Formula One news
Hamilton steals pole from Alonso
16 June 2007 / Results / PhotosLewis Hamilton claimed his second pole of the season in sensational style during qualifying for the American Grand Prix. The 22-year-old surprisingly beat McLaren team-mate Alonso to pole position for tomorrow's race at the legendary Indianapolis track after the Spaniard had been fastest in all of the practice sessions as well as in Q1 and Q2. The two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will line up on the second row of the grid respectively.
Nick Heidfeld was fifth fastest in Q3 whilst his BMW team-mate Sebastian Vettel was an impressive seventh fastest in his first ever qualifying session. Heikki Kovalainen did well to split the two German drivers up in sixth whilst Jarno Trulli of Toyota, Mark Webber of Red Bull and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault will make up the rest of the top ten respectively.
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The track was a record high temperature of 57 degrees Celsius when the first driver, David Coulthard, set out for Q1. The Red Bull driver set the benchmark with a time of 1:13.424s that was some way off practice pace. Heikki Kovalainen soon went faster until Hamilton cleared the pack by fourth tenths of a second. Alonso then pipped Hamilton's time to go top with Heidfeld splitting the two McLarens in second. Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest in the second BMW as the team showed its threatening pace. Coutlhard locked up going into turn eight before losing control on the grass but the spin did not effect the Scot's qualifying as he was just safe with his original best. Not so lucky was Alex Wurz in his Williams, who dropped out in 16th having struggled all weekend. Takuma Sato failed to make the cut too and will feel disappointed with his team-mate Anthony Davidson recording the 11th fastest time. The other victims of Q1 were unsurprisingly the two Toro Rossos and the two Spykers.
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In Q2, the two Toyotas appeared first before the Red Bulls of Coulthard and Mark Webber remarkably improved on their Q1 pace by around seven tenths to go top. The frontrunners then came out with Hamilton taking top spot with a time of 1:12.065s before Alonso replied with a time just under the 1 minute 12 seconds mark. In the dying moments Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli managed to improve on their times to kick Nico Rosberg and David Coulthard into the drop zone. Coutlhard will feel unlucky to have missed out having been in the top ten all weekend. The others to drop out in Q2 were the two Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, Anthony Davidson and Ralf Schumacher in the second Toyota. By the end of the session Raikkonen and Massa had come within a tenth of Hamilton's time giving the McLaren team something to think about for Q3.
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The track temperature dropped slightly to 51 degrees Celsius for Q3 with Hamilton leading the queue of drivers out at the start. Hamilton set the benchmark with a time of 1:13.089s, which was almost four tenths faster than Alonso in second. The drivers worked on lightening their fuel loads before some such as Heidfeld, Raikkonen and Hamilton changed to the softer compound tyre. Meanwhile, Trulli and the two Renaults opted to stay on the harder tyre. With four minutes to go the two Ferraris went top before Alonso took back provisional pole with a time of 1:12.500s. Hamilton then replied with a 1:12.385s as the pressure mounted on the Spaniard. The two McLarens queued up to be serviced in the pits for one final attack, however, Alonso failed to improve on his time, whilst Hamilton went even faster with a 1:12.331s, and will have to start behind the sensational young Brit on the front row tomorrow.
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