Formula 1: ‘Home’ Grand Prix qualifying blow for Scot

By IAN PARKES
Published on 28/10/2012 00:00

PAUL Di Resta slumped to 16th place in qualifying for today’s Indian Grand Prix, leaving the Bathgate driver five places behind Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

At the front of the grid, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel secured the 35th pole of his career and, after winning the past three races to take the lead in the world title battle, is on course to extend that advantage should he score a second successive victory at the Buddh International Circuit.

The 25-year-old German edged out team-mate Mark Webber by just 0.044 seconds.

Vettel hailed his weekend as “great” so far, but knows his work is far from done going into the race.

“We’ve had no problems with the car, the boys have been pushing hard, and we’ve had lots of feedback from the factory from yesterday to today,” said Vettel.

“The best chance of doing well is focusing on every single step. Today was qualifying, we got a good result and now we concentrate on the race.”

Behind the Red Bulls will be the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the former a quarter of a second behind Vettel.

Fernando Alonso, trailing Vettel by six points in the standings, will have to fight his way through as he starts fifth in his Ferrari, followed by team-mate Felipe Massa. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen, still in with an outside chance of the title, lines up seventh in his Lotus, with Sauber’s Sergio Perez a superb eighth. Pastor Maldonado, who was fastest at the end of the first session in his Williams, starts ninth, with Nico Rosberg tenth for Mercedes.

A slight mistake in Q2 cost Romain Grosjean dear as the Frenchman missed out on a place in the top ten by 0.025secs to Massa. Williams’ Bruno Senna is 12th, followed by Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, whilst Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi finished 1.2secs down on team-mate Perez and starts 17th.