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Webber grabs pole in dramatic Spa qualifying
Just a day after his 34th birthday, Red Bull’s Mark Webber has seized pole position at Spa-Francorchamps for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix. In a qualifying session affected by several rain showers, the Australian saw off a strong late challenge from Lewis Hamilton and McLaren although Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso could manage only tenth.
After rain-affected practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning at Spa, the weather looked to have made a turn for the better as qualifying began at 2pm, with blue skies being enjoyed by all present in Belgium. However, a large queue of cars formed in the pit lane due to a threat of more showers which were due to hit the circuit.
With every runner hoping for a quick lap before the rain arrived in Q1, the drama began to unfold immediately as Vitaly Petrov spun his Renault out of contention at Liège corner, narrowly missing the Armco barriers but prompting an instant red flag.
This meant that, by the time the session restarted approximately six minutes later, 18 minutes still remained on the clock but spots of rain began to fall as the first flying laps began; Q1 then turned into a lottery, as no less than five cars in the train ran off into the Stavelot gravel trap (including a mistake from Kubica, a touch between Trulli and di Grassi and a mistake from Sutil) with all cars on dry, Slick tyres.
Michael Schumacher, who takes a 10-place grip drop for his aggressive driving in Hungary, was able to avoid the mayhem although Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg has now been handed a 5-place drop for a gearbox change.
Helped by the weather, Heikki Kovalainen and Lotus made progressed to Q2 for the second time this year as Timo Glock confirmed the first top 17 qualifying result for Virgin Racing.
Behind, with Petrov last on the timesheets, the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa skidded off the road at Rivage and Stavelot corners on their individual ways to the 19th and 22nd grid slots.
There were less surprises in Q2, with sunshine having returned thanks to Spa’s unique microclimate. Hamilton led the pack for McLaren although former team-mate Kovalainen, aware that nothing more than 16th place was likely, elected to save tyres and complete only a single flying lap.
The track had now dried although damp patches remained - confirmed by Button and Liuzzi, as the former ran wide and the latter suffered a spin at Stavelot.
Felipe Massa was also in the wars on his way to an eventual grid position of sixth, spinning into the gravel but recovering courtesy of a masterly recovery at Rivage – the furthermost point of the circuit from the pits.
Mercedes were the big disappoints of the second qualifying phase, though, meaning that Nico Rosberg and Schumacher will line up only 17th and 21st once their respective grid penalties have been applied on Sunday morning.
The surface was also dry as the 10-minute, top ten-deciding Q3 phase began. However, Alonso made an unforced error in the second sector on his first flying lap – an slip-up which proved costly as more light rain then fell, preventing him from improving on the second and final run at what is the longest circuit on the F1 tour.
McLaren, to the surprise of most, were able to lower their lap times with both cars in the dying moments, despite Hamilton and Button being using Slick tyres on a damp track; Hamilton shot to second, less than a tenth down on pole man Webber, due to a superb effort as current Champion Button progressed to fifth, behind the f-duct-shod Kubica’s Renault (for the first time this season) and Vettel.
Behind Massa, Rubens Barrichello qualifies seventh for his 300th Formula 1 race on a day when both Williams once again made the shootout, with team-mate Nico Hülkenberg sandwiched in ninth between the Force India of Sutil and out-of-position Alonso, who topped both Friday practice sessions and will needless to say be greatly disappointed.
With mid-race rain forecast, Sunday’s Grand Prix – Round 13 of 19 in 2010 – promises to be highly dramatic.
- Post-qualifying feelings from pole-sitter Mark Webber
The 2010 Belgian Grand Prix begins at 2pm local time (BST +1) and can also be followed live via GPUpdate.net
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