Qualifying for the 2013 British Grand Prix was a warm and sunny session, in contrast to the session last year that was red flagged because of the rain. At one stage in qualifying, the top twelve drivers were arranged in pairs by team, but that was not to last. It was not one of the better qualifying sessions for Ferrari, but there was expectation that both the Red Bull and Force India teams might do relatively well. The Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel managed relatively few laps and appeared to be doing well until a storming final lap by Lewis Hamilton put him on pole, ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg, with the two Mercedes drivers forming a new pair on the front row of the grid.
Daniel Ricciardo posted a series of good times to get to the third qualifying session, which sadly was not the case for British driver Jenson Button, as McLaren’s relatively 2013 continued. Force India, who appear to have replaced McLaren as one of the top five teams, had a good session too, including British driver Paul Di Resta.
A British pole with Hamilton was the start of British success for the day, with Sam Bird winning the GP2 race and Jack Harvey taking his first GP3 win afterwards.
However, British success was tempered with news after the session that Paul Di Resta’s car had been found to be underweight in scrutineering, and he was disqualified from the session and will start at the back of the grid. This was particularly disappointing after his career best fifth place in qualifying, and follows a series of poor turns of events in qualifying this year. Hopefully he can still manage a good result.
There is an index of my photos from the weekend hereÂ
