Qualification – Hamilton persists and claims pole position!
It’s Lewis Hamilton, at the end of a fierce battle among the 4 protagonist drivers, who set the fastest qualifying time just seconds before the end. He leads Kimi Räikkönen, who had been in good form all weekend, by 152 thousandths nonetheless and Massa. Fernando Alonso, second since the start of the weekend, is “only” […]
It’s Lewis Hamilton, at the end of a fierce battle among the 4 protagonist drivers, who set the fastest qualifying time just seconds before the end. He leads Kimi Räikkönen, who had been in good form all weekend, by 152 thousandths nonetheless and Massa. Fernando Alonso, second since the start of the weekend, is “only” 4th.
David Coulthard completed a perfect lap. The Scot is the best “of the others” in 5th position but is already more than a second behind the leaders.
Ralf Schumacher also impresses in 6th place. The German seems motivated after the announcement of his departure and has had one of his best weekends so far.
The other Red Bull is also present in this top 8. Webber sets the 7th fastest time, with the Red Bulls being advantaged by different settings favorable to dry conditions, as the teams are unsure if rain will appear tomorrow or not…
Heidfeld, Kubica, and Button complete this top 10. The two BMWs are less competitive than usual, but once again the setups are different whether for rain or dry conditions, and BMW favored rain settings.
Button enters Super-Qualifying once again. It’s the 3rd time in four qualifying sessions.
The Toro Rossos are in a surprising position. The small Scuderia is in 11th and 12th with Liuzzi and Vettel respectively. Both men had very good laps in Q2, but once again these positions seem to be attributed to the very different settings depending on whether rain or dry conditions are expected in the race…
The second Toyota, driven by Trulli, is only 13th, while it’s worse for Renault with Kovalainen only in 14th position. The Finn was in his last flying lap trying to reach the super-qualifying, when he went off in the very last corner and lost the 0.5 seconds he needed to make it into the top 10.
For Fisichella, it’s worse; he didn’t even make it to Q2. The Italian, in the first part, returned to the pit a bit too early, and Trulli, Kovalainen, Schumacher, among others who were behind him at that moment, all set better times, pushing him second by second into the darkest positions.
Nico Rosberg also opted for maximum rain settings and is only 16th, while the two Spykers bring up the rear, Sutil ahead of Yamamoto.
There were no accidents or incidents in this qualifying session. Not a single flag was waved, but it should be quite different tomorrow with a 90% chance of rain forecasted for the race…
