Formula One news
Vettel on pole at Silverstone
20 June 2009 / Results / PhotosSebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing will start Sunday's British Grand Prix at Silverstone from pole position for the second race in sucession. The German will be joined on the front row of the grid by Rubens Barrichello's Brawn with the second Red Bull of Mark Webber in third place. Championship leader Jenson Button will start his home Grand Prix from sixth position.
With the sun unsure on whether to break through in Northamptonshire, those present at Silverstone were pleased to see the morning's light rain fall stay away on a cool day in England. Vettel, who set his flying lap last of the front runners, headed the final classification with a best effort of 1.19.509. Rubens Barrichello outqualifies Brawn team-mate Jenson Button for the first time this season and joins the German on the front row of the grid as Mark Webber starts third, one place futher back than in 2008.
For Button, the race could be his most challenging of the season so far; the championship leader will start from the back half of row three and position six, after failing to beat Jarno Trulli and being pushed down by Kazuki Nakajima - who achieves his best ever qualifying result for Williams - in the last knockings of the session. Nico Rosberg is seventh, having been quickest in final practice, with Timo Glock joining him on the eighth row. The next row is very much 'Champions' Row', as Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari lines up alongside the Renault of Fernando Alonso, with the Finn being the highest placed KERS car.
Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing day and will be joining Sébastien Buemi on the final row of the grid; the World Champion's cause was not helped by red flags being thrown just 24 seconds before the end of the first period, which hampered most drivers' final Q1 efforts. The second cars of Ferrari and McLaren finished in 11th and 13th positions respectively for Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen, sandwiching Robert Kubica's BMW.
The reason for the stoppage was an accident for Adrian Sutil, as an rear mechanical failure on the Force India forced the German to over-correct on entry to the Abbey chicane; with the car heading off the race track at an 80mph corner and with no chance of avoiding the tyre barrier, Adrian sustained a large impact which saw the car invert admit a cloud of dust, with several piece of debris flying over the catch fencing. Thankfully, 26-year-old Sutil walked away unharmed after the car landed the right way up.
With the World Champion at the back, the championship leader surround by cars, Vettel looking to inflict as much damage as possible into Button's lead and the ever-present threat of rain on the horizon, the British Grand Prix promises to be a dramatic afternoon of motor racing, which can be followed live on GPUpdate.net from 1pm British time (BST / GMT +1) on Sunday.
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