Belgium 2011 - Qualifying results - Red Bull snatch pole position but the session delivers regardless

Published 27 August 2011 by Christine

Sebastian Vettel staked his claim on yet another pole position, but the dominant Red Bull result belies what was a fascinating and unexpected qualifying session. From the very beginning the action never stopped, with Schumacher finding himself in the gravel and out of Q1, to the middle with Button in the garage and a Hamilton/Maldonado incident, to the end, where it was simply a matter of who could cross the line last.

Position	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:48.298	22
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:48.730	21
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:49.376	23
4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:50.256	21
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:50.552	23
6	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso	1:50.773	24
7	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:51.121	24
8	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:51.251	22
9	Sergio Pérez	Sauber	1:51.374	24
10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:52.303	23
11	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso	2:04.692	18
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	2:04.757	18
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	2:05.150	15
14	Rubens Barrichello	Williams	2:07.349	17
15	Adrian Sutil	Force India	2:07.777	12
16	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus	2:08.354	15
17	Paul di Resta	Force India	2:07.758	8
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus	2:08.773	8
19	Timo Glock	Virgin	2:09.566	9
20	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Virgin	2:11.601	9
21	Pastor Maldonado *	Williams	2:08.106	17
22	Tonio Liuzzi	HRT	2:11.616	9
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT	2:13.077	9
24	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	No Time	1

Q1 107% time - 2:10.339

Note: Jérôme D'Ambrosio, Tonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo all set Q1 times outside the 107% cutoff. Michael Schumacher did not set a time in Q1. All four drivers were cleared to race by the FIA, however.

* Pastor Maldonado originally qualified 16th but was handed a five place grid penalty after a post-Q2 collision with Lewis Hamilton.