Vettel leads Redbull to 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix Qualifying

Vettel leads RedBull 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix 2012

Sebastian Vettel continued with his dominant run and scored the pole position which was barely 0.044 seconds than his team mate Mark Webber.

The second row is occupied by the McLaren drivers lead by Lewis Hamilton.

The third row now belongs to Ferrari drivers lead by Fernando Alonso.
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was seventh followed by Sergio Perez of Sauber. Amul would be very happy sponsoring the Sauber team. Pastor Maldonado of Williams was 9th followed by Nico Rosberg who didn’t choose to make a run in Q3.

Michael Schumacher was the big casualty as he could not qualify for the Q3 and was only 14th fastest with a time of 1:26.574. He was more than half a second slower than his team mate Nico Rosberg. We are not sure why there was a such a big gap between the two. In the last few grand prix races it was Michael who was generally faster than Nico Rosberg. We hope tomorrow will be better for Michael Schumacher as this will be his last Indian Grand Prix.

A late run from Pastor Maldonado resulted in him going to the top spot in Q1. The Williams team gave a strong performance in the Indian Grand Prix.

Heikki Kovalainen breached his Caterham in the dying minutes of Q1. He was eliminated in the Q1 along with Jean-Eric Vergne 1:27.525, Vitaly Petrov 1:28.756, Timo Glock 1:29.613, Pedro de la Rosa (1:30.592), Narain Karthikeyan (1:30.593) and Charles Pic (1:30:662). The 107% time was 1:32.071 and hence all drivers qualified and we will see a full grid tomorrow.

Narain Karthikeyan excelled in the Indian Grand Prix and was just one thousandth of a second slower than his team mate. He qualified at P23 followed by Charles Pic of Marussia.

Qualifying results of Indian Grand Prix 2012

1. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
2. Mark Webber Redbull
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
8. Sergio Perez Sauber
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams
10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus
12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India
13. Bruno Senna Williams
14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
16. Paul di Resta Force India
17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
21. Timo Glock Marussia
22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT
24. Charles Pic Marussia

Team Lotus sells minority shareholding to Indian Investor

Team Lotus which is currently placed 10th in the Forumla 1 Grid and is owned by Tony Fernandes of Air Asia and his partners is likely to announce a deal to sell a minority stake. It is said that Gaurav Burman, who is the younger son of former Dabur India Chairman V C Burman has invested about 10 million USD and acquired a minority stake. In the next two or three years he is supposed to scale up his share holding to around 50% by investing about 50 million USD.

Gaurav Burman is married to controversial Lalit Modi's step-daughter and is a director in the AIM listed equity fund Elephant Capital Plc. He is also a Co-owner in the Kings XI Punjab team. This investment is likely to result in more interest generation in motor sports in India. Whether this investment is likely to result in Karun Chandhok getting a drive in the Inaugural Indian Grand Prix is yet to be seen.

This investment confirms that staging a Formula 1 race in India is proving to be beneficial to the entire Formula 1 as a sport. Sahara group has already bought 42.5% stake in the FI team. Tata Motors, Hero Motors, Base Batteries, MRF Tyres are sponsors of Narain Karthikeyan. Amul is sponsoring Sauber for the Indian Grand Prix. After watching the inaugural Grand Prix, there are likely to be many more corporates jumping into the Formula 1 bandwagon. The huge crowds and viewership of F1 is going to have its own pull.
There are exciting times ahead. 

For Narain Focus is the word

Narain Karthikeyan recently said "My focus right now is solely on the Indian GP. I would like to stay in F1 but I am not preoccupied with those thoughts; there are a whole lot of other factors that will play a part in deciding my future. Once we have the Indian GP out of the way, thinking about the future will be much easier".

Narain had shared similar thoughts after driving in the First Practice in Korea which was a wet practice due to rains. http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.com/2011/10/narain-shines-in-wet-in-korean-grand.html Certainly, one should learn from these Forumla 1 drivers the ability to concentrate and focus on the job in hand rather than worrying and getting scared about the future.

It is also true that if Narain does well in the Indian GP, and if the Indian GP gets huge number of spectators and is able to get a media frenzy, then more corporates may come forward to support Narain Karthikeyan. Amul is one corporate that has decided to sponsor the Sauber team solely for the Indian GP. So hopefully there would be many more corporates realising the value of Formula 1 and sponsoring our Indian drivers. After all, in Formula 1 except for a few top drivers, others bring in sponsorship.