Lotus Renault Singapore GP qualifying report

Lotus Renault press release

Bruno Senna, R31-04 Q1: P15, 1.48.861, 9 laps Q2: P15, 1.48.662, 4 laps

Vitaly Petrov, R31-06 Q1: P18, 1.49.835, 8 laps

Lotus Renault GP will have a lot of work to do tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix after a difficult qualifying session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Despite the session taking place in the middle of the night, it was still hot and humid as air temperatures reached 30°C.

Bruno Senna, Renault F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Both Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov went out early in Q1, putting in a three-lap run on the Pirelli soft tyres before switching to the supersofts for the final five-minute push.

Bruno was blocked by traffic on his first flying lap on the supersoft rubber, but he had just enough time to put in another lap. He duly nailed a time of 1m 48.861s to seal 15th place and make it into Q2. Unfortunately Vitaly only had time for one flying lap on the supersofts and, while his mark of 1m 49.835s was good enough to break into the top 17, he was bumped back down to P18 by Bruno’s late lap.

In Q2 Bruno was just heading out for his first run – again on supersoft tyres – when the session was red-flagged for an accident involving Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber. That meant Bruno had only one chance to set a lap when the session resumed for the final five minutes. He set a time of 1m 48.662s to take 15th on the grid.

In the final Q3 shoot-out, Sebastian Vettel took pole position for Red Bull with a lap of 1m 44.381s ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and the McLarens of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.