Sebastian Vettel was able to break former World Champion Nigel Mansell’s impressive number of pole positions this afternoon, claiming the top spot for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Having admitted to a ‘rough start’ in practice, the Red Bull driver found the sweet spot and comfortably outpaced his rivals.
"There has been quite some talk about this pole position record recently," said Vettel. "I think the best thing was not to think about it. We had a rough start to weekend and I wasn’t 100 percent happy with the balance, but we made right choices overnight and I was happier going into qualifying.
"I was happy with my first lap in Q3, but knew there was more to come and I put everything into last lap. I was quite emotional, I gave it my all. I had to wait quite a long time to see if lap was good enough, but my engineer finally told me that I had pole position.
"So it’s really special, much different than the other poles I would say. It took Mansell a couple of races less to get the record, but it’s still very special to me. I’m very happy to be here and start from the front tomorrow."
With a 90 percent chance of rain tomorrow afternoon, Vettel is well aware that positions can change in an instant at the Interlagos venue.
"The weather is going to be a big question mark, but this place is a bit tricky anyway, it always creates special races and special weather so I’m looking forward to tomorrow."
Further post-qualifying feelings from Red Bull:
- Horner hails ‘awesome’ Vettel achievement
- Webber on the hunt for maiden 2011 victory
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:11.918 | 17 |
| 2. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:12.099 | 16 |
| 3. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:12.283 | 18 |
| 4. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:12.480 | 22 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:12.591 | 22 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:13.050 | 21 |
| 7. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:13.068 | 18 |
| 8. | A. Sutil | Force India | 01:13.298 | 23 |
| 9. | B. Senna | Lotus Renault | 01:13.761 | 29 |
| 10. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | no time | 18 |
| Full results | ||||
| Sebastian Vettel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Sebastian Vettel photos | |||
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