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Hello and welcome to live coverage of qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. We've had a wet weekend so far and the rain shows no sign of relenting, so this should be fun! |
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Nico Rosberg was the man to set the pace throughout FP1 and FP2, but the final session was headed by Mark Webber as a number of teams limited their running. Realistically, pole is anyone's guess |
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The lack of running in FP3 - neither Ferrari nor Button or Rosberg opted to set a time - was due to drivers trying to save their tyres for this session. You're always holding back a touch too during practice in the wet |
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However, there are opportunities for surprises because the conditions are changeable. It's just started raining again, but two minutes ago we had this tweet:
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If you want to get in touch with us here during the session you can do so either by tweeting us @ESPNF1 or emailing in using the link at the top of this page |
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Laurence reliably informs me that the rain is just coming in from the final corner and while it has been drizzling the heavier stuff is on its way |
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From that direction!
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Just under 10 minutes to go and it'll be the last qualifying session for Mark Webber, V8 engines and Cosworth (Yes, I will trot this out again before the race too!) |
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A pat on the back for us from Mike in Denmark - we'll take that! "Before we start the quali, I would just like to thank you and the team for making the season's races so interesting with your informed and informative comments." Hope you guys have all enjoyed it. |
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It definitely should be, and a real lottery for all the teams. The likes of Caterham and Marussia will be very nervous right now in their fight for 10th in the constructors' |
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With rain coming in now the conditions are only going to get worse, so we could see all the drivers rushing out on intermediates at the start of the session to get the best of the track |
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And as if by magic, we already have cars waiting at the end of the pit lane 90 seconds before the start of the session |
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Caterhams, Marussias, Kovalainen, a Force India and both Mercedes already waiting. Hamilton at the front of the queue |
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Bianchi forcing his way out alongside Kovalainen. There are dry lines in some parts of the track and we already have every car out there |
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Hamilton very twitchy round Turn 3 as he starts the first timed lap |
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The middle sector of the lap is quite dry but the rain is coming in in the final sector |
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Hamilton sets the first time with a 1:25.342 |
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Grosjean goes second while Rosberg has a slow lap and is P6 |
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Alonso v Webber towards the first corner racing to get track position, Alonso ahead |
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Vettel goes second, 0.032s slower than Hamilton |
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Rosberg finally on a quick one and he goes third. It's starting to rain more heavily now too so Kovalainen is in trouble down in 21st |
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Webber on the brink too in 16th |
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Webber can't improve but will find some more space for this lap |
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Kovalainen goes 15th and Webber is now in the bottom six! |
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Webber in the middle sector is struggling and he's going to be tight here... |
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Webber with the fastest final sector and he goes ninth. Good save |
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Vergne now in the drop zone and in the pits. Gutierrez down there too. Both Caterhams ahead of both Marussias |
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Vergne not looking happy as he sits in the pits. He's got to find 0.1s to improve and is complaining over the radio why the team waited to send him out at first. Maldonado trying a flying lap but he can't improve |
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The final sector is very wet now. Kovalainen with a good middle sector though... and he improves to 14th place |
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Cars in the pits taking on new intermediates. The top three should be safe because the rain is still falling |
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Gutierrez circulating at the moment but failing to improve so far. He's 19th and a second off the time he needs to get through on this lap |
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Gutierrez is highlighting just how hard it is now. Kovalainen back in the pits and looking like he won't go back out because it's so hard to improve |
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Bianchi does a time two seconds slower than his previous best. This could be as good as it gets unless it stops raining |
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Vergne winds up a lap to try and force his way through. He only needs to find 0.1s and his first sector isn't bad |
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Vergne half a second off what he needs through the second sector |
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And Vergne stays half a second off. It will take something special for anyone to improve, but Kovalainen has just done his fastest first sector... |
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Gutierrez DOES improve but only to P17. He missed out by less than 0.1s |
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Kovalainen on a good lap and he goes fifth! The track seems a bit better and he's set the fastest final sector. That will worry a few... |
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Kovalainen aside, the top 13 are in the pits and Massa the most in danger |
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Personal bests for Vergne and Ricciardo in sector one... |
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Ricciardo won't improve enough but Vergne goes 15th |
