Singapore 2012 Qualifying: Vettel Takes 11th Pole of the Year

Red Bull is on the front row at Singapore. Sebastian Vettel took pole with his teammate Mark Webber narrowly taking second at the very end of the final section of qualifying. McLaren holds the second row with Jensen Button in third and Mark Webber in fourth. Ferrari has the third row with Fernando Alonso in fifth and Felipe Massa in sixth. If Vettel puts in a good performance tomorrow, he can clinch the 2011 world championship. 

The first part of Formula 1 qualifying got off to an exciting start when teammates Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna were competing to move on to the second third of qualifying. Both men were competing were competing for the final spot into Q2. If one took it, the other would be relegated to 18th on the grid. Senna with literally no time left set the faster lap catapulting him into 15th and keeping Petrov in 18th. Senna was not able to do much to improve his time in Q2 and was only able to make it to 14th on the grid. 

The top three through to Q2 were Vettel, Button and Hamilton. 

With a little over 9 minutes left in Q2, Kamui Kobayashi went airborn over the curbs in the turn 10 chicane smashing into the wall. He walked away unharmed, but the accident brought out a red flag on the session. 

Hamilton got a right rear puncture with less than a minute left of Q2. He was already in 8th, though, so he was able to stay to Q1. 

Both Force India cars made it to Q3 after Paul di Resta knocked out Sergio Perez at the end of Q2. 

Vettel, Button and Webber were the top three going into Q3. 

Vettel came out in Q3 to do one flying lap that was half a second faster than anyone else. After that he parked the car and watched everyone else work. Michael Schumacher did not put up a single lap in Q3. He sat in the pits for the entire section. With the session over, Webber and Button pushed Hamilton down to fourth. 

Full Qualifying results are as follows:

1. Sebastian Vettel

2. Mark Webber

3. Jensen Button

4. Lewis Hamilton

5. Fernando Alonso

6. Felipe Massa

7. Nico Rosberg

8. Michael Schumacher

9. Adrian Sutil

10. Paul di Resta

11. Sergio Perez

12. Rubens Barrichello

13. Pastor Maldonado

14. Sebastien Buemi

15. Bruno Senna

16. Jaime Alguersuari

17. Kamui Kobayashi

18. Vitaly Petrov

19. Heikki Kovalainen

20. Jarno Trulli

21. Timo Glock

22. Jerome d'Ambrosio

23. Daniel Ricciardo

24. Vitantonio Liuzzi