Red Bull takes pole at Spa
2010-08-28 15:53
Spa-Francorchamps - A dramatic qualifying session for Sunday’s Belgian GP ended with Red Bull taking pole position.
The Austrian team’s Mark Webber produces a scintillating drive late in the session’s third segment to clinch pole position from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
With the climatic state of play unpredictable for most of the afternoon qualifying session (as F1 teams have come to expect from the Spa-Francorchamps circuit over the years) it was Webber who made most of the drying track conditions towards the end of qualifying.
As official qualifying started Renault’s Vitaly Petrov spun off, requiring the marshals to intervene and forcing drivers to return to the pits.
The session was restated eight minutes later than the official 14:00 start-time. As the drivers made their way onto the track it started raining, in classic Spa-Francorchamps fashion.
Most of the usual back markers were eliminated as Q1 finished, with most drivers in two-minds as to which tyre choice wass best.
Mercedes, who’s Nico Rosberg had already been penalised at the start of the qualifying session for an unscheduled change to his car’s transmission,
endured a terrible afternoon at Spa.
Both Michael Schumacher and Rosberg managed to only set-up their cars for 11th and 12th places on the grid for Sunday’s GP – before the penalties are factored in.
Rosberg was burdened with a five place penalty for his transmission infringement and Schumacher was dropped ten places down the grid for his antics in the Hungarian GP.
As track conditions improved during Q3 of the qualifying session the Red Bulls were not as dominant as Fernando Alonso had predicted.
Alonso was quickest on Friday but could only disappointingly qualify in tenth position, bested by the German duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil.
Hulkenberg’s Williams team mate Rubens Barrichello celebrated his 300th GP weekend with seventh place on the grid.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa managed to snatch a sixth place, behind current world champion Jenson Button.
Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel qualified fourth, bested by a superlative driven from Renault’s gusty Robert Kubica.
Although a Red Bull car has managed to now take pole position in all but one of this year's GPs, Webber will know that with Spa's vacillating microclimate pole position counts for precious little at the Belgian GP.
In fact, on this great GP circuit in the Ardennes, only 13 pole position drivers have taken a win in the previous 43 starts...
Belgian GP qualifying timesheet:
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m45.778s
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m45.863s
3. Kubica Renault 1m46.100s
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m46.127s
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m46.206s
6. Massa Ferrari 1m46.314s
7. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m46.602s
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m46.659s
9. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1m47.053s
10. Alonso Ferrari 1m47.441s
