Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying - Webber beats Vettel

Questions from Qualifying


For the first time this year, we have a new pole sitter and it is Webber on RB7, - Can Mark Webber capitalize rare chance to put one over his team mate? 
- Will Vettel be left stranded at the start with out KERS?
- Can Lewis capitalize on the race where he lost out on qualifying? But his tyres has a burned patch
- Can Jenson, the smooth tyre operator jump ahead in race strategy?


Many questions that needs answered and would be answered in today's Grand Prix, the qualifying is loosing its steam due to DRS and Tyres strategy




I am going to skip the qualifying as the timings are available everywhere and it was a straight forward qualifying session with very few surprises which I will highlight at the bottom, but I would Analyze race strategy here


Probable Race Strategy


The new "Super" hard tyres which Pirelli has bought for Spanish Grand Prix is lasting a lot comparing it the the normal hard tyres and in comparision to soft it is almost 2 seconds slower
Using it earlier in the race would be a gamble as most of the front runners are using soft tyres and potentially will loose places (But Remember Webber in China and Kobyahsi in Turkey) 


# of soft tyres available for the drivers by race

Driver	Sets
Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov, Pastor Maldonado, Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez, Jaime Alguersuari	0
Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Buemi, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Narain Karthikeyan, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Timo Glock, Jerome D’Ambrosio	1
Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta	2
Rubens Barrichello	3
Nick Heidfeld	4

Heidfeld will be trying to mimick webber with the choice of tyres he has (4 stops) I belive for him. 


The summary strategy would be : Drivers would like to spend less time on Hard tyres and postponing the stop as late as possible, I am guessing 3 to 4 pit stops for all the front driving drivers


Few Surprises




- Heikki Kovalainen raised huge smiles at Lotus, not only because he qualified 15th on merit on 1m 25.403s, but because that comprehensively out-paced the troubled Force Indias
- Rubens Barrichello was in trouble with his Williams which spent too much time in the pits due to gearbox trouble, and was 19th on 1m 26.910s
- Jerome D’Ambrosio was also in trouble, running 1m 28.556s in the second Virgin for P23. Nick Heidfeld will start at the back, not running at all as his Renault was still being repaired after its morning fire


Qualifying Timing & Race Driver Line up

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:23.619	1:21.773	1:20.981	12
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:24.142	1:21.540	1:21.181	13
3	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.370	1:22.148	1:21.961	12
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:23.485	1:22.813	1:21.964	15
5	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.428	1:22.050	1:21.996	12
6	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:23.069	1:22.948	1:22.471	14
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.507	1:22.569	1:22.599	14
8	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:23.506	1:23.026	1:22.888	15
9	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.406	1:22.854	1:22.952	14
10	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:22.960	1:22.671		12
11	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:23.962	1:23.231		6
12	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:24.209	1:23.367		9
13	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:24.049	1:23.694		9
14	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:23.656	1:23.702		8
15	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:25.874	1:25.403		6
16	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:24.332	1:26.126		13
17	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:24.648	1:26.571		13
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:26.521			4
19	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:26.910			5
20	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:27.315			8
21	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.809			9
22	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.908			9
23	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:28.556			5
	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	no time			0
		Q1 107% Time		1:28.767

Courtesy : F1.Com, F1 Fanatic, BBC F1 & Tweets from indiviual teams & Drivers