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• Seb's Silverstone Scorcher

  Qualifying for the 2009 British GP got underway under cloudy and windy conditions today. The Red Bull's  being the quickest out of the box, just as they had been in the previous practice sessions. However Q1 was brought to an abrupt end with a Red Flag after Adrian Sutil hit the barrier down at the Abbey Chicane.

  The Force India driver ran wide going into the corner and lost control of the car, ending his qualifying session in the barrier. The red flag was thrown with little over 30 secs left on the clock and many of the cars in the drop zone who were pushing to get a hot lap in were forced to abort. This had particularly bad consequences for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who was left down in 19th and no hope of improving.

  The session for some bizarre reason restarted with 30 seconds to go and only Buemi returned to track for what can only be seen as "for the hell" of it, as there was no way he could hope to complete a lap before the flag fell for the end of the session.

  Runners that fell victim to Q1 included Fisichella, Bourdais, Sutil, Hamilton & Buemi. Q2 soon followed with both the Williams & Toyota's looking good to get into Q3. Both of the Brawns and the Red Bull's again continued to dominate, however it was Barrichello who seemed to have the upper had and speed over his team mate Button, who struggled to continue his dominate form from Turkey. Red Bulls again were at the top of the times with Vettel leading Webber into Q3.

  BMW's miserable 2009 season continued to show no signs of improvement as both cars were eliminated along with Renault's Nelson Piquet & McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen. The suprise drop out in Q2 came in the shape of Ferrari's Felipe Massa who just seemed unable to find his earlier practice pace.

  The pole position shoot out started with all the drivers coming out to get a banker lap in. Button again struggled to cling onto his team mate and ended up 6th on the grid, in-between the Williams duo of Rosberg & Nakajima. Provisional pole position went to Mark Webber, who looked to have the faster of the two Red Bulls. Rubens Barrichello soon posted a faster time in an attempt to spoil the Red Bull parade, but in turn he soon lost out to a flying Vettel who took over the pole position with only a minute of the session remaining.

  Any chance Mark Webber had of claiming his maiden Pole Position were scuppered after he claimed he was block by a dithering Kimi Raikkonen in the first sector. Webber ended up 3rd alongside the Toyota of Jarno Trulli in 4th. Raikkonen end up a distant 9th, just behind the other Toyota of Glock, but ahead of Fernando Alonso's Renault.

  Thus the scene is perfectly set for tomorrow, can Red Bull make a dent in Brawn's strangle hold on the Championships, can Rubens get in the mix or will we have a surprise winner in what looks like the last British Grand Prix to be held at Silverstone – only time will tell.

  • Date: 10:03pm Sat, 20^th June 2009
  • By: Lloyd
  • Section: Latest News