page_title: 2011 German Grand Prix
section_title: Qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 German Grand Prix / Report / Qualifying
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Virgin Racing et HRT au Nurburgring en 2011
context_page_description: The 2011 German Grand Prix, formally the Formula 1 Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland 2011, was a Formula One motor race that was held on 24 July 2011 at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany. It was the tenth round of the 2011 Formula One season. The 60-lap race was won by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had started from second position on the grid. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished in second place, and Mark Webber, who had started the race from pole position, completed the podium in third position for Red Bull Racing. Webber's teammate and championship leader Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, ending an eleven-race streak of finishing in the podium placings.
  As a consequence of the race, Vettel's lead in the World Drivers' Championship was cut by Webber to 77 points. Hamilton's victory allowed him to move into third place in the championship, five points behind Webber in second, and four ahead of Alonso. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull extended their championship lead to 112 points over McLaren, with Ferrari a further 51 points behind in third position.
context_section_description: Kamui Kobayashi was the most surprising driver to drop out in the first part of qualifying, where he only set a time fast enough for his Sauber to be in 18th place. Heikki Kovalainen out-qualified new, temporary, Lotus teammate Karun Chandhok by eight tenths of a second. The Indian said he was happy with his lap as he had never driven the circuit as an F1 driver, run the car with low fuel and slicks, used brakes not suited to his style, or used much KERS or DRS before. Chandok was 21st fastest (which became 20th later), he and Kovalainen separated by Timo Glock's Virgin. The other Virgin of Jérôme d'Ambrosio was ahead of the two very closely matched times of the HRTs; Vitantonio Liuzzi was just ahead of new driver Daniel Ricciardo although he would start 24th (later 23rd) due to a gearbox change. Out of the fastest four teams, Felipe Massa was the only driver feeling the need to use a set of soft tyres in Q1. After qualifying was over, Sébastien Buemi was excluded due to a fuel irregularity demoting him to 24th place, therefore every driver below 16th gained a place. After Q1, on the way back to the pit lane, Timo Glock commented to his engineers on the car-to-pit radio that they were making it "difficult for him". Glock later tried to cover up his comments by saying they were meant in a joking way. Glock announced the following day he would be staying with the team until 2014.
  The remaining 17 drivers all participated in the second qualifying session, and all drivers decided to use the option tyres. The two Toro Rosso cars were slowest in Q2, Buemi ahead of teammate Jaime Alguersuari. Although, Alguersuari moved up to 16th and Kobayashi into 17th once Buemi was excluded form qualifying due to a fuel irregularity demoting him to 24th position. Mexican rookie Sergio Pérez out-qualified his teammate again with 15th spot, behind the two Williams cars; Pastor Maldonado not in Q3, yet ahead of F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello on the seventh row. Force India's Paul di Resta and Nick Heidfeld in the Renault were very close to making the cut, but were both beaten by their teammates and stayed 12th and 11th respectively. This was only the 3rd time in 10 races that Force India driver Adrian Sutil out-qualified his rookie teammate, and Vitaly Petrov's Renault entered the top 10 for the first time since Canada. Paul di Resta later said he suffered from grip problems in Qualifying.
  For the final part of qualifying, all the remaining drivers went out on the option tyres, and all except the two Mercedes cars and Sutil's Force India chose to do two runs – who chose to do only two flying laps at the end of the session. Lewis Hamilton started the session by initially setting provisional pole, although he was quickly beaten by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. Ferrari looked on very good form at the last race in Silverstone and continue that good form by matching Red Bull Racing in practice. Alonso's pole looked like a solid time until Red Bull came out of the pit lane, Mark Webber beating Alonso by four tenths and Sebastian Vettel fitting in between the two. On these four drivers last efforts, Alonso went faster but failed to improve his time and stayed third. Webber then went quicker by another tenth on a great lap, and then Hamilton posted a stunning lap – only five hundredths slower than Webber's and beating all the critics who said McLaren had easily fallen behind Ferrari. This pushed Alonso down to fourth. Vettel then improved his lap, but stayed third – the first time since Monza the previous year he had not qualified on the front row; but, he was only 0.137 seconds behind pole position. This was Webber's second successive pole, and his third of the season. Home favourites Mercedes qualified sixth and tenth with Nico Rosberg ahead of Michael Schumacher – who had won at this circuit five times – for the ninth time this season. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was sixth tenths behind his teammate, as Alonso continued to outclass him, in fifth place. Jenson Button was disappointed after he qualified seventh, 1.2 seconds behind Hamilton, he stated it was d
caption: The two Virgins and the two HRTs were on the back three rows of the grid along with Karun Chandhok, who drove Jarno Trulli's Lotus during the weekend, and Sébastien Buemi, whose Toro Rosso's fuel irregularity had left him 24th.
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