pace for tomorrow.”
European Grand Prix — Qualifying (Provisional)
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.086s;
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.410s +0.324;
3. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m38.475s +0.389;
4. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.505s +0.419;
5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m38.513s +0.427;
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.623s +0.537;
7. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.741s +0.655;
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m38.752s +0.666;
9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.801s +0.715;
10. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m38.992s +0.906;
Q2 cut-off time: 1m38.703s
11. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.707s +0.218;
12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.770s +0.281;
13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.780s +0.291;
14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m39.207s +0.718;
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.358s +0.869;
16. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m40.295s +1.806;
17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.358s +1.869;
Q1 cut-off time: 1m40.087s
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.203s +1.378;
19. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m40.395s +1.570;
20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m40.457s +1.632;
21. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m42.171s +3.346;
22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m42.527s +3.702;
23. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.675s +3.850.
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Jim McGill