UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Hamilton takes last gasp pole

Massa joins front row

Qualifying for the German grand prix was preceded by the lightest of rain showers over Hockenheim, but thankfully – or otherwise, depending who you are – the rain stayed away for the qualifying hour, giving us a perfectly dry track.

The opening session was a Ferrari – McLaren benefit, with Felipe Massa’s time of 1:14.921 the fastest of the weekend so far, but even at this early stage we began to see that Kimi Raikkonen was far from happy with his Ferrari, and he trailed his team mate by three tenths of a second at the close of the twenty minute session.

Nelson Piquet was the notable faller at this point, the young Brazilian pushing hard but ultimately failing to make it through, although less that two tenths slower than his team mate Fernando Alonso. Nelson can’t afford to fail any more if he is to have a future in this game, no matter how close the times may be.

Kazuki Nakajima blamed himself for missing out by the merest of fractions, while Rubens Barrichello was the Honda fall guy this time out. Joining these, naturally, were the Force India pair, although Adrian Sutil turned in some excellent efforts to get everything out of the car that he possibly could.

The second part if the session promised the loss of a ‘top’ driver, such was the line up, and it was unfortunate that Nick Heidfeld became that statistic. This was not Nick being unable to get speed out of the BMW, for he was on, and sometimes beyond, the pace of Robert Kubica, but a case of Heidfeld making a mistake at the hairpin and ruining a lap that would otherwise have seen him safely progress. Sebastien Bourdais went out the same way, and similarly the Frenchman in the STR had looked a possibility for progression before his transgression.

Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg found the limits of the Honda and Williams were insufficient for further advancement, and Timo Glock – who has been on the pace all weekend – was unlucky to lose out to tenth placed Mark Webber by a mere fraction.

So to the top ten shoot out, and initially it was to be expected that Ferrari, Massa that is, had the upper hand. Indeed, it looked this way, too, for Raikkonen’s early lap was ragged in the extreme, with Kovalainen and Hamilton also managing to make mistakes.

The second runs came late in the session, and provided us with one of those final second nail biters as first Massa improved, and then Hamilton pulled something out of the bag in the late section of the lap to pip the Ferrari by two tenths of a second.

Kovalainen also put in a late effort to take third place, his lap a couple of tenths down on Massa, and Fernando Alonso looked to have worked wonders with the Renault as he crossed the line with no time left to go fourth.

He had worked wonders, but we had reckoned without the talent and sheer pace of Jarno Trulli, as the Italian blasted across the line and took two tenths out of the Spaniards time. Indeed, the Toyota driver missed out on Kovalainen in third place by five one hundredths of a second. He may be an ‘old man’ of f1 these days, but he’s wasted in the form he is in this year.

Sixth place, alongside Alonso on the third row, went to Raikkonen, the Finn simply unable to get a lap together. He will have to work hard tomorrow not to lose points in what is a very close title race.

Seventh appeared to be the best Robert Kubica could do with the BMW F1.08 here, with eighth similarly so for Mark Webber and the Red Bull – a far cry from the Silverstone front row enjoyed by the Australian – and Sebastian Vettel lines up a commendable ninth in the STR, with David Coulthard the final top ten runner in the second Red Bull.

Fuel loads will come in to play tomorrow, of course, but fuel loads are the least of Kimi Raikkonen’s problems – he simply was not fast enough. The question of who is heaviest among the first three is that of most importance, and also, just how light – or otherwise is that Toyota?

Written: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:27:47