Red Bull Reign Qualifying In Spain

The Formula One show returned to Spain this weekend for the European Grand Prix in Valencia. It's another street circuit that is destined to have all the major thrills and spills, last year it saw Mark Webber suffer that aerial crash that he was lucky to escape unscathed. Today, we welcomed back Sergio Perez who returned to qualifying after his crash in Monaco two races ago.

Q1 turned out to be the usual six plus one, but it was an extremely close encounter as both Massa and Webber lingered above the drop zone at times during the session. Unsurprisingly, Karthikeyan starts twenty-fourth but Liuzzi out-qualified Virgin's D'Ambrosio into twenty-second. Glock remains behind the Lotus' although both Lotus drivers were close to progressing into Q2. Trulli span on the last corner of his last qualifying lap which allowed Kovalainen to out-qualify him yet again. For the third time this season, Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso was also eliminated in Q3 in front of his home crowd. Massa was the fastest for the seventh time in a Q1 session.

Q2 was red flagged with eight minutes to go when Williams' Maldonado suffered an electrical fault which left him stranded in the middle of the track. Despite this, Malonado will start fifteenth tomorrow as Buemi and the returning Perez couldn't find a time quicker than Maldonado's earlier effort. Kobayashi didn't seem comfortable throughout qualifying and will start fourteenth behind Barrichello in the other Williams. Di Resta will start twelfth but his team-mate Sutil managed to sneak into Q3 at the final attempt, pushing Petrov out and into eleventh place. Unsurprisingly, Vettel led the pack in the Q2 to set the toll in Q3.

Unfortunately, both Sutil and Heidfeld decided not to make a time to save the tyres for tomorrow's race. The two Mercedes' will then line up side by side with Rosberg edging Schumacher into seventh. Button looked well off the pace and will start behind both of the Ferrari's with Alonso out-qualifying Massa for the eighth time this season. Hamilton will start third behind the two Red Bulls and there was no surprise seeing Vettel make Pole position yet again.