Many drivers have shone today. Fernando, Sebastian, Michael, Hulkenberg, Maldonado When all seemed lost, they pulled something out of the bag. Hulkenberg 4th may help out Mercedes' strategy tomorrow.
Im guessing cold tyres, a lot of the cars including jenson got a fresh set of hot tyres, lewis was left out there for the whole session on the same set. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.
So much for me trying to put down Lewis/McLaren when the same situation happend today like at Silverstone. The upgrades did nothing to help their cause because of the rain and it made it a hundred times harder to gather data, they were just asking for trouble as a whole team even after Silverstone were repeating the same process. Hopefully people will now shut up when I actually give a valid opinion like I've just done again! Sure hope Lewis and Jenson can salvage some decent points after McLaren have totally ballsed up this season for them by bringing 2 major upgrades to wet GP's...
What a strange session! Alonso pulled it out of the bag again, he is the new master in handling the track as it gets drier and its not luck as JB tried to make out. What Happened to Hamilton though? Fastest in the wet in Q2, and looked quick again in Q3 before the last 2 mins, another uphill struggle for McLaren tommorow
I saw Vettel raise his arm in anger, but they were pretty close to each other in Quali. I don't think it was as bad as Massa, Alonso.
Shame that Seb made a mistake at the final sector but since Alonso went last over the line it was unlikely he would be able to beat that time.
Seb wont be too bothered (except that he likes his pole stats), the fastest car will win tomorrow given that there is a massive overtaking chance out of the hairpin with DRS. Should be a good one.
McLaren are not as far away as it seems. Just that they split the strategy, with Jenson ending up on the "correct" one, but the timing didn't work out. He was only up too speed by the third sector and didn't have another lap. I expect better from both in the race.
Difference was Massa was actually on a lap whereas Webber was backing off for another attempt. He'll get away with it because Red Bull won't take their own driver to the stewards, but if he'd done it to anyone else he'd probably be facing a penalty. Hulkenberg is awesome in the wet, always right up there. I'm hoping it's hot tomorrow, Red Bull looked a lot better this morning when the sun was out that they did in Q1. Either that or a wet race so Hulk can stay up there.
Button: "It's so difficult to work out why we can't get the tyres working. A certain red team that put it on pole today, last year they had the same issue and they couldn't solve it, and this year they have, but I think they might have lucked into it more than understanding the issue" Bitter. He didn't cut any corners on his pole lap. There was a point where he nearly cut it, but his left front wheel was on the white line.
The sound of a desperate driver. If any driver of the Mclaren team is to move forward tomorrow, it probably will be Hamilton more than Button. But it might be different.
I was watching Button onboard quite a bit earlier (Sky inexplicably had him on both onboard channels despite him not even setting lap times and finishing 23rd) and he looked like he had terrible understeer. He then came into the pits and said he felt like he had too much front wing; no wonder he can't heat the fronts up. I didn't hear Button citing luck when he won in Australia, if they can't understand the tyres after 10 grands prix and an in-season test it can only be by luck that they were fastest in Australia. I don't see McLaren scoring a podium in any of the next three races personally. Hamilton's got his work cut out staying in touch with the front three and then he has to pray McLaren sort their form out sooner rather than later. It's becoming a three way battle.
Even I have to admit as a McLaren fan that Jenson is talking a load of rubbish there, he just needs to let his driving do the talking!
Benson on twitter: Considering Red Bull did not use a second set of tyres (and @alo_oficial and Schu did), Vettel & @AussieGrit times are very, very impressive
McLaren looked quick in practice and Q1 so I expect them (at least Hamilton anyway) to make up some ground in the race. They also have good straight line speed, as do Mercedes and Ferrari: Speed trap: 2. Rosberg - 316.6 3. Schumacher - 316.1 4. Massa - 315.9 6. Hamilton - 315.3 8. Alonso - 314.6 9. Button - 314.4 20. Webber - 307.6 21. Vettel - 307.6
Lol my dad hates Hulkenberg (mainly because of Monza 2010) so here's a perfect representation of him during tonight's quali:
