By claiming his 15th pole position at the 19th and last grand prix of the year, the Red Bull Racing driver beats the record established by Nigel Mansell since 1992.
Interlagos, November 26, 2011 – Today was the first qualifying session where two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel became the driver who has scored the most pole positions in one season. By claiming his 15th pole position at the 19th and last grand prix of the year, the Red Bull Racing driver beats the record established by Nigel Mansell that has stood since 1992.
Qualifying got underway in ambient temperatures of 27 degrees centigrade with cloudy conditions, underlining the risk of rain that is frequently a feature of the Brazilian Grand Prix. In order to get in a lap as quickly as possible, most drivers headed straight out at the beginning of qualifying one, with both Red Bulls, both McLarens, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg using medium compound tires to get through to qualifying two. The sudden rush caused plenty of traffic on one of the shortest circuits of the year, adding to the challenge for the drivers.
It was a similar story during qualifying two, but this time all the drivers went straight onto the soft tyres in order to maximise dry running, with rain clouds just two kilometres away. The top drivers completed just one run during qualifying two, in order to maintain as many fresh soft tyres as possible for the final session.
Conditions remained dry for qualifying three, with different approaches from the top runners, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg both completed a slower lap to warm up the tyres followed by a fast lap, while the Red Bull Racing cars and McLaren’s Jenson Button were straight onto a quick lap.
Vettel set a time of 1m12.268s on his first run and then beat his own benchmark during the second run with a time of 1m11.918s on the soft tyres. His team mate Mark Webber qualified second ahead of the two McLarens. Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher went out on the medium tyre but did not set a time.
Vettel also went quickest during the final free practice session this morning, held in dry and warm conditions, with a time of 1m12.460s on the soft option fractionally ahead of McLaren driver Jenson Button.
