Greater Noida, October 27
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel maintained his amazing run when he took pole position as Red Bull made it a one-two in the qualifying session before the title race tomorrow in the second Indian Formula I Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit here today.

Vettel, who is in line for a Drivers' Championship hat-trick win and a second consecutive title at the Indian GP, displayed immaculate control and poise when he zoomed to the top in 1:25.283. Red Bull made a one-two as Mark Webber finished second at 0.35 seconds behind. Vettel's was a master class in racing as despite missing apex of turn 7, he raced smoothly to hit the front, warding off a stiff challenge.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren came up with a show of speed and endurance when it mattered the most to clock 1:25.544 to take the third slot, ahead of team mate-Jenson Button (1:25.659), as Red Bull and McLaren booked the first four places. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who is chasing Vettel for the championship race, suffered a setback when he was pushed to the fifth place, with a fastest lap time of 1:25.773.

Vettel was happy that Alonso, who is six points adrift at 209, will be racing behind him in the title race at 3.p.m tomorrow. Alonso's teammate Filipe Massa finished sixth, followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at 9th. Michael Schumacher of Mercedes came 14th while Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Paul Di Resta finished at 12th and 16th positions. Narain Karthikeyan of HRT aptly finished 23rd, which was the order of his race too. Vettel and Webber had dominated the third practice sessions in the morning, taking the first and third positions, though Webber stepped accelerated in the qualifying race to get ahead of Button. The races had its share of spills as first Masa spun before getting back on track at turn 15 while Hamilton missed the apex (bend) at turn 7. Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham careened off the track to land on the gravel at turn 11. 

Completes third successive Red Bull front row lockout

25-year-old German, gunning to become the youngest triple champion in F1 history

Fifth pole of the season and the 35th of career

Greater Noida, Oct 27
Their grid positions for the home race are not encouraging but Sahara Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg says since the gap with the cars ahead is not much he is still confident of delivering a good result.

Hulkenberg will start tomorrow's Indian Grand Prix in the 12th positions while Paul di Resta qualified 16th, his worst show in the qualifying this season. With just four races left, Force India need to score good points if they have to finish sixth in the constructors' championship. They are trailing Sauber by 27 points with 89 points in the pocket. Now that Sauber' Sergio Perez has qualified eighth for the race, it will be tough for Force India to reduce the gap if they return empty-handed tomorrow.

Hulkenberg has been fantastic for the side this year and has scored points despite starting the race from as back as 15th. "I guess that some other cars have picked up pace today and that's why we are behind them. I still have confidence for the race because we have seen how close the times are today and we were not too far away from the top ten.

The other good news is that we can pick our starting tyres for the race, so our focus tonight is to think hard about the strategy," Hulkenberg said after the qualifying session.

The German said he got maximum out of the car and it was not possible to do beyond that. "We went into the session targeting and expecting to make Q3, so it's a bit disappointing to miss out. After the first part of qualifying it was clear that it was going to be a big task, but obviously you always try and believe it is possible. My lap in Q2 was actually pretty good with no mistakes and that was just the maximum for us today," he said. Paul di Resta said after today's result they have to do a lot of work overnight to get a good result. "It's a big weekend for us but the performance we showed today is not really where we want to be. It has been a tricky couple of days and we've not been able to maximise the car we've got. The car balance was not ideal and I didn't have the best lap during my final run in Q2 - there were a few small mistakes and I didn't have the consistency or the confidence to really push," di Resta said.

"So there is a lot of work to do ahead of the race tomorrow and we need to look at things overnight to see where we can improve. It's an important day for us and we need to try and recover some ground if we want to come home with points." Team Principal Vijay Mallya said the team has much more potential than what it showed today.

"We saw another very close session today, but ultimately we didn't have the performance level to continue our run of top ten qualifying performances. We've been struggling to find the sweet spot on set-up and it seems that the tyres have played a much more significant role here," he said.

"Their operating window on this track seems very narrow and we probably haven't got the most from them. Even so, it's only Saturday and tomorrow is what counts. There is a long race ahead and we can still turn things around and demonstrate our true potential. It's our home and we want to deliver strong races with both cars.” he said. — PTI

Greater Noida, October 27
Paddock is the sanctum sanctorum of an FI team where tall, muscular hunks keep vigil. They work with break-neck speed and clock-work precision to facilitate the drivers to have their way on the track, to make them champions. No wonder, the paddock area was the most curious, and most visited by those who could gain entry into the track area when the men and machine were resting, or being readied.

