Sebastian Vettel’s championship hopes were left hanging by a thread after a monsoon-struck qualifying session saw him dumped out in Q1 and starting from 16th on the grid for the tomorrow’s crucial Brazilian Grand Prix.
Vettel had run close to the top of the timesheets all day on Friday but after third practice was washed out qualifying also got underway in appalling conditions and late in the 15-minute segment Vettel found himself flirting with the last-five drop zone and off the pace.
He attempted one last-ditch flying run but it was too little too late and as the session closed he found himself 16th and out. “It is very difficult with these conditions,” said a disconsolate Vettel afterwards. “I think there was a window where the circuit was fastest and we missed it. And afterwards when we had no traffic on track anymore there was just too much water, too much rain, it was just aquaplaning… it was impossible to improve.
“I think I went to the pool not the race track today. It is just extremely disappointing, obviously we had been targeting something a lot higher.”
The second session was then delayed by torrential rain and when it did start a heavy accident to Vitantonio Liuzzi again halted proceedings.
When Q2 finally started in earnest there was consolation for Vettel in that title leader Jenson Button also missed his chance and had to settle for 14th on the grid.
Remaining title rival Rubens Barrichello did make it through to the final top-10 shoot out – just, scraping through in 10th. But in the final session the Brazilian was not to be denied and despite a fiery performance from Mark Webber, Barrichello sneaked in at the last moment to claim his first pole in 87 races in front of his home crowd.
That left Vettel admitting that the task ahead is daunting. “It’s not the best position to start from but that’s life. I’m not happy, I’m angry. It’s very disappointing,” he said. “It would be much nicer to be starting from the front but that’s life we have to accept it. It’s happened in the past that other people have won from those kind of grid positions at the back. We’ll see tomorrow about the weather. In the dry the car is very competitive, and we should be in the wet too. There wasn’t much missing today, it’s not a question of pace but of timing today.
“Starting from the back tomorrow we will start with the knife between our teeth and we’ll try to do our very best.”
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