In Abu Dhabi, Sebastian Vettel matched Nigel Mansell’s record of 14 pole positions in a single Formula 1 season, which stood for 19 years. In the final qualifying session of the season at the Brazilian track of Interlagos, he had his last chance to break it - at least for the current season. Which of course he did, consistently beating his teammate Mark Weber who will line up beside him on Sunday's starting grid.
"There has been quite some talk before the qualifying, before this weekend, about this particular record and I think the best thing was just not to think about it at all”, said Vettel after qualifying.
“Yesterday we did have sort of a rough start to the weekend where I wasn't 100% happy with the balance yet but then I think we made the right choices overnight and again going in to qualifying,” he added.
Despite topping the timing seats on Friday’s second free practice session, breaking Red Bull's domination on the other two, Lewis Hamilton did not perform as well in the official qualifier. He was 0.2 seconds slower than Jenson Button was in the other McLaren, and 0.562 seconds slower than Vettel.
Predictably, given the teams’ overall performance in 2011, Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari was in fifth place. Nico Rosberg was quick enough in practice to challenge the Spaniard, but eventually had to settle with beating the second Ferrari with Felipe Massa, as well as his team mate in Mercedes GP, Michael Schumacher, who couldn’t manage anything better than 10th place.
Timing information provided by FIA
