Sebastian Vettel claimed his third pole position of the season yesterday at the British Formula One Grand Prix as local hero Jenson Button had to settle for a season-worst sixth place.
The German Vettel clocked 1 minute, 19.509 seconds in his Red Bull on the 5.141km circuit as he topped the grid from Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello and Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.
Championship leader Button managed no better than sixth and compatriot Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion and the winner at Silverstone last year, will have to start in the last row from 19th place in his McLaren-Mercedes.
Button has won six of the seven races this season for a commanding lead on 61 points. Teammate Rubens Barrichello has 35 points and Vettel 29 points. Vettel won the other race in China.
German Force India driver Adrian Sutil crashed heavily into a tire wall at the Becketts turn at the end of the first session. He walked away from the wreck on his own, but then underwent medical checks. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
Meanwhile, Formula One intends to sue the eight teams that announced plans for a rival series next season — the biggest crisis to engulf the sport since the championship began in 1950.
The governing body accused the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) of “serious violations of law.”
The breakaway came after Ferrari, championship leader Brawn GP and six other teams failed to resolve a dispute over the introduction of a budget cap for next season.
Governing body the FIA has responded by delaying publication of a final entry list for next season while it “asserts its legal rights.”
“The FIA’s lawyers have now examined the FOTA threat to begin a breakaway series,” the organization said in a statement. “The actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law, including willful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari’s legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law.”
Ferrari is already countersuing the ruling body “to protect its contractual rights.”
But FIA president Mosley remains “completely confident” that the breakaway series will never come to fruition.
“In the end, people do what it’s in their interests to do and it’s in the interest of teams to be in F1 world championship, and there is actually no fundamental, or even important, issue preventing them from taking part,” Mosley said. “It’s all about personalities and power, and who can grab what from whom, which is easy when nothing’s at stake but, when it comes to the first race and it’s make-your-mind-up time, they will be there.”
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