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Ricciardo stays P16, Maldonado in the drop zone and not on a good lap... he's out |
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Gutierrez improves but stays 18th and that's him out too |
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OUT: Maldonado, Gutierrez, Pic, van der Garde, Bianchi and Chilton |
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Slight advantage to Caterham in the battle for P10, Bianchi just 0.046s slower than van der Garde |
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With the conditions having improved slightly we've got another queue at the end of the pit lane |
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Both Mercedes already waiting again as well |
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Siddhesh emails in: "Hamilton isn't doing bad for someone with no hope this weekend!!!" |
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Vettel the last man out of the pit lane. Or he will be when he finally emerges |
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Rosberg first to start a lap and Hamilton then edges out his first sector time |
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These conditions could really catch out a big name here in Q2 |
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Rosberg much quicker in the middle sector than Hamilton and he does a 1:26.626 |
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Hamilton with a 1:27.044 |
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Vergne and Kovalainen quite a way off those times. Ricciardo third now on a 1:27.623 |
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Alonso goes second, 1:27.250 |
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Vettel goes quickest with a 1:26.515 - close times |
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Kovalainen fifth but a second off. Sutil catches a slide excellently out of Turn 3 |
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Button improves his best time but only goes P11 |
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Hamilton on a good lap... |
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And Hamilton goes third with a 1:26.698 |
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Current drop zone: Bottas, Button, Sutil, di Resta, Hulkenberg and Perez |
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It's a wall of spray looking back down from Turn 1 and Grosjean goes 5th |
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Kovalainen points it in to Turn 6 but the car snaps away and he runs wide |
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Perez struggling to get the power down out of the final corner and he only goes 12th |
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Now we're seeing cars diving in to the pits to get some fresh intermediates |
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Button goes 11th after driving through the wall of spray as a number of cars pit |
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Vettel still out there and improving but he locks up in the middle sector |
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Vettel throws it in to the final corner and slides through it so only improves by 0.066s |
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It's steadily raining, which isn't really helping track conditions but not making them too much worse |
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Massa with the fastest first sector |
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3 and a half minutes to go and di Resta only goes 11th |
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Massa up to P6 |
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Sutil stays 15th |
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Hulkenberg up to P9 |
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Alonso goes second with the fastest final sector |
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Times dropping on fresh tyres |
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Grosjean goes fastest! That changes things. Nobody is safe here really |
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Bottas and Perez both improve but don't get out of the bottom six |
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Ricciardo improving and goes eighth. Drops Kovalainen down in to 11th. McLarens 14th and 15th... |
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Kovalainen starts a lap but it looks to be raining more heavily now |
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Button 0.7s down through the middle sector. It's not going to happen, it's too wet |
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It was raining heavily and he's binned it on the exit of Turn 5 |
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Perez ran wide on to the wet kerb and span round to the inside of the track. A fair bit of damage to the right-hand side of the car |
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That stops anyone improving and means Hulkenberg is through but Kovalainen is out |
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OUT: Kovalainen, di Resta, Bottas, Perez, Button and Sutil |
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Very heavy rain now. Full wets needed in Q3 I reckon |
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Poor Perez's final qualifying session for McLaren ends with him stood in the rain looking at his damaged car |
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The marshals clear away Perez's car and that has delayed the start of Q3 by 10 minutes |
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In fact the delay is because of the rain. It is throwing it down now |
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One slight crumb of comfort for Perez is that he finishes the season with a 10-9 advantage over Jenson Button |
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The medical car is doing laps to check out the track conditions at present |
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The medical car isn't hanging round but plenty of spray off the back of that. This could be a further delay I reckon |
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And we do have a further delay, another 10 minutes "due to volume of water on the track". Next update at 15:05 local time |
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That's enough time for Vettel to jump out of his car for a while |
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Anyone fancy a guess at the top three? One of the harder picks of the year in these conditions... |
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Almost time for another update... |
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And it's a further ten minute delay, again due to the volume of water on track |
