- Brazilian Grand Prix - Qualifying
Vettel masters wet conditions to take pole in Brazil
Sebastian Vettel took pole position in rain-hit qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso.
Q3 was delayed by 45 minutes due to downpour after Q2, but Vettel was not fazed, bolting on intermediates midway through the top-ten shootout to go fastest by over 0.6s. Rosberg and Alonso were in a tight battle to join the Red Bull on the front row, with the Mercedes coming out on top with his final attempt.
Mark Webber took fourth place in his final qualifying session in Formula One, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean, who have both been struggling for pace in the wet this weekend. Impressive performances from the Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne put them seventh and eighth on the grid respectively, while Felipe Massa struggled to ninth in his Ferrari. Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten in his Sauber.
Heikki Kovalainen missed the cut for Q3 by 0.015s as he struggled to tame his Lotus during a session when team-mate Grosjean went fastest. Sergio Perez was also among those that dropped out but did it in dramatic fashion as he lost the rear end of his McLaren on the exit of Turn 4 and smashed it against the wall. Paul di Resta, Valtteri Bottas, Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil also failed to make the cut off for the top-ten shootout,
Q1 saw a rush to the pit exit to make the most of drying conditions before the rain intensified. Lewis Hamilton set the first and fastest lap of the session, while Pastor Maldonado and Esteban Gutierrez got caught out and failed to make the cut along with the Marussias and Caterhams. Vergne has been in the drop zone but managed to improve on his final attempt, punting Maldonado, who was also trying to improve, below the cut.
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