VALENCIA, Spain, (Reuters) – Germany’s Sebastian Vettel yesterday locked down pole position for today’s European Formula One Grand Prix with Red Bull sweeping the front row for the fourth time this season.
Australian Mark Webber qualified second with McLaren’s championship leader Lewis Hamilton the best of the rest in third place.
“People were talking at the last race (in Canada) that this would probably be a difficult venue for us. I think we’ve proved them wrong,” said Vettel, who finished fourth in Montreal two weeks ago.
“It will be a tough battle tomorrow but I think we can win the race and score a lot of points for the team,” added the 22-year-old, whose team are racing for the first time with a version of the ‘F-duct’ pioneered by McLaren that offers greater straight-line speed.
Vettel has now secured four poles this season but has failed to convert any of the previous three into wins, his sole victory coming from third place on the grid in Malaysia. Red Bull have had eight poles this year.
“I’m happy to be second to be honest, Seb was quicker,” said Webber, who has qualified on the front row in the last eight races.
The two Red Bull drivers line up alongside each other for the first time since they collided in Turkey while heading for a one-two finish but both played down the possibility of locking horns again.
“We’ve been through this many times but I’m not afraid that something similar will happen,” said Vettel, whose last pole was in China in April. “You can never say never but surely I think we have learned our bit.”
