Hamilton and Kovalainen certainly looked better in qualifying they had done in free practise but they could still only manage fifth and sixth respectively for tomorrow’s race.  

Qualifying performer of the day though had to go to former World Champion Fernando Alonso. It could be down to the new upgrades in the R28 or just the driver’s passion for wanting to do well in front of his home crowd or a very light fuel load but whatever it was, it worked. The car has gone from barely making Q2 to very nearly taking pole position had it not been for a flying final lap from Kimi Raikkonen who just beat the Spaniard to it. 

 So the Finn takes only his fourth pole for the Ferrari team while Massa finished the day in third due to the better times of Kimi and Fernando. The BMW of Kubica will line up beside the Brazilian with the two McLaren’s behind him.  

Mark Webber did a fantastic job in his Red Bull to line up seventh with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli just behind him. Presumably Nick Heidfeld was running heavier on fuel than the BMW of Kubica as he will be ninth on the grid tomorrow. 

 Piquet Jr kept up the momentum for Renault by also putting in a great performance and he completes tomorrow’s top ten on the grid. 

 Surprisingly David Coulthard could not make it through to Q2 today. The team thought it would have enough pace to make the second phase without using the softer rubber but the gamble backfired as DC hit traffic on his out lap and couldn’t warm the tyres up to the optimum temperature for his ultimately slow last effort.  

The Force India couldn’t put in the same performance today as they had done in yesterday’s free practise and neither went any further than Q1.

  Neither Honda could make a good enough impression to go through to Q3. Barrichello out qualified his team mate Button. He will start in eleventh with Button just behind him in thirteenth.  

The Toro Rosso’s start from near the back of the grid again. Bourdais did beat the Red Bull of Coulthard but Vettel will only have both Force India’s and the Super Aguri’s behind him.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes