Thursday, September 9, 2010

Sebastian Vettel has fired a warning to his rivals that he has the car to take the chequered flag in Hungary today, as he sensationally claimed his seventh pole of the season.

The gung-ho German shattered the Hungaroring in one minute 18.773secs, with team-mate Mark Webber clocking four tenths of a second slower to ensure Red Bull locked out the front row for the sixth time this year - their 11th pole in the 12 races so far.

But with the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso languishing 1.2secs off the pace in third, it was by far Red Bull’s most dominant qualifying session of the season and leaves Vettel and Aussie pace ace Webber fighting it out.

But after losing pole on the first corner in Germany last week, the young German is confident he won’t put in a repeat performance today.

“It was a very good day for us. All weekend we felt very comfortable with the car and we were able to improve it another bit overnight,” the 23-year-old said. “I said on the radio to the boys, ‘this is your moment’.  I said, ‘you built this wonderful car’.
“It was a pleasure to drive.

“This circuit suits us. You need to know the track but you need to have the car. The track suits our car so we are little bit quicker than the rest. We found the problem from last week that made the bad start, so hopefully we can have a normal start.
“Usually in Hungary it is important to be on the clean side. The start is important but there are 70 laps after that. It will be an exciting race.”

Webber was full of praise for his team-mate, but, no doubt to the concern of team boss Christian Horner, refused to rule out challenging Vettel for the top place on the podium.

“I did my best yesterday,” the Aussie said. “I probably didn’t put in the cleanest lap on the first flyer but, hey, that’s the way it goes. “I’m sure there’s a bit more for both of us to get out of the car again as well. I’m still in a great position congratulations to Seb, he deserves pole - but we can both have a great race tomorrow for sure.”

Alonso, who controversially took the chequered flag at Hockenheim a week ago, conceded his Ferrari was well off the pace, but intends to make a lightning start for to upset the Red Bulls for the second week running.

“We found a big gap between Red Bull and us this weekend, so we maximised our potential,” the speedy Spaniard said.

“We did our job, which is to be best of the rest.

“Hopefully we can make it a more difficult race for them because so far this weekend it has been too easy.

The start is important, it is difficult to overtake. Strategy will be important but we know the start will be 60-70 per cent of the race.”

Alonso is joined on the second row by team-mate Felipe Massa, who suffered a near-fatal accident in qualifying on this track just over a year ago.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton again performed superbly in a below-par McLaren to claim fifth ahead of Nico Mercedes’ Rosberg, however for the second time in the last three races, fellow Brit Jenson Button failed to make it into Q3. It’s the sixth time in the last seven races he has now been out-qualified by Hamilton.