Lewis Hamilton has confirmed the improved form of his McLaren since Magny-Cours as he claimed pole position for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix. Aside of him will be Felipe Massa, followed by Heikki Kovalainen. World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is only 6th.
Just like at Silverstone two weeks ago, most cars are out quickly to try to put in a good lap time before the rain starts. The clouds have been threatening all weekend so far with especially on Friday when the free practice sessions were held on a wet track. Halfway in Q1, Lewis Hamilton leads the time sheet, even after having missed the apex in the back hairpin.
Two minutes from the end of Q1, Massa has improved on Hamilton with a 1:14.921, the first time a driver goes under 1:15 this weekend. Even after such an action-filled session, several drivers are in trouble to qualify for Q2 as the differences are so small. Robert Kubica for instance only managed to qualify in his last attempt after being held up in traffic, notably by Adrian Sutil. Fernando Alonso also just managed to get through in his final attempt, while his team-mate Piquet failed to do so and blamed Vettel for it.
Important to know is that Alonso, contrary to any other driver in their final attempts, did not use the option tyre but instead used the prime and therefore slightly harder compound. Q2 will then go ahead without Nakajima, Piquet, Barrichello, Sutil and Fisichella as they proved the slowest of the field.
Q2 went on a little bit more normal as the threat of rain appears to have decreased a bit. The fastest men proved to be Hamilton, Massa, Kovalainen and Alonso – this time on option tyres and the fastest of all in the third track sector. Nick Heidfeld on the other hand made a mistake and is out, along with Glock, Rosberg, Button and Bourdais, also partly due to a mistake at the hairpin.
In Q3, Trulli is the first man on track, Alonso the last. Massa initially proved fastest, ahead of Alonso and Hamilton. Kovalainen is still 10th due to going wide and through the gravel on his first lap.
The second attempts were very tense with Hamilton coming out on top, slightly ahead of Massa. Kovalainen is third and could have been 2nd had he not made another slight mistake. Jarno Trulli is 4th, ahead of Fernando Alonso. Kimi Räikkönen is only 6th and is thus far running anonymously.
German Grand-Prix, qualification
1 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:15.666
2 F. Massa Ferrari 1:15.859
3 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.143
4 J. Trulli Toyota 1:16.191
5 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.385
6 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:16.389
7 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.521
8 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.014
9 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.244
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.503
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:15.508
12 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:15.581
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:15.633
14 J. Button Honda 1:15.701
15 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:15.858
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:16.083
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:16.189
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:16.246
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:16.657
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:16.963
