Sebastian Vettel grabs his seventh pole of the season in Budapest as Red Bull secure a dominant front row lock out.
Red Bull Racing's
Sebastian Vettel gave the Milton Keynes-based squad another pole today in qualifying at the Hungaroring for this Sunday's F1 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel and team-mate,
Mark Webber had dominated practice and they maintained their strangle hold on proceedings this afternoon, easily locking out the front-row, something they have now managed six times this season.
Vettel's best lap in Q3, a 1 minute 18.773 seconds, was a brilliant effort, leaving him more than fourth tenths up on the sister car, and over a second up on Fernando Alonso, who was 'best of the rest' and a distant third for Ferrari.
"It was a very good day for us," Vettel reflected. "We have felt comfortable all weekend and I think we were able to improve overnight also. I said on the radio to the team on my in-lap, 'Mark and I were pushing hard to finish first and second, but this is your moment, enjoy it – you built this wonderful car'. It's a pleasure to drive and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
"It was quite a difficult session today though [at times]. I didn't have a good run in Q2 on the option tyre and didn't feel 100 percent. There's not really much you can do to the car between Q2 and Q3, just little trims, but it worked quite well and I had a lot of confidence in Q3. I was able to go quite a bit quicker, so it was a good step. I'm happy to be on pole; hopefully we have a good start tomorrow and a good race."
Webber meanwhile was also pleased and while he did lose out to his team-mate by quite a sizable margin, he conceded Vettel's lap was a good one and that the German deserved his seventh pole of the season.
"Sebastian did a good job. We have pushed each other most of the weekend, but he put Q3 together well," Webber conceded. "The tyres are the main thing around here – you need to get them just right, understand them and then nail the lap, they can be pretty sensitive at times.
"We'll see how we go tomorrow now, it's a long race and I'm in a good position to get some good points. The first three seconds of the race can be crucial and can deliver 70 per cent of the result."
Red Bull boss Christian Horner summed-up: "It was a fantastic team performance today. The team and both drivers did a fantastic job to secure a dominant front row lock out.
"Grid position is important here, it's also one of the longest runs to the first corner, so we're starting the Grand Prix in the best possible positions. Hopefully we can have a successful race."
