UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Hamilton healthy in Spa

McLaren-Ferrari battle

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix dawned dry, to the disappointment of many but, no doubt, to the delight of the hardy crowd.

Spa is a glorious place to be, but in driving rain the Ardennes Mountains can be distinctly uncomfortable, not least if you’re doing 200mph in a Formula One car.

The opening session saw Sebastien Bourdais whooping for delight as he punched in a lat run to go top in the STR, but the real clues lay just behind him where a mixture of McLaren’s and Ferrari’s held close company, with Heikki Kovalainen leading the pack at this point.

Eliminated were the two Honda’s – no surprise there – plus Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams and, despite a valiant effort of the biggest possible type from Adrian Sutil, the pair of Force India’s fell by the wayside two.

Session two saw Kovalainen again taking the spoils, by a merest fraction from Hamilton in the sister car, with the two Ferrari’s and the BMW of Nick Heidfeld – a man on form this weekend – close behind.

The frantic final few minutes saw the two Toyotas – never on the pace – pushed out, with Nico Rosberg in the second Williams and Nelson Piquet’s Renault, with the final faller David Coulthard in the Red Bull.

Going into the final session, then, we had the top four – Ferrari and McLaren – plus the two BMW runners, both STR cars, Mark Webbers Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

After the first round of times, in which Sebastian Vettel took no part, it looked like the McLaren’s had the edge after Felipe Massa made a small mistake, but the Brazilian was having none of it on his second run.

Out Massa went, setting purple sector times in each segment of the course, but behind him Lewis Hamilton was cutting them down. The Ferrari blasted across the line to trip the clock at 1:47.678 but Hamilton, after a scintillating middle sector, cut three tenths off to take pole in 1:47.338.

Behind them the Finnish pair were in a battle of their own, with Kovalainen pipping Kimi Raikkonen for third place by a tenth, and following those two – a few tenths further back – came Nick Heidfeld with his best performance in the BMW for some races.

The second BMW of Robert Kubica will start eighth, with Fernando Alonso in the Renault and Mark Webber’s Red Bull between him and his teammate, and the fifth row is all STR with Bourdais ahead of Vettel.

A classic battle this should be, with the championship contenders all knowing the situation is vital, and Kovalainen looking to be the spoiler in the group on a weekend where he has looked strong from the first session.

Written: Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:09:03