The first European stop for F1 this year took place in Barcelona, Spain. After all this rain we have witnessed during the past races, it was time for a dry qualification session.
Red Bull racing has the quickest car on a dry track, at this time, and its drivers confirmed this by taking the first two places on the grid.
The battle between the two RBR drivers was great, and Webber only managed to grab the pole in his final lap with a time of 1m19.995s, being the only driver running below 1m20s. Sebastian Vettel followed him 0.106s behind. Lewis Hamilton was third more than 0.7s further, confirming that McLaren is moving ahead of the rest but still needs work in order to challenge the RBR team in absolute speed terms.
Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button followed, while Michael Schumacher took a pretty good 6th place on the grid, completing his qualification session ahead of his teammate for the first time this season. We have to say here that Mercedes presented a modified car in Spain which gave Michael an advantage over Nico Rosberg.
Kubica, Rosberg and Massa followed while Kamui Kobayashi completed the top ten.
Some penalties also applied, changing the grid, after the end of the session. Petrov and the two Virgin drivers Glock and Di Grassi, each received a 5 places penalty. Petrov for having his gearbox changed, and Virgin because it failed to notify FIA within two hours of second practice, of the gear ratios the team chose for Saturday.
The qualification results are as follows:
1 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:19.995
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +0.10
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren +0.83
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +0.94
5 Jenson Button McLaren +0.99
6 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +1.29
7 Robert Kubica Renault +1.35
8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +1.41
9 Felipe Massa Ferrari +1.59
10 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber +1.98
11 Adrian Sutil Force India
12 Pedro de la Rosa Sauber
13 Nico Hulkenberg Williams
14 Vitaly Petrov Renault
15 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso
16 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso
17 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India
18 Rubens Barrichello Williams
19 Jarno Trulli Lotus F1 Racing
20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus F1 Racing
21 Timo Glock Virgin Racing
22 Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing
23 Karun Chandhok Hispania Racing
24 Bruno Senna Hispania Racing
