Sergio Perez suffered a concussion in the 2nd qualifying stint. The accident took place immediately after the tunnel at very high speed. It was a heavy impact on the notorious Nouvelle Chicane. The Mexican was taken straight into hospital where he was in a stable condition. He will miss the race today.
As a result of the accident the qualifying was stopped and this ruined the chances of many drivers including Lewis Hamilton. With only two minutes remaining of qualifying it became a crapshoot with drivers desperately trying to get on track for one final fast lap.
Sebastian Vettel can’t seem to put a foot wrong this season. An unlikely P1 position was “gifted” to him after the Perez crash. Even Fernando Alonso was confident that his nemisis Lewis Hamilton would take P1. Instead he got P7, and since then the GP officials dropped him down to P9 because he drove through a chicane on his fastest lap. So not a good result for the McLaren driver.
Another frustrated driver was Nico Rosberg. He was consistently in the top three throughout the qualifying stints, but suffered heavily from the Perez crash. Rosberg starts P7. This was the first time this season that he was “outqualified” by his teammate Michael Schumacher!
Despite the qualifying events the race is on today and unless Jenson Button or Mark Webber can overtake Vettel into the first corner, the race winner is… Vettel.
Tip: Sebastian Vettel to win at $1.52.