Sebastian Vettel has secured pole position for the 2013 US Grand Prix.
In dominant form since hitting the Circuit of the Americas on Friday morning the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were untroubled as they locked out the front row of the grid. This is the 44th career pole position of Vettel’s Formula 1 career.
The first session of qualifying saw the usual suspects cut with Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde qualifying ahead of Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic and Max Chilton. Adrian Sutil failed to advance to the second part of qualifying however the German was struck by a mechanical issue which may have contributed to his 17th place starting position. Pastor Maldonado will start tomorrow’s race in 18th and chose the post-race media interview to hurl accusations at the Williams team. “You have to ask the team why the car is so slow,” Maldonado said. Deputy team Principal Claire Williams later commented that the Williams team would never place one of its drivers at a disadvantage. It seems that the relationship between Maldonado and Williams has well and truly broken down.
The second session of qualifying saw several high-profile drivers be eliminated. Struggling for pace throughout the weekend Felipe Massa’s elimination may not have been as big a surprise as that of Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg. Rosberg later contended that the tyres were to blame for his lack of pace. McLaren’s Jenson Button also failed to advance to the top ten shoot-out and will drop a further three places of the grid for overtaking under a red flag during Friday’s first free practice session.
The final ten minutes of qualifying resumed an eerily familiar storyline as Sebastian Vettel secured pole position ahead of Mark Webber. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean underlined his qualifying speed with third on the grid ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso, suffering from back pain and headaches, somehow slotted his Ferrari into sixth overall followed by McLaren’s Sergio Perez. Stand-in driver Heikki Kovalainen hit all the right marks as he qualified an impressive eigtht. The star of the day was Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. The Finn qualified a notoriously difficult car in ninth overall. The top ten was rounded out Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.
The full time-sheet:
