• German’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to start second
• McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button 5th and 11th

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has claimed pole position for the Hungarian grand prix tomorrow after today’s qualifying. His team-mate will start second, which means Red Bull have their sixth all-front row of this year’s championship.

Vettel claimed his seventh pole of the season and fourth in a row with a crushing lap at the Hungaroring of 1min18.773sec, just over four tenths of a second quicker than Webber.

It is Red Bull’s 11th pole in the 12 races this season, but this was by far their most impressive, with third-on-the-grid Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari a staggering 1.2sec adrift.

Alonso will start the race third, while the McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will start in fifth and 11th place respectively.

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• Vettel claims Red Bull’s 10th pole of the yearby 0.002sec
• Alonso pleased despite missing chance to take pole

Sebastian Vettel claimed Red Bull’s 10th pole position of the year following an electrifying battle with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard, quickest in the first two qualifying sessions, seemed poised to take Ferrari’s first pole for 28 races, stretching back to the 2008 Brazilian grand prix. But Vettel snatched top spot from Alonso by just two thousandths of a second on his final flying lap to spark joyous celebrations among the home fans at Hockenheim. Vettel will almost certainly claim this to be the best pole of his six this season and 11 of his career.

“It would be interesting to see just how much it is, two thousandths of a second,” said Vettel. “It was very close all session. Fernando was really strong, and the Ferraris were very competitive.

“We knew it would be a difficult session, and two thousandths of a second is not what you are looking for, so we had to push very hard and it was very exciting. I’m extremely happy because it’s my first time on pole at home, but the challenge will come tomorrow when it will be a tough fight against the red cars.”

Alonso said: “We have to be happy because we are on the front row of the grid for the first time this season. Finally we have had a perfect Saturday, and although we lost pole by a very small margin, this is not important. The points are won tomorrow, so we also have to have a good Sunday.”

With none of the rain that blighted practice yesterday, as well as the start of this morning’s final session, Ferrari proved they have put recent problems behind them and Felipe Massa will start third on the grid. Mark Webber, winner last time out at Silverstone, is fourth, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton – the former outpacing the latter for the first time in seven races.

Renault’s Robert Kubica is seventh, followed by Rubens Barrichello in eighth and his Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in 10th. Between them in ninth is Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg.

For the third time in four qualifying sessions, Michael Schumacher failed to make it out of Q2, with fellow German Hulkenberg proving to be his undoing on this occasion. Towards the end of the 15 minutes Schumacher had crept into 10th position, only for Hulkenberg to knock the seven-times champion down to 11th with his final lap.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov will line up 12th and 13th. Adrian Sutil qualified 14th in his Force India but incurs a five-place grid penalty for needing a new gearbox and will therefore start 19th.

Pedro de la Rosa in his Sauber will start 14th, followed by the Toro Rosso pairing of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi.

It proved to be a wretched qualifying session for Force India as the initial 20-minute run was red flagged after five minutes due to Vitantonio Liuzzi hitting a wall along the start-finish straight. Liuzzi made a mistake by running wide on the still wet astroturf on the outside of the final corner, known as the Sudkurve.

That sent the Italian careering across the track where he ended up ploughing into the concrete pit wall, immediately losing his front wing and a tyre that was narrowly avoided by a passing Ferrari. With fibreglass from the chassis scattered across the circuit, it took the marshals eight minutes to clear away the debris and the pit lane to re-open again.

Liuzzi will start 22nd, with only Hispania Racing’s Sakon Yamamoto and Lucas di Grassi for Virgin Racing behind him, the latter unable to set a time due to a technical problem. The four drivers ahead of Liuzzi who all failed to make it out of Q1 were the Lotus duo of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, along with Timo Glock and Bruno Senna for Virgin and Hispania Racing.

Due to Sutil’s penalty, Trulli and Kovalainen will move up to 17th and 18th on the grid, with Glock and Senna 20th and 21st.

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• Japanese driver Yamamoto partner Bruno Senna for Hispania
• ‘Karun Chandhok is still part of the Hispania Racing’

The Indian Formula One driver Karun Chandhok has been dropped for next week’s German grand prix, his Hispania team said today.

“After Sakon Yamamoto gave a very positive performance in Silverstone, the team has decided to give the Japanese driver another opportunity to drive the car alongside Bruno Senna,” they said in a statement.

“Karun Chandhok is still part of the Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team family and is likely to be in the car at some later races this season.”

The 26-year-old Chandhok began his career in Formula One this season following three years in GP2. He started 10 races for Hispania, finishing in 14th place in Bahrain and Montreal.

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• Silverstone practice has not gone well so far, say drivers
• Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel are faster in the heat

The message from the world champion Jenson Button today was: “It’s not all over yet.” But today was a desperately disappointing day for McLaren after their substantial upgrades failed to make any difference on the track.

In the slower, morning practice session, Lewis Hamilton managed second place behind Sebastian Vettel, with Button eighth. But when the heat turned up in the afternoon – the track temperature was 43 degrees throughout the second practice – so did the pace and the McLaren pair were well off it. Hamilton finished in eighth place and Button was 13th, two seconds behind fastest man Mark Webber in his Red Bull.

Practice sessions are not a reliable guide to how the race will go because so many teams experiment with different settings and fuel loads, but the McLaren team admitted that they struggled to come to terms with the upgrades which were expected to make their cars quicker than they had been in Valencia two weeks ago.

“It’s been a difficult day for us. We had a new package but we have a lot of work to do,” the team principal Martin Whitmarsh said after the second session. “We got a lot of information today but we’ve got to use that information to make the car faster tomorrow. Everybody is pushing hard and hopefully we will get it right tomorrow.”

Button, who is seeking his first podium position in a British grand prix, said: “Today’s been trickier than expected. It improved towards the end but we’re still not where we’d like to be. We haven’t got the balance right yet which is disappointing as so many people took days off today to see us. It was amazing to see all the caps – at first I thought they belonged to other teams.”

As well as the McLaren team the British crowd were cheering the fact that they were at Silverstone at all. A year ago race weekend here was billed as the last with the race due to switch to Donington, but the grand prix is now assured for 17 years and, as a result, drivers got their first drive on the remodelled circuit.

Button, aiming to be the sixth British winner of his home grand prix in the past 20 years, added: “On high fuel the car seems to work pretty well. On low fuel it’s trickier. It’s pretty bumpy here. It’s not terrible but the Red Bulls look very fast.

“The good thing is we’re quite close to home. We’ll all be working late into the night tonight – we’ve got so much information from today. We did so many different set-up changes – and we’ll see tomorrow where we are. Hopefully we can get it right because it’s a special weekend for the team. Last year, in Turkey, I really struggled on the Friday and won the race by 30 seconds so it’s not over yet. It hasn’t been perfect, that’s the truth. I wish it had been a bit easier for us but it hasn’t been.”

Hamilton sounded more philosophical. “It’s not really disappointing,” he said. “I was well excited this morning. The feeling in the car was positive first thing but the changes we made didn’t make it better and that happens sometimes. It’s not something you can just bolt on. We will improve it tonight. It was bumpy – probably a bit more bumpy with our car unfortunately – and the new section is still picking up grip. Through a couple of hairpins it is pretty slippery.

“I definitely feel we’ve made a step forward from Valencia. This is a track a bit like Barcelona where we saw a second gap to the Red Bulls. I don’t think we’ll be seeing that sort of gap tomorrow. I think it will be a lot closer.”

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• Fernando Alonso is second fastest for Ferrari
• Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both off the pace

Mark Webber dominated the second practice session of the British grand prix here, with the Australian posting the fastest time of the day ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his Red Bull team-mate, Sebastian Vettel.

On a day when Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button both struggled in their McLarens, Webber, who is 24 points behind championship leader Hamilton, placed the memory of his crash in last month’s Valencia grand prix behind him. With Vettel in third there appears a real prospect of Red Bull repeating last year’s 1-2 finish here.

Webber, who clocked a time of 1min 31.234sec around the new-look Silverstone circuit, said: “It was a pretty good day apart from the electrical problem at the end, which was a shame – we lost a few laps.” The 33-year-old lost around 15 minutes of the session due to the malfunction but Webber has confidence in his Red Bull ahead of qualifying.

“The car seems to be going pretty well here. I think a few of the other teams were sandbagging a bit [purposefully going slow], but we’re happy with our programme and looking forward to qualifying. The new section of the track is pretty difficult, but it’s a good challenge.”

Vettel, who like Webber benefited from a switch to softer tyres, is ahead of his team-mate in third in the championship with 115 points, 12 behind Hamilton. He said: “The sessions were OK today – in the afternoon we had a bit of a spin and flat-spotted a set of hard tyres. We also had a problem with the brake pedal but nothing big. The pace of the car was good.

“The new section of the track is quite low speed, but it’s not as slow as we expected and doesn’t kill the rhythm. It adds something new and makes it more of a challenge. The track here is magnificent, it’s good fun, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Alonso, meanwhile, was content but insistent that Ferrari had to improve. “It’s been a pretty good Friday but we know we have to improve the car,” he said. “The Red Bulls are a lot quicker than us at the moment, so we’ll try to get as close as possible tomorrow to have a good Saturday.”

The Spaniard also feels there is more to come from the McLarens. “It will be very close tomorrow. We saw at Valencia too that McLaren on Friday was far back in the second session and then on Saturday Hamilton was in front of us and Button right behind. I think it will be similar, with three or four teams fighting for positions and let’s hope we are a bit in front of them.”

