After the rain poured down in FP3, the teams and drivers where eager to get out o track in Q1 to set a crucial time. With the reintroduction of the 107% Grid Rule, and the look of the clouds rolling in, not a single drivers wanted to be left behind.
The track temperature was at 25°C, with the air at 17°C and that rain is about to fall. It was released that all three, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean and Nico Rosberg would have 5 place gearbox penalties at the race start. Making qualifying all more important.
By end of Q1 it was with sheer determination that we saw Michael Schumacher make his way into Q2. Being at the Hockenheim and in front of his home crowd, it must have been complete silence as all German's held their breath to see if there champion would make it through.
Q2 start and and there was a queue of cars sitting in the pit lane as the rain began to fall. It was evident that the the cars and drivers were having issues on track as fans saw the red - yellow flags and cars sliding all over. Times jumped up from 1:16 to 1:38. Though the rain wasn't hard, it was just enough to hear on the pit radios for the drivers to keep off the race line!
Seven minutes left of Q2 and the track visibility came to nearly nothing. I do love a good rooster tail as much as much as the next person, I can also see how how dangerous it can be. The teams and drivers decided to hold on and stay out on intermediates and forgo the full wets until 5 minutes left. Once the blue tyres went on, running became much smoother and the drivers could really start racing.
Q3 and out of the top ten, the both Button and Hamilton were first out on track to see if they could set a bench mark time. But when Nico Hulkenberg left pits, the cameras were taken off the pair of McLarens and followed Hulkenberg as he entered the corner backwards and ended up in the kitty litter (which he was able to find his way out of).
Half way through Q3 and even with the full wets on, the drivers were still fishtailing all over the track. But with the rain, we really get to see which drivers can handle it. Two minutes left and it looked as thought Germany would see the front row would be locked out by two of their own. But just as the weather is unpredictable, so can be pole. In the last few minutes of Q3, Fernando Alonso was able to pull out a fantastically quick time and get himself pole at the 2012 German Grand Prix.
 Fernando Alonso | P1  Fan's Choice To Win |
 Sebastian Vettel | P2 |
 Michael Schumacher | P3 |
 Nico Hulkenberg | P4 |
 Pastor Maldonado | P5 |
 Jenson Button | P6 |
| Lewis Hamilton | P7 |
| Mark Webber | P8 |
| Paul di Resta | P9 |
 Kimi Räikkönen | P10 |
 Daniel Ricciardo | P11 |
 Sergio Perez | P12 |
| Kamui Kobayashi | P13 |
| Felipe Massa | P14 |
| Bruno Senna | P15 |
| Jean-Éric Vergne | P16 |
 Heikki Kovalainen | P17 |
| Vitaly Petrov | P18 |
| Romain Grosjean | P19 |
 Charles Pic | P20 |
| Timo Glock | P21 |
| Nico Rosberg | P22 |
 Pedro de la Rosa | P23 |
| Narain Karthikeyan | P24 |
107% time - 1:20.991
Note - Grosjean, Rosberg, Webber dropedp five grid places for unscheduled gearbox changes.
No comments:
Post a Comment