Qualifying At Silverstone

“Silverstone is strongly advising fans with public car park passes for Saturday, not to come to Silverstone tomorrow,” read a statement. “Unless spectators have PRE-BOOKED Park and Ride, have a hospitality ticket that includes parking in the centre of the circuit, or are already in local campsites and able to walk to the circuit, Silverstone strongly advises that you do not attend the qualifying day of the British Grand Prix.”

Not something any fan wants to read when planning to head to Silverstone for qualifying. The British Grand Prix has never been interrupted by weather since the installment of Formula One in 1950 and this year looks like it may break that streak.

Q1 started and there was a line up at the beginning of the session. Every single driver wanted to go out on track out of fear that the weather was going to take a turn for the worse. (Sounds of thunder were heard in the distance and a warning of torrential downpours heading towards track kept the drivers out on track).

5 minutes left in Q1 and the track conditions started to play havoc with the tyres. The biggest problem for the drivers was that the track was drying, but not consistently overall. Some places were much wetter and more slippery than others. This was causing the drivers to spin and slide off track. As the checkered flag fell, Marussia’s Timo Glock spun out just before the finish line (saving the car from hitting the wall and losing the front wing. Well done Timo).

The biggest surprise (well not so much a surprise these last few races) was the fact that McLaren’s Jenson Button did not make it through to Q2. Over the last few races, we have (mostly) not seen Button into Q3.

In Q2, just like Q1, all drivers were out on track trying to get in a good time before the rain came. The track was going well until approximately 10 minutes were left. Once the rain started to fall, the drivers were having a hard time keeping the cars on track. Once Schumacher and Alonso started spinning and aquaplaning, the call was made to race control to pause the qualifying. 6:19 left of Q2 and the race control finally brought out the Red Flag.

The race restarted and the first man to place a time was 2 seconds quicker than what we were seeing prior to the red flag. The track was drying up and the lap times started dropping. By the end of Q2, laps were a full 5 seconds quicker. Q3 was all about getting out and staying out on track. The times went back and forth as track conditions improved by the lap. First it was Williams’ Pastor Maldonado as the fastest, then Ferrari‘s Felipe Massa, then Schumacher before Alonso became the fastest man. Then it was Massa again before Alonso went fastest again with three minutes left.

So all in all, the top ten shoot out was truly a race. And it seemed that all the fans (that made it) left with a smile on their face.

Fernando Alonso	P1
Mark Webber	P2
Michael Schumacher	P3
Sebastian Vettel	P4
Felipe Massa	P5
Kimi Räikkönen	P6
Pastor Maldonado	P7
Lewis Hamilton	P8 Fan’s Choice To Win
Romain Grosjean	P9
Paul di Resta	P10
Nico Rosberg	P11
Daniel Ricciardo	P12
Bruno Senna	P13
Nico Hülkenberg	P14
Sergio Perez	P15
Jenson Button	P16
Kamui Kobayashi	P17
Vital Petrov	P18
Heikki Kovalainen	P19
Timo Glock	P20
Pedro de la Rosa	P21
Narain Karthikeyan	P22
Charles Pic	DNQ
Jean-Éric Vergne	P24

* Q1 107% Time 1:53.718

Note – Kobayashi & Vergne droped 5 & 10 grid spots respectively for causing collisions at previous round. Hulkenberg drops 5 for gearbox change. Pic failed to make 107% mark – races at stewards’ discretion.