With a pit stop for tire change having been made mandatory for every team, to give a level-playing field to all the cars, the role of the paddock people has assumed great significance in making or marring the chances of a driver. A paddock will have 30 to 80 experts, depending on the profile and budget of the teams, and the role assigned to them have to be carried out in a trice, without compromising on the precision aspect.

"We have to be extremely quick and precise in our jobs as the FI cars have more than 6000 custom-made components", pointed out a Ferrari official.

Most big teams allow the fans to have a close look at the cars and the facility at the paddock, and at the Buddh International Circuit, there was constant stream of people to take a look at the paddock , and get photographed with the cars and drivers. And most teams allow that privilege willingly, though curiously, the paddock doors of India's very own Force India mostly remained locked during free time. To compensate for that, pretty girls station in front of Force India paddock to share autographs and photo sessions with moon-struck fans.

The paddock area at BIC this year has assumed great significance, as six current or former champions are competing here-Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. Before that, only in 1970, five champions raced together in one season.

And with all the top drivers praising the BIC for its smooth flowing track, challenging layout and pleasing ambience, FI boss Ernie Eccleston is thinking of allotting a second FI event to BIC. Presently, there are eight circuits in Asia, and the BIC has already earned the reputation of being the best, or one of the best. For, the drivers who race 51 weeks every year, want things hassle free and smooth. And BIC perfectly fits the bill as the 5.14km track has many novel features to merit a second FI in a calendar year. 

Number Game (BIC)

Race distance: 60 laps (190.924 miles/307.249km)

Start time: 3PM (Live on Star Sports)

Circuit length: 3.185 miles/5.125km

2011 winner: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 60 laps in 1hr30m35.002s (203.513km/h)

2011 pole: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m24.178s (219.178km/h)

Lap record: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m27.249s (211.463km/h)

Greater Noida, Oct 27
Lewis Hamilton remained confident on Saturday that McLaren can beat Red Bull in Sunday's Indian Grand Prix despite the champions' third straight clean sweep of the front row grid positions.

Hamilton qualified third ahead of his McLaren teammate and fellow-Briton Jenson Button. He said: "We are not quick enough to be ahead of these guys (on the grid) but we can definitely challenge them in the race. "Our race pace in practice was as good as theirs so I am excited about that."

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa start behind the McLarens on row three and Hamilton said he expected them to be a threat in race trim. He added: "Ferrari had a slightly faster pace overall, but we don't know what fuel they were on. "If we can get a good start and have a good fight with these guys then hopefully (we will have) a better race than the last few ones we did.

"I am looking forward to a race where we don't have any issues and can just fight to get some good points." Teammate Button said overnight work on his car had helped him. He said: "The car was pretty difficult yesterday, but we improved it a lot overnight. "Coming here it was very difficult to get the tyres into their operating window, but we have finally found a place which works for us, so we're pretty happy.

"We got it together today, and hopefully improvements we made will work on high fuel as well as they have on low fuel. "We need improvements in the race to really challenge, he said. — PTI

Greater Noida, Oct 27
Fernando Alonso admitted on Saturday that he needs a clean start and a chance to pass, or pile the pressure on, Sebastian Vettel if he is to keep alive his title challenge on Sunday.

The 31-year-old Spaniard, who qualified third on the grid alongside his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, will start the race six points behind championship leader and defending champion Vettel in the title contest.

But with just four races remaining, he conceded that he faces an uphill struggle if he cannot break Red Bull's current domination - on Saturday they locked out the front row of the grid for the third straight race.

German Vettel, 25, took his 35th career pole ahead of teammate Australian Mark Webber. Alonso, who has seen his once comfortable 42-points lead turned into a six points deficit, said: "Tomorrow we need to overtake McLaren as soon as possible and put pressure on Red Bull to wait for a little mistake, a pit stop problem, reliability or something. "If they (Red Bull) can start, go away and have an easy race, that's the worst news for us, he said. — PTI

Greater Noida, Oct 27
Defending champion Sebastian Vettel is a satisfied man, at least for now, as he claimed the pole position today in the Indian Grand Prix, four places ahead of his nearest title contender Fernando Alonso but said it will be a close race tomorrow irrespective of the advantage over his rival driver from Ferrari.

It was the fifth pole position of the season for Vettel, whose three consecutive wins have propelled him to the top of the table in the drivers' standings, just six points ahead of Alonso (206). Vettel's flying lap of 1:25.283 in Q3 secured him the pole, his 35th in the career.

"I am happy to be here. The car was fantastic. It was very good and it was good that we could work everything well today. I could have been faster, but it has been a great weekend so far. We started the weekend much better than last year," Vettel told reporters at the post qualifying session press conference at the Buddh International Circuit here.” he said. — PTI