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Pole position for Alonso

With McLaren dominating the majority of the sessions so far, it was not completely unexpected that they would dominate qualifying as well.

Segment one saw Alonso and Hamilton leading Massa and Raikkonen by the end of the first fifteen minutes. The first session also saw the loss of Takuma Sato (Super Aguri), Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso), David Coulthard (Red Bull), Adrian Sutil (Spyker) and Sakon Yamamoto (Spyker). Disappointments for Coulthard who lost out due to a spin on his final flying lap, Schumacher who is still in need of a drive next year and the Spyker team who were hoping for a better result with their new revised car.

Segment two saw a repeat of the top four with the continued dominance of McLaren. Departing from the second session were Mark Webber (Red Bull), Rubens Barrichello (Honda), Alexander Wurz (Williams), Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) and Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso). During the last few moments Barrichello made a mistake, ran off track, and cost the drivers directly behind him some time, possibly what they needed to get into the final session.

In the end, it was the McLaren of Fernando Alonso who continued to reign supreme and took pole position (1:21.997) which was only a few hundredths of a second quicker than team mate Lewis Hamilton (1:22.034). In third was Ferrari's Felipe Massa (1:22.549), a good five tenths off the McLaren pace. In fourth was actually Nick Heidfeld for BMW (1:23.174). He just jumped in ahead of Massa's team mate Kimi Raikkonen who will line up fifth (1:23.183). One can't help but wonder if Raikkonen's high speed crash in the final practice session had anything to do with his final result. He was a good six tenths off Massa's pace. In sixth is Robert Kubica (BMW), in seventh Heikki Kovalainen (Renault), eighth for Nico Rosberg (Williams), ninth for Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and taking the final top ten spot will be Jenson Button (Honda).

Written: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:15:25