2012 Singapore Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Hamilton takes comfortable pole

Lewis Hamilton continued his recent good run and took a comfortable pole position for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay circuit as he wheeled around his McLaren quickest of all in Qualifying. Pastor Maldonado was surprisingly second fastest for Williams ahead of the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

Jenson Button will start fourth with Championship leader Fernando Alonso fifth, Paul Di Resta’s sixth, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull seventh and Romain Grosjean’s Lotus in eighth. The two Mercedes of Michael Schumacher & Nico Rosberg did not elect to run in Q3 and will start ninth and tenth on the grid.

2012 Belgian Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Button breaks McLaren pole duck

The Formula One season is back after its summer break and the second half of the season started off in earnest at the much loved Spa Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix. And it was Jenson Button who scored his first pole position for McLaren and his first since 2009 as he clocked the fastest qualifying time in Q3. Starting from P2 on the grid would be the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado in P3.

Race favourite and four-time winner Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest ahead of Sergio Perez in fifth and Fernando Alonso on sixth. Red Bull’s Mark Webber was seventh fastest but will drop down five places due to a gearbox change. Lewis Hamilton was eighth, Romain Grosjean ninth and Paul Di Resta tenth.

With Friday’s practice sessions affected by rain, most teams did not have enough mileage on the cars to get the perfect setup and Lotus, who were expected to run their upgraded DRS system opted not to do so. McLaren had to choose whether to run a new rear wing or not and in the end Jenson rode with it & Hamilton without. Other teams had tyre choice concerns as well as gearbox issues – Rosberg & Webber specifically.

2012 European Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Vettel storms to pole

Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position for the European Grand Prix at Valencia’s street track in a close but curious qualifying session which saw his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber fail to make it out of Q3. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was second fastest ahead of the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. It was a given that the Red Bull likes the twisty Valencia circuit and hence not totally surprising that the gap was 00.324 of a second between Vettel & Hamilton for the pole shootout.

Lotus were strong with Romain Grosjean starting fourth and Kimi Raikkonen fifth, with Nico Rosberg in sixth, Kamui Kobayashi in seventh. Force India also had a good qualifying with both their cars in the top ten – Nico Hulkenberg in eighth and Paul Di Resta tenth. Jenson Button, who had a forgetful Canadian GP, didn’t have the best of the sessions and starts ninth on the grid.

What was interesting to note that was how close the top teams were in terms of their timed runs. The fastest time in Q2 was Romain Grosjean’s 1:38.429 and though they clocked 1:38.7, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa all failed to get through to Q3!

I got really bored by the last two races at Valencia and this time too have no hopes of an exciting race. Only thing remains to be seen is whether we will have an eighth different winner or someone will notch up their second win of the season. I’m tipping Kimi for the win!

2012 Spanish Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Maldonado Victorious as Alonso settles for second

The adage of pole-sitter-wins at Circuit de Catalunya was upheld yet again as Williams’ Pastor Maldonado drove a controlled race to claim victory from pole position at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso led the race for the initial stages but had to settle for second after the Williams jumped him during the second round of pit stops. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen continued his return to F1 with a fine third place.

Romain Grosjean made it a good day at the races for Lotus as he finished fourth, ahead of a typically aggressive Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel brought home his Red Bull in sixth place, ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in seventh and eighth respectively. Jenson Button and Nico Hulkenberg rounded off the top ten points scorers.

2012 Spanish Grand Prix – Saturday Qualifying – Maldonado inherits pole after Hamilton demoted

The starting grid for the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix was decided after the Qualifying session was completed on track as pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was excluded from the results on the grounds of not having returned to the pits after his pole-setting lap. This meant Pastor Maldonado inherited the P1 spot for Sunday’s race alongside Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean in third.

Kimi Raikkonen occupies the second row alongside his teammate with Sergio Perez, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi & Henson Button rounding off the top ten.