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Formula 1 Spanish GP

2012 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

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2 min: Vettel comes round and is running slowly. This is a heat cycle.
1 min: Hamilton heads out for a first run, as teams ponder the impact of the cloud cover dropping the track temperature to 37 C.
1 min: Vettel is taking things extremely carefully and is almost crawling round the circuit. It will be an anti-climax is this is just to run a heat cycle through the compound.
0 min: Vettel is immediately out onto the circuit with soft tyres.
0 min: Q3 begins in Spain.
So here are the 10 drivers that have progressed into the final shootout:

Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
Michael Schumacher
Nico Rosberg
Kimi Raikkonen
Romain Grosjean
Kamui Kobayashi
Sergio Perez
Pastor Maldonado.
All to play for in the final segment, with the teams ideally wanting drivers to run only once to keep some rubber fresh for tomorrow.
Schumacher ended up scraping through the segment by 0.040s.
Massa's time was briefly enough for 10th but the Brazilian slid to a lowly 17th after improvements flooded in during the final minutes.
All three drivers managed a lap good enough to get into the top 10, leaving Button and Webber as the fallguys.
Tremendous action in the final stages of that segment. With seconds to go Schumacher, Perez and Maldonado were 15th, 16th and 17th, but all on a hot lap.
Kobayashi will be unable to take further part in the session, with his Sauber sidelined by a technical issue.
The second period of qualifying has been completed and these seven drivers are eliminated:

11) Button
12) Webber
13) di Resta
14) Hulkenberg
15) Vergne
16) Ricciardo
17) Massa.
Kobayashi ended that segment in ninth but has pulled up at Turn 4 and is out of his Sauber.
Button now complains of understeer as he tours in as a shock victim of the Q2 scramble.
Late moves from Perez, Schumacher and Maldonado (who went quickest with 1m22.105s) have dumped out Webber at the flag.
Button's time is sliding... and he looks to be eliminated in 11th!
Perez is also rapid in his Sauber, demoting many by grabbing fourth.
Schumacher moves into 10th and Webber is out!
Webber is ninth and any further big improvements could eliminate the Australian.
Kobayashi takes sixth, with Button ending up just behind in seventh.
15 min: Hulkenberg goes eighth and that demotes Schumacher (who is on a lap) down to 14th.
15 min: The flag is out but the laps continue.
15 min: Kobayashi is the fastest man in the middle part of the lap and could upset some leading runners.
14 min: Vettel is now on an attempt. He comes up to the line and goes ... fifth with 1m22.884s.
14 min: Button has slipped to eighth fastest and needs more on this second attempt.
14 min: Vettel is now 11th with Schumacher 13th.
14 min: Alonso goes a solid fourth in his Ferrari, likely securing his progress to the top 10 shootout.
14 min: Schumacher is demoted to 11th position by Massa's time as di Resta moves up to sixth.
13 min: Massa has both underseer and oversteer in his Ferrari and looks set to struggle as he only scrapes in 10th for the moment.
13 min: The dropzone is currently occupied by Alonso, Perez, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Massa and di Resta.
13 min: Alonso is on the move again, as is Button in his McLaren.
13 min: Vettel has slipped to ninth and the German is back out to prevent any possible problem. Schumacher in 10th also heads out.
12 min: Replays show a lock-up for Grosjean into the final chicane, ending his lap just two tenths down on Hamilton's benchmark.
12 min: Raikkonen clocks a 1m22.856s lap to go second fastest, before being pipped to that place by team-mate Grosjean.
12 min: Ricciardo is next man over the line and he goes eighth with a time of 1m23.442s.
11 min: Vergne crosses the line in 1m23.265s and moves up to third place briefly.
11 min: Grosjean is the fastest man through the first sector, while Raikkonen had a minor moment in the fast Turn 3.
10 min: Massa returns to the circuit and needs to find more speed to progress from this segement.
10 min: Soft tyres of course for Vergne and the Toro Rosso driver launches into his attempt.

By: Emlyn Hughes, Geoff Creighton

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