Red Bull Racing have continued our 100% pole position record in 2010, locking out the front row for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix.
After Mark topped this morning’s timesheets, it again seemed that the RB6 had found form at exactly the right time over the race weekend.
Webber landed a provisional pole, only for Seb to better his time by less than three hundredths of a second. It means the pair between them have been the fastest in every Qualifying of the season and we repeat last year’s feat of starting the Chinese Grand Prix in pole position.
Afterwards, Sebastian explained that it hadn’t all been plain sailing. He said: “It was tough today. I was not happy yesterday or this morning, as Mark was quite a bit quicker. But I found a better line that worked, remembering things from last year. We’re proving that we have a very good car, no matter what the circuit.”
Team principal Christian Horner was as pleased as anyone with the outcome, but hadn’t necessarily seen it as a done deal: “I have no idea where Sebastian produced that last lap from, it was quite phenomenal. Mark was in great shape throughout qualifying today and got pipped right at the end. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”
Webber acknowledged the team had had to overcome some unusual obstacles to ensure our continued run of form. “It’s a big credit to the team that we’ve locked out the front row again. Thanks to the mechanics too; there was stuff coming out last night for our cars that should never have got here with the volcano exploding in Europe. It wasn’t easy for the team to arrange, so it was a great team effort.”
After the upside down grid of Malaysia, things look a bit more predictable in Shangahai as third quickest of the day was Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with Mercedes Nico Rosberg joining him on the second row. Fifth and sixth are the McLarens of Button and Hamilton with Massa and Kubica making up the fourth row. Behind them are Schumacher and Force India’s Adrian Sutil.
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