Vettel takes Austin pole as Hamilton pushes all the way

17/11/2012

Ahead of today's all important qualifying session it would be a brave - or foolish - man who would bet against Sebastian Vettel taking pole position and another step towards his third successive title.

The German has dominated all three practice sessions even though in one (FP2) he had limited track time due to a water leak.

While Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber have kept Sebastian honest, the only other man who can fight him for the title, Fernando Alonso, has been left for dust.

The Spaniard remains convinced that he can and will win the title, but, with due respect, either he's off his rocker or the fix is in. Then again, before we all start the conspiracy theory nonsense lets not forget Crashgate.

Admittedly, though completely overshadowed yesterday morning, in the afternoon, in warmer conditions, Alonso was able to close the gap. Nonetheless, one cannot help but feel that Seb has plenty in reserve.

Putting the title fight aside however, other than Hamilton, Webber has been looking good as has Massa. In the midfield, there's a good battle between Force India, Williams, Sauber and Mercedes, while it was interesting to see Glock get the better of the Caterhams this morning.

Romain Grosjean, who suffered a gearbox problem this morning will incur a five-place grid penalty after Lotus, in its infinite wisdom, opted to change the unit ahead of this afternoon's session. It is the second such penalty for the Frenchman this season.

On the other hand, Sergio Perez and Charles Pic both escape penalty following their clash this morning, the Mexican making an unnecessary and aggressive move on the French youngster.

What is going to be interesting this afternoon, other than the lack of grip and tricky corners is the fact that on certain parts of the track slower drivers have nowhere to go when faster cars come up behind, which lead to some fun and games in both Q1 and Q2.

As we await the start of Q1, the air temperature is 20 degrees C, while the track temperature is 31 degrees.

De la Rosa leads the way when the lights go green, the Spaniard followed by his teammate, Kobayashi, Perez, Senna and Raikkonen.

There is serious concern that one or both of the HRTs will fail to qualify this afternoon, Karthikeyan having been outside the 107% limit in all three practice session and de le Rosa in two.

While Raikkonen is on the harder rubber, others, most notably the minnows, are already on the softer option.

De la Rosa gets things underway with a 45.674 but this is soon beaten by Raikkonen and his 41.058. Glock goes second with a 43.630.

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