Formula One news
Raikkonen takes pole
21 July 2007 / Results / PhotosKimi Raikkonen managed to take pole position for tomorrow's race at the Nurburgring after this afteroon's qualifying session was stopped following Lewis Hamilton's crash. Fernando Alonso was second, three tenths behind but just ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.
The BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will be starting from fourth and fifth at the team's home Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber, who did well to claim sixth. Heikki Kovalainen was seventh for Renault ahead of the two Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. If declared fit to race, Lewis Hamilton will start from tenth position after his big crash at the flat-out Schumacher-S chicane. A decision should be made in the next couple of hours, Ron Dennis revealed.
The weather conditions were dry and cool as the two Spykers were the first to appear from the pitlane. Adrian Sutil improved slightly from his earