Greater Noida, 26 October

At times, qualifying seemed as cerebral as a game of chess and come the end of it, Felipe Massa was fifth, while his Scuderia Ferrari team-mate, Fernando Alonso was eighth. The two F138s will tackle tomorrow’s race starting on different strategies, as Massa set his time on the Soft tyre, while Alonso ran the Medium and so that’s what they will start the race with.
In Q1, Massa went out for a 7 lap run on the Medium, but the time didn’t look good enough to get him into Q2, so with two minutes remaining he went out again, this time on the Soft, to go fourth fastest in 1.25.793. Alonso opted to go with the Softs from the start doing a first run in 1.25.934.
The two F138s went out right at the start of the second session, using the same tyres with which they ended the previous one. With three minutes remaining, everyone went out on new Softs. Alonso was second fastest in 1.24.885, while Massa was ninth to go into the top ten with a lap in 1.25.389.
In the final session, Alonso went out on Medium tyres to post a 1.25.826. The Spaniard kept the same compound for his second run but didn’t go faster. Massa went out just once, using a new set of Soft tyres, to set the fifth fastest time in 1.25.201. Sebastian Vettel took pole for Red Bull Racing in a time of 1.24.119.