Rosberg wins Spanish Grand Prix from Pole

As was expected, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes won the Spanish Grand Prix after starting from Pole position. It is extremely difficult to overtake in Spanish Grand Prix. So the pole position virtually assures the winner unless there is a problem with reliability of the car the driver has a momentary lapse of concentration. Neither of which occurred in Barcelona and Rosberg raced to victory. His teammate and F1 Championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished second. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari finished third.

Lewis Hamilton’s only chance of overtaking Nico Rosberg was at the start of the race. However, Hamilton had too much wheel spin and not only he couldn’t challenge Rosberg, but also Sebastian Vettel overtook him. At that moment the thought of race victory perhaps overtook him. Whatever dreams of race victory he might have had, completely vanished when he had a tardy first pitstop. His mechanic couldn’t remove his left rear wheel nut and he had to stop for 5.2seconds. That was more than double the time Ferrari took for Vettel’s first pit stop. Sebastian Vettel had a 2.3 second pitstop. In comparison Rosberg’s pitstop was 2.5 seconds long. Mercedes put Hamilton in a 3 pit stop strategy and it helped him to overtake Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Rosberg finished 17.5 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel was a further 15 seconds behind Hamilton. It must have hurt Ferrari that its other driver Kimi Raikkonen couldn’t finish in fourth. Valtteri Bottas drove a strong race and Kimi couldn’t overtake him. Valtteri Bottas finished 12 seconds behind Vettel and Kimi was another 10 seconds behind Bottas. Felipe Massa finished another 8 seconds behind Kimi in 6th position. All other drivers were lapped atleast one lap.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull finished seventh and was lapped once. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was P8 followed by Carlos Sainz in P9 and Daniil Kvyat in P10.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso finished in 11th and outside the points paying positions. He was followed by Felipe Nasr of Sauber in 12th.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 13th and was followed by Marcus Ericsson of Sauber in 14th. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 15th and was followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button in 16th.

The two Manor Marussia racing cars of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi came in last at 17th and 18th positions.

The Spanish crowd favourite Fernando Alonso retired in lap 26 due to brake failure. Infact during a pitstop he couldn’t stop at his mark and the jack flew after getting hit. Fortunately nothing major happened. One wonders if the double world champion did the right thing to make this move to McLaren. Some even doubt whether he will win a race again.

It was again a bad day in office for Pastor Maldonado. He was driving aggressively and was P7 at one point of time. However, he had a collision with his teammate and his rear wing was damaged. The resulting pitstop was a big setback and he couldn’t recover from it and had to retire on lap 45.

F1 Championship Race 2015

After the Spanish Grand Prix, the following is the F1 2015 Championship Race

Sl. No. Driver                         Team              Points

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes       111

2.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes       91

3.         Sebastian Vettel         Ferrari            80

4.         Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari            52

5.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams        42

6.         Felipe Massas             Williams        39

7.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull         25

8.         Romain Grosjean       Lotus              16

9.         Felipe Nasr                Sauber            14

10.       Carlos Sainz              Toro Rosso     8

11.       Max Verstappen        Toro Rosso     6

12.       Nico Hulkenberg       Force India     6

13.       Sergio Perez              Force India     5

14.       Marcus Ericsson        Sauber            5

15.       Daniil Kvyat              Red Bull         5

16.       Fernando Alonso       McLaren         0

17.       Jenson Button            McLaren         0

18.       Roberto Merhi           Marussia         0

19.       Will Stevens              Marussia         0

20.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus               0

Finally Rosberg beats Hamilton to Pole in Spain

Nico Rosberg finally managed to beat Lewis Hamilton and score the first pole in this season in the Spanish Grand Prix 2015. Nico Rosberg scored a time of 1m 24.681 to Hamilton’s 1m 24.948 seconds. It was a convincing gap between the two. They ran on medium tyres.