One driver not at Silverstone this weekend is Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time champion Ayrton, though his HRT F1 team said last night that the Brazilian will get the drive for the rest of the season.

Senna has been replaced here by Sakon Yamamoto, possibly because the Japanese driver has greater financial backing, and a statement from Hispania said: “In respect to the rumours about Bruno Senna’s current [status] with Hispania, the team wants to confirm that he has all the support, that he remains one of [our] official drivers and he will be continuing to drive the remaining races.”

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• Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Webber second, with Alonso third
• Button down in 14th place with colleague Hamilton fourth

Red Bull Racing were in a league of their own as Sebastian Vettel claimed a stunning pole position for tomorrow’s British grand prix. Vettel, who started on pole at Silverstone last year on his way to a dominant win, got the better of team-mate Mark Webber in a heated battle for supremacy, the German posting a quickest time of one minute 29.615 seconds.

Hopes of a British win remain intact with Lewis Hamilton wringing the best out of his ill-handling McLaren to take fourth, but there was misery for his team-mate Jenson Button, who could manage only 14th, and was left to describe his car as “undriveable”.

“This morning the car felt really good, but I personally think there was something wrong [in qualifying],” said a frustrated Button. “The car was undriveable this afternoon as soon as I jumped into it. I took so much front end off the car, about five or six turns, which is about one and half per cent, which is just wrong.

“We had this problem on Friday. We just had to keep taking front wing off the car to try and find the balance. I don’t know if I have lost rear downforce since this morning or what, I don’t know, but it is pretty undriveable.”

With the disappointment clear and bitter in his voice, he added: “This weekend has been tricky for us, but that wasn’t normal. We have got new aero parts on the car, we’ve a new front wing, and that is working really well, but something felt very wrong then. I was getting on with the car very well this morning, even though we did not have much practice, and it was moving along nicely, but I don’t know what happened then.”

Asked if it was the right decision to remove the upgrades, Button added: “For now. There’s a lot of work we need to do on the upgrades to improve them. It wouldn’t have been right to run them here, I don’t think, so that was the right decision.”

Final positions after qualifing

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 29.615secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:29.758, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:30.426, 4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:30.556, 5 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30.625, 6 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault 1:31.040, 7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31.172, 8 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:31.175, 9 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber 1:31.274, 10 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:31.430, 11 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:31.399, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber 1:31.421, 13 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams 1:31.635, 14 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:31.699, 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Force India 1:31.708, 16 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:31.796, 17 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.012, 18 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.430, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:34.405, 20 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:34.775, 21 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:34.864, 22 Lucas di Grassi (Bra) Virgin Racing 1:35.212, 23 Karun Chandhok (Ind) HRT-F1 1:36.576, 24 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) HRT-F1 1:36.968

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Mark Webber won from pole in Barcelona on Sunday with only brake problems for team-mate Sebastian Vettel preventing a second Red Bull one-two in three races.

“I think the Monaco result is extremely tough to call,” said Button.

“There are a lot of very competitive drivers so there is a good chance of a slightly unpredictable race.”

Red Bull’s speed this season has meant that they have taken pole for all five of this year’s races, and only twice has any other team intruded on the front row in qualifying.

As a team, we’re really excited about Monaco

Jenson Button
Their advantage over the rest of the field appeared to have widened still further with the installation of a comprehensive upgrade package at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Webber’s was 0.834 seconds faster than third-placed Lewis Hamilton in qualifying, with only Vettel able to get close to his team-mate.

Button himself had described the Red Bulls as “untouchable” in Spain but is confident Monaco’s tight street circuit will help level the playing field.

“To get the best out of the weekend, you’ve really got to build your speed up gradually,” he said.

“There are no benefits from attacking from lap one and risking a mistake.

MARTIN BRUNDLE’S COLUMN
Jenson Button had a bad day at the office in Spain, although he described it more colourfully to me at breakfast in Monaco on Monday

“The track rubbers in incredibly quickly over the weekend, and it’s all about letting the car naturally find more speed through the corners as the conditions improve and your confidence increases.

“Hopefully we won’t have the same gap to the Red Bulls that we had in Spain and I don’t think we will. As a team we’re really excited about that race.”

Button’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was running second to Webber when a tyre deflation caused him to crash on the penultimate lap in Spain, is also hopeful of a good weekend in Monaco.

“Qualifying will be more important than ever,” Hamilton said. “While we’re still working hard to improve our qualifying pace, Monaco is a place where the input of the driver is more important than at any other track, so I’m pretty confident that we’ll be able to do a good job.”

Some reliability problems, particular affecting Vettel, have contributed to the Red Bull duo failing to convert their pace into points.

Vettel is 10 points behind Button with Webber a further seven adrift.

