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Vettel seizes home pole from Alonso
Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing have grabbed the German Grand Prix pole position by just two thousandths of a second from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari. With the Spaniard on the front row for the first time this year, respective team-mates Massa and Webber make up Row 2 with returning Michael Schumacher 11th for Mercedes.
Rain has very much been the theme of the weekend so far, with Friday’s two practice sessions affected before more showers arrived earlier this morning. However, somewhat amazingly in comparison with forecasts, the track remained dry as the sun came out in qualifying.
In Q1, however, the off-line parts of the circuit remained damp, with naturally no cars having been used them; this was proven as the Force India of Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control over the kerbs and slammed into the pit wall just over five minutes into Q1. Although the Italian walked away uninjured, the shunt worsens an already bad day for the team, with Adrian Sutil only 19th due to a gearbox change penalty.
That left 14 and a half minutes of action remaining when the session resumed, although Lucas di Grassi was forced to sit out due to gearbox problems; slower than Liuzzi on his first run, the Brazilian will start 24th and last on Sunday.
At the forefront of the Q1 drop zone were the Lotus cars of Trulli and Kovalainen, with the Finn having moved ahead of Timo Glock’s Virgin on his final run. The returning Bruno Senna starts 21st with Hispania team-mate Sakon Yamamoto 23rd, also behind Liuzzi, as he replaces Karun Chandhok.
The much-improved Ferraris continued to impress as the 15-minute Q2 began, with Felipe Massa being confident enough not to hit the track in the final five minutes – a decision which turned out to be correct, unlike that of Malaysia last year. Back on-track, Jaime Alguersuari did not help the field by leaving a pile of soil just off-line on the exit of Turn 1, having run out wide and rejoined in the Toro Rosso.
As usual, most of the drama came in the midfield; both Mercedes looked set to be eliminated although Michael Schumacher climbed to ninth, with team-mate Nico Rosberg repeating the feat just seconds later. However, it was a great effort by Nico Hülkenberg which saw him then improve to ninth in the Williams, knocking Schumacher out of contention and down to 11th position in the process.
Kamui Kobayashi, another man who could have made the top ten, starts 12th for Sauber after running wide at Turn 1 on his final lap. Vitaly Petrov’s Renault qualifies 13th ahead of Sutil, de la Rosa, Alguersuari and Buemi; however, all behind Sutil will move up one spot when the Force India takes its penalty.
Rain momentarily threatened to affect Q3, with small drops beginning to fall only moments before the 10-minute shootout began although - with the sun shining - any water which did make it to the ground was evaporated almost immediately.
Alonso set the benchmark for Ferrari, with a fantastic 1:13.927 lap time very much establishing the mood for the final five minutes; however, although many in the paddock began to expect a Ferrari pole, Vettel fired a warning as he missed the top spot by only three hundredths of a second.
The Williams drivers planned to complete only a single lap, having both made Q3, although Rubens Barrichello toured twice after running wide at the Sachs Kurve on his first attempt; he starts eighth, with himself and team-mate Nico Hülkenberg sandwiching the leading Mercedes GP car of Nico Rosberg.
As the final minute arrived, all cars being on-track signalled a thrilling end to the session, with Vettel finally able to snatch pole away from Alonso courtesy of a 1:13.971 effort.
However, as the German crowd began an early celebration, Massa approached the line but could manage no more than third, with Alonso running immediately behind him but missing the top spot by the flimsy margin of two thousandths of a second, much to the delight of Red Bull.
However, other driver Mark Webber was fortunate to remain fourth after losing three seconds by running wide at Turn 1 on his final lap. 2008 winner Lewis Hamilton was unable to beat team-mate Jenson Button, meaning McLaren make up Row 5 with the ever-strong Robert Kubica seventh for Renault.
With the narrowest of gaps separating the top two and a threat of rain on the horizon, the 2010 German Grand Prix promises to be at least as exciting as its Hockenheim predecessor of two years ago.
All of Sunday’s action, which begins at 2pm local time (BST +1), can be followed live via the GPUpdate.net live report
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