In the top ten shootout in Q3 of the qualifying, the drivers generally go for two runs. Hamilton as well as Nico Rosberg set their top times in the first run. In the second run Hamilton couldn’t try and beat the provisional pole set by Rosberg and had to settle for second. Sebastian Vettel of Ferarri came in third behind the two Mercedes cars after he set a time of 1m 25.458. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen could only score a P7.


Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in P4 with a time of 1m 25.694. He was followed by Carlos Sainz Jr of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 26.136. As a rookie and that too a Spanish, it must be a great feeling for Sainz beating the favourite Spaniard Fernando Alonso in Spain.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso came in P6 with a time of 1m 26. 249 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen whose contract with Ferrari expires end of this season is expected to do well and beat his teammate. However, he could only set a time of 1m 26.414 for P7.

Danil Kvyat of Red Bull was P8 as he came in at 1m 26.629. He was followed by Felipe Massa of Williams at 1m 26.757 and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull with a time of 1m 26. 770.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado of Lotus will start tomorrow at 11th and 12th positions respectively in the race tomorrow. The Lotus duo were followed by the McLaren drivers who were lead by Fernando Alonso in 13th and Jenson Button in 14th.

Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson of Sauber will start in 15th and 16th positions. The Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start in 17th and 18th positions. Their times are about 3.5 seconds behind the pole timing and it shows how low they have fallen primarily due to the lack of funds. It would be pertinent to mention that one of the promoters of Force India, Subroto Roy is in jail for nearly a year as his company has not been able to furnish a bail bond of 1 billion dollars. The other promoter of Force India and its principal Dr. Vijay Mallya is also in deep financial trouble. Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines went bankrupt and Mallya is also been hounded by banks to recover the money. So it shows that even a midfield team in F1 can’t sustain just based on their performance.

The last placed drivers are as expectedly from Manor racing. Will Stevens again out qualified his teammate Roberto Merhi. Will Stevens scored 1m 31.200 vs 1m 32.038 of his teammate. Both of them will start in 19th and 20th position.

Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results:

Revised Starting Grid in Spanish Grand Prix

Penalties and Revised Starting Grid in Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

Esteban Gutierrez was deemed to have impeded Kimi Raikkonen in Q1, during the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying and was handed a 3 place grid penalty. So he demotes to 19th from his16th position.

Felipe Massa who qualified in 6th position was deemed to have obstructed Mark Webber of Red Bull during Q2. Felipe will now start at 9th position.

The Starting Grid for Spanish Grand Prix after penalties:

1. Nico Rosberg             Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel         Red Bull
4. Kimi Raikkonen         Lotus
5. Fernando Alonso        Ferrari
6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus
7. Mark Webber             Red Bull
8. Sergio Perez               McLaren
9. Felipe Massa              Ferrari
10. Paul di Resta            Force India
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso
12. Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso
13. Adrian Sutil             Force India
14. Jenson Button          McLaren
15. Nico Hulkenberg     Sauber
16. Valeri Bottas           Williams
17. Pastor Maldonado   Williams
18. Giedo va der Garde  Caterham
19. Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber
20. Jules Bianchi           Marussia
21. Max Chilton            Marussia
22. Charles Pic              Caterham

F1 Drivers Championship after Spain

F1 Drivers Championship after Spanish Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado after his win in Spanish Grand Prix broke into the top ten. He is currently 9th in the championship race with 29 points. Fernando Alonso with the second position in Spain picked up 18 valuable points to tie up with Sebastian Vettel at 61 points on top of the table.

Lewis Hamilton with 53 points is currently third on the race. With the amount of blunders committed by his McLaren team, there is virtually no hope despite his individual brilliance.

Kimi Raikkonen is at 53 points. Due to a bad strategy by Lotus, Kimi could not challenge for the first position. He had a longer first stint and a short last stint. So it was difficult for him to challenge for the top two steps of the podium. At the end he was 3.8 seconds adrift of the first position and only 0.6s behind the second placed Fernando Alonso.