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The issue now is that a 10-minute session doesn't give the track much time to improve, so it needs to be at a decent condition from the word go |
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Rajeev emails in his top three guess: 1.Rosberg, 2.Vettel, 3.Hamilton |
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Something I slightly overlooked earlier, both Toro Rossos did a great job to get through in to Q3 |
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Azeem has a guess at the top three as well: 1. Vettel, 2. Rosberg, 3. Grosjean |
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It continues to rain, so the standing water may not be disappearing all that quickly |
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Drum-roll for the next update... |
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And we have another 10 minute delay. Same again. |
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I promised you it would be fun, didn't I? Sorry about this... |
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Another top three on the grid guess comes from Alvino who goes for: 1. Alonso, 2. Hamilton, 3. Vettel |
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Ludo with his guess for qualifying: 1. Grosjean, 2. Webber, 3. Rosberg |
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Deja vu anyone? This is how we started the year in Australia! |
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Rajeev asks: "Does the grid positions remain same if Q3 doesn't happen??" I believe we will come back to finish qualifying in the morning if it was that bad. That's what happened with Q2 and Q3 in Melbourne |
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The medical car continues to circulate. Two minutes until the next update. Prepare yourself. |
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Wahey! Q3 will start again in five minutes time at 15:30 local time |
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Micheline from Montreal in Canada predicts: 1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Rosberg |
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Cars heading to the end of the pit lane already on full wets. Perhaps more rain coming in? It's the two Red Bulls waiting already... |
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This is a long wait for both cars |
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A very long wait in fact! |
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Ricciardo joins them. Full wets on all three cars |
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Nobody else that keen to get out there |
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Sorry, it was Ricciardo who went out with the two Red Bulls. The whole top ten out there |
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Phil emails in his "romantic result": 1. Webber, 2. Massa, 3. Kovalainen - a bit too romantic as Heikki will start 11th! |
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Webber starts a flying lap first and Vettel just beats his first sector time. I think we'll see inters for the final runs |
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Lots of guesses coming in for the top three now so I'll revisit them at the end of the session and let you know who - if anyone - was right |
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Webber with a 1:29.215 and Vettel a 1:28.830 |
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That's crossover stage times. Grosjean was going quickest but he pits for inters |
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Rosberg goes second, 0.2s off Vettel |
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Vettel says inters on the radio |
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Out goes Webber on intermediates. Grosjean the only man not to set a time |
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Hamilton P3 with a 1:29.181 and Alonso P5 with a 1:29.426 |
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Could be a case of the last car over the line that will get the best chance here... |
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Ferrari trying to time it right and waiting with both cars stacked in the pits |
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Rosberg told "We think there's rain at the end so make sure the first laps count" |
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Grosjean goes fastest with a 1:27.773 |
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Webber slower than Grosjean through sector two but Vettel much quicker |
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Webber goes fastest with a 1:27.623 |
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Vettel then beats it with a 1:26.479! |
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Rosberg 0.6s down through the second sector |
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Hamilton with the same deficit |
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Rosberg a second adrift with his time to go second, Hamilton only P4 and 1.2s off |
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Alonso goes second but is also a second off Vettel |
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Massa only P7 |
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Rosberg improving but Vettel isn't |
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Rosberg improves to go P2, 0.6s off Vettel |
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Vergne goes P8. Vettel improving now |
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Webber stays P4 |
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Massa stays ninth |
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Alonso did the fastest final sector but his middle one cost him. It's Vettel on pole once again |
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That's a heck of a performance in these conditions to be over 0.6s clear of the rest of the field |
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Vettel says "Ole" over the radio as he secures his ninth pole of the season. Rosberg has been quick all weekend so far but couldn't match him in Q3, while Alonso will start from his joint-highest grid position of the season |
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And looking back, nobody called that top three right! |
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With that it's time for me to sign off. Thank you so much for all your questions and comments, we'll be back with full coverage of the race tomorrow when the weather could mix things up once again. Keep ESPNF1.com open for all the reaction from qualifying today. Bye for now. |
Away we go. Grosjean joined the queue too
Last chance saloon here. Vergne is right on the cusp
