Qualifying began in even hotter conditions than FP3, with a track temperature of 41 degrees Celsius, as Adrian Sutil set the pace for Force India with 1m 36.809s from Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg, Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Paul di Resta, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Sergio Perez.
Down the back, Jean-Eric Vergne failed to make the cut by a couple of tenths, his 1m 38.157s for Toro Rosso leaving him 17th. Valtteri Bottas didn’t make it either, with 1m 38.207s, while a late improvement saw Jules Bianchi jump both Caterhams with his Marussia to take 19th with an impressive 1m 38.434s. Behind him, Caterham's Charles Pic just won the fight with Marussia’s Max Chilton and team mate Giedo van der Garde, their respective laps being 1m 39.314s, 1m 39.672s and 1m 39.932s.
Q2 saw Rosberg set the pace with 1m 36.190s from Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Sutil, Massa, Alonso, Button, Vettel and Perez. Rain in the final half of the lap with six minutes to go ruined Paul di Resta’s chances. The Scot had been set to go fastest early on but had to abort his lap. His subsequent efforts saw him run wide, then later have a multiple spin, as the track became super-slippery.
Grosjean also left it too late, and lines up 11th on 1m 37.636s for Lotus, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber on 1m 38.125s, Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso on 1m 38.822s, Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber on 1m 39.221s, and Di Resta on 1m 44.509s. Pastor Maldonado didn’t venture out for Williams.
The rain, while not as heavy as that on previous afternoons, showed little sign of abating prior to Q3, even though the track and ambient temperatures stayed the same. Intermediate tyres became the new order of the day.
In an up and down session, the track was continually evolving. Sutil set the early pace, before his 1m 58.293s was beaten by Perez, then Hamilton, then Rosberg, then Vettel.
In the final runs, Webber went fastest with 1m 52.244s, only for Hamilton to beat that with 1m 51.244s. But right at the end Alonso snatched the honours away with 1m 50.727s before Vettel, moments later, redefined pole at 1m 49.674s. Just to add insult to injury, Alonso was bumped to third by Massa, with 1m 50.587s.
Hamilton thus fell to fourth ahead of Webber, as Raikkonen’s final effort yielded only seventh ahead of the improved McLarens of Button and Perez, which sandwiched Sutil.
Thus the provisional grid reads: Vettel, Massa; Alonso, Hamilton; Webber, Rosberg; Raikkonen, Button; Sutil, Perez; Grosjean, Hulkenberg; Ricciardo, Gutierrez; di Resta, Maldonado; Vergne, Bottas; Bianchi, Pic; Chilton, Van der Garde.
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