Ranking	Driver	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	61
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	61
3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	53
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	49
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull	48
6	Jenson Button	McLaren	45
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	41
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	35
9	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	29
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber	22
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	19
12	Paul de Resta	Force India	15
13	Bruno Senna	Williams	14
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	4
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	3
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	2
17	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0

Maldonado wins Spanish Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado of Williams wins his maiden race in the Spanish Grand Prix. He is the 5th winner in as many races this season. Fernando Alonso came second with 3.1 seconds behind and Kimi Raikkonen a further 0.6 seconds adrift. Grosjean, Kobayashi, Vettel, Rosberg, Hamilton, Button and Hulkenberg completed the top 10 and the point scoring positions.

There were many casualties in the race. On lap 12 Michael Schumacher ploughed into the back of Bruno Senna when Senna missed the braking point inviting the ire of Schumacher who referred Senna as an idiot over a radio message. A fuming Michael Schumacher told Sky Sports F1 HD "I want the Stewards to clarify what happened. He moved to the right, but he shouldn't move back in the braking phase to the left that sharply. I am just behind him and I don't know how sharply he is going to move. So it was all very dangerous. We had a chance of good points today so it is doubly frustrating. I have to say I don't know what he was trying to prove but in Brazil last year he was driving into my car and today he was doing funny things."

Just before this incident Bruno Senna who is having a horrible weekend had come in contact with Grosjean. Schumacher immediately stopped and Senna stopped a further down. Narain Karthikeyan stopped at 22nd lap.

Vettel, Massa and de la Rosa were the only drivers having 4 pit stops. Hamilton was the only driver to be on a two stop strategy. Others were on a three stop strategy.

Grid Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	25
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	18
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	15
4	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	12
5	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	10
6	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	8
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	6
8	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4
9	Jenson Button	McLaren	2
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
14	Paul de Resta	Force India
15	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
16	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham
17	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham
18	Timo Glock	Marussia
19	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT
	Sergio Perez	Sauber
	Charles Pic	Marussia
	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT
	Bruno Senna	Williams
	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes

Heartbreak for Hamilton, Respite for Narain Karthikeyan

Our article on Spanish Grand Prix qualifying was titled Hamilton on Pole, heartbreak for Narain
http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/05/hamilton-on-pole-heartbreak-for-narain.html

However, in the continuing drama that is Formula 1, the new title should read Heartbreak for Hamilton, Respite for Narain

Lewis Hamilton had done a great lap in the dying seconds to score the pole position. However, he stopped the car as he didn't have enough fuel to complete the lap. This was in breach of the regulations. Incidentally, the regulations (Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations) came into place because of a previous incident in Canadian Grand Prix by the same McLaren team with Hamilton driving the car. At that time Hamilton didn't have enough fuel for the mandatory inspection, so he stopped the car, got down and pushed it all the way waving to spectators. It was indeed a spectacle, but the rules were changed after that. So it is surprising that the McLaren team didn't knew about it.

McLaren officials pleaded before the Stewards that there was a fuel rig fault and hence there was shortage of fuel. However, the Stewards didn't accept the explanation and ruled "As the amount of fuel put into the car is under complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure"

So Hamilton has been excluded from the qualifying results and will start from the back of the grid. Pastor Maldonado has been promoted to the pole position - his first pole.

"The Stewards received a report from the Race Director which stated that during post-qualifying scrutineering a sample of fuel was required from car 4, however, the car failed to return to the pits under its own power as required under Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

The Stewards heard from the team representative Mr. Sam Michael who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force majeure. A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes. As the amount of fuel put into the car is under complete control of the Competitor the Stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure."

The disqualification of Lewis Hamilton has also resulted in Fernando Alonso moving into second position and to the front row of the grid. That will definitely excite many Spaniards and the race is going to see a full house.

So the revised provisional Grid for the Spanish Grand Prix is as follows:

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

Hamilton on Pole, Heartbreak for Narain

Hamilton on Pole, Heartbreak for Narain

In the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton scored the pole position in the dying seconds of the Q3. He was so low in fuel that he had to stop on the track after the qualifying and could not come back to the pitlane.