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Button frustrated by mechanical problems
But Webber is confident that his team can claim another win at Monaco if they stay ahead of their rivals in qualifying.

“The whole atmosphere is good and it is a special grand prix. We all know that front row will be king there as well,” he said.

“It is a one-off on the calendar. It is a sensational challenge for the drivers, we all like going there. You certainly couldn’t have a track like it now if you wanted to design and build one.”

From BBC Formula Sport

JENSON BUTTON secured a thrilling Australian Grand Prix victory in Melbourne yesterday – but no one was more shocked than the world champion.

The 30-year-old was behind the wheel of his McLaren for only the second time in a competitive race and admitted he did not expect to be winning races so early into reign with the British team.

After a disappointing start to the season in Bahrain the critics were sharpening their knives ahead of Albert Park but a race filled with drama and overtaking to help diminish complaints the sport was boring.

The excitement was aided by a spell of rain shortly before the start which forced teams to quickly change to intermediate tyres.

Seconds after the five red lights went out, Fernando Alonso spun at the first turn after hitting Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel comfortably held on to first place.

A crash between BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg brought the safety car out and once it left at the end of lap five, Button was the first to enter the pits to switch to slicks.

It proved an inspirational decision as he charged into second place before Vettel suffered brake failure to bring an end to his race, leaving Button firmly in control as he breezed to victory in Melbourne for the second successive year.

The 30-year-old had felt his car was not quite capable of challenging the pace of rivals Red Bull and Ferrari but made the right tactical choice.

Asked about winning his first race with McLaren, Button said: “I thought it would take longer than this. A lot depends on what sort of car you come out of the box with.

“I don’t know in general pace where we would stand but that is not all racing is about. It is also about strategy, thinking and conserving.

“We did it correctly today and we came away with a good victory. This is very special and whatever happens over the next few races this means a lot to me.”

Button, who made the switch to McLaren after winning the world title with Brawn GP, was expected to play second fiddle to team-mate Lewis Hamilton this year, but that would not seem to be the case.

He said: “After being with one team for years and then clinching the title, getting a victory here after two races is very special for me.

“When you can get good points finishes like this it really does mean a lot when you have a car you don’t think is quick enough really to win races every weekend. We just have to work hard and hope we can bring a good package to the next few races.”

Vettel lamented reliability issues after a problem with his Red Bull once again denied him victory this season.

After starting on pole in Bahrain two weeks ago, a spark plug glitch saw the 22-year-old drop from first to fourth.

He was again fastest in qualifying in Melbourne to take his place at the front of the grid but after starting well on a damp circuit the German ended up beached on the gravel on lap 26 and out of the race.

Although Vettel initially blamed brake failure, Red Bull confirmed after the race there had been a problem with one of the wheels.

He said: “I felt that something was wrong one lap earlier than I went off. I had some sparks coming up from the front left wheel – we didn’t know what it was and so wanted to pit.

“But then, a couple of corners before, I had huge vibrations building up and as soon as I touched the brakes I had some sort of failure going in to Turn 13 and ended up in the gravel.

“There was nothing I could have done, I lost the car and that was it. It’s a shame as I think we had the race in total control at every stage, even though the conditions were difficult. But to win you have to finish.

“We’re working hard to get on top of the reliability issues and we hope to have a solid race and see the chequered f lag in Malaysia.”

Team-mate Mark Webber also endured a disappointing day as he finished ninth after the Australian had been hopeful of claiming a maiden victory at home.

The 33-year-old had started second but endured an eventful race before a crash with Hamilton while in sixth saw him drop down the field.

Webber said: “I apologise to Lewis about that. I lost all downforce in the front of the car when I got close to them, the car lifted and I slid into the back of him.

“I went down fighting. I wasn’t happy with sixth and wanted to get a podium but in the end it was a tough day for the team.”

A final test takes place in Barcelona next week before the first race in Bahrain on March 14.

A good crowd turned out to support home favourite Fernando Alonso, sixth fastest in his Ferrari, and the general feeling in the paddock is that Ferrari, Red Bull and Button’s new team McLaren are ahead of the rest.

Button said: ‘I think the Ferrari is a very strong car. They have better consistency than anyone at the moment. Our pace is good but there are still areas we need to work on for me to be happy.’

Jenson – who was 100-1 to win the title in January – had won only one grand prix before this season but is now the 10th Formula 1 world champion Britain has produced.

Button’s racing career began at the age of eight in karting, which is where he says he learnt to be a smooth driver.

Three years later, the racer from Somerset won all 34 races he competed in to clinch the British Cadet Kart Championship.

Success in British Formula Ford Championship followed before he was awarded his first Formula 1 drive, for Williams.

Button eventually moved to BAR-Honda where he finished third overall in the drivers’ championship in 2004 and two years later he raced to his first F1 victory, in Hungary, for Honda.