On the other hand, the lone Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan could only score 1:31.122 and was outside the 107% time. So he hasn't qualified for the race. He can only race on the discretion of the stewards. Considering that his time in Final Practice was within the 107% times and he was also better than his team mate and his team mate managed to qualify, so HRT will file an appeal for allowing Narain to race.

In the Q3, the drivers chose to do only one lap in the dying minutes of the qualifying. Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi did not choose to set a time. Clearly they were trying to preserve their tires. Michael Schumacher who is known for his phenomenal starts, will hope to overtake a few cars during the start.

To the momentary delight of the partisan spanish crowd Fernando Alonso had scored the P1 time, however within seconds Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton bettered it.

Complete timings:

	Qualifying
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:21.707	17 laps
2	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:22.285	19 laps
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:22.302	15 laps
4	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:22.424	14 laps
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:22.487	13 laps
6	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:22.533	14 laps
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.005	17 laps
8	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull		14 laps
9	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes		15 laps
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber		14 laps
11	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:22.944	13 laps
12	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:22.977	8 laps
13	Paul de Resta	Force India	1:23.125	14 laps
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:23.177	13 laps
15	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:23.265	11 laps
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:23.442	11 laps
17	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:23.444	12 laps
18	Bruno Senna	Williams	1:24.981	8 laps
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:25.277	8 laps
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	1:25.507	8 laps
21	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:26.582	8 laps
22	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:27.032	8 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:27.555	6 laps
	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	1:31.122	4 laps
	Q1	107% Time	01:28.4

Spanish Grand Prix Final Practice: Vettel on Top

Sebastian Vettel topped the third and final practice in the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday. Considering that Vettel only drove for 13laps, it shows ominous signs of Vettel dominating again. Narain Karthikeyan of India who was frustrated yesterday due to lack of track time, finally could drive. He drove 24 laps in his HRT car compared to the 13 laps of his team mate Pedro de la Rosa and was faster than him. This should surely give the much needed confidence to Narain.

Michael Schumacher chose to drive 17 laps and was 17th in the timesheets with a time of 1:24.825. I don't think he would be bothered that his team mate Nico Rosberg drove for 24 laps and scored a faster time of 1:24.070.

Fernando Alonso, who had topped the FP1 times was 6th with a time of 1:23.807 while his team mate Felipe Massa was 11th with a time of 1:24.179.

With Qualifying scheduled in the afternoon, it is to be seen who wins the important qualifying battle.


Time Sheet for Third Practice

	Third Practice
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:23.168		13 laps
2	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:23.336	0.168	19 laps
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:23.350	0.182	19 laps
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:23.578	0.410	16 laps
5	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:23.742	0.574	22 laps
6	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:23.807	0.639	15 laps
7	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:23.833	0.665	14 laps
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:23.909	0.741	13 laps
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:23.936	0.768	16 laps
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.070	0.902	24 laps
11	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:24.179	1.011	16 laps
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:24.323	1.155	17 laps
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:24.3331	1.163	15 laps
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	1:24.409	1.241	18 laps
15	Paul de Resta	Force India	1:24.599	1.431	15 laps
16	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:24.778	1.610	15 laps
17	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.24.825	1.657	17 laps
18	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:25.911	2.743	20 laps
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	1:26.587	3.419	20 laps
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:27.469	4.301	18 laps
21	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:27.689	4.521	16 laps
22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	1:28.207	5.039	24 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:28.373	5.205	13 laps
24	Romain Grosjean	Lotus			2 laps

Spanish Grand Prix: Glory lap by Alonso

It was a bitter and sweet afternoon for the Spanish crowd watching the Friday practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix 2012.

Fernando Alonso who is adored by many of his fellow countrymen, didn't fail to charm the friday crowd in the Spanish Grand Prix and scored the P1 position at a time of 1:24.430. This was achieved in Ferrari's B- specd car. Alonso was 0.378 seconds faster than Sebastian Vettel of Redbul. Alonso's team mate in the other Ferrari, was down in 12th place a massive 1:003 seconds adrift.Michael Schumacher was 6th with a timing of 1:25.187 and his team mate Nico Rosberg was 14th with a timing of 1:25.607.

However, in the second practice Fernando Alonso could only score at 14th fastest lap time and his team mate who is generally struggling for the past two years scored a 11th fastest time. Jenson Button scored the P1 in the second practice followed by Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg was third, Hamilton fourth, Raikkonen fifth, Grosjean sixth, Webber 7th followed by Schumacher at 8th position. Interestingly Schumacher drove 36 laps whereas his team mate Nico Rosberg drove 41laps ie. 5 laps more than him. With tyre degradation to become a major factor, it is important to see how the drivers cope up tomorrow as well as in the race day on Sunday.

The Indian fans were disappointed, as in the morning session Narain Karthikeyan didn't drive as Dani Clos - a spanish driver was given the drive to have an all spanish drive - as per earlier plan. In the second practice Narain Karthikeyan's car had developed an electrical problem and when he ventured very late in the second practice his car promptly stopped in turn three. We have to watch the impact of this lack of driving on Narain tomorrow. For the record, Dani Clos was a massive 2.511 seconds slower than his team mate Pedro de la Rosa, both of them driving 19 laps each.



The timings in First Practice:

	First Practice
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:24.430		20 laps
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:24.808	0.378	18 laps
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:24.912	0.482	28 laps
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:24.996	0.566	24 laps
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.120	0.690	24 laps
6	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.25.187	0.757	15 laps
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:25.217	0.787	16 laps
8	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:25.252	0.822	20 laps
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:25.285	0.855	29 laps
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:25.339	0.909	24 laps
11	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:25.367	0.937	22 laps
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:25.433	1.003	21 laps
13	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:25.539	1.109	23 laps
14	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.607	1.177	20 laps
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:25.918	1.488	19 laps
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:26.226	1.796	24 laps
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:26.297	1.867	18 laps
18	Jules Bianchi	Force India	1:26.630	2.200	21 laps
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:27.475	3.045	20 laps
20	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:28.267	3.837	21 laps
21	Alexander Rossi	Caterham	1:28.448	4.018	25 laps
22	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:28.633	4.203	22 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:29.107	4.677	19 laps
24	Dani Clos	HRT	1:31.618	7.188	19 laps

The Timings in Second Practice:

Second Practice Sl. Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Jenson Button McLaren  1:23.399 38 laps 2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull  1:23.563 0.164 38 laps 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:23.771 0.372 41 laps 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren  1:23.909 0.510 32 laps 5 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  1:23.918 0.519 32 laps 6 Romain Grosjean Lotus  1:23.964 0.565 37 laps 7 Mark Webber Red Bull  1:24.065 0.666 34 laps 8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1.24.080 0.681 36 laps 9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber  1:24.214 0.815 41 laps 10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India  1:24.365 0.966 22 laps 11 Felipe Massa Ferrari  1:24.418 1.019 35 laps 12 Sergio Perez Sauber  1:24.422  1.023 32 laps 13 Pastor Maldonado Williams   1:24.468 1.069 40 laps 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  1:24.600 1.201 33 laps 15 Paul DiResta Force India  1:24.688 1.289 30 laps 16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso  1:24.733 1.334 34 laps 17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso  1:24.769 1.370 37 laps 18 Bruno Senna Williams   1:25.047 1.648  42 laps 19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham  1:26.296 2.897 36 laps 20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham  1:26.740 3.341 35 laps 21 Timo Glock Marussia  1:27.314 3.915 27 laps 22 Charles Pic Marussia  1:27.664 4.265 30 laps 23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT  1:28.235 4.836 26 laps 24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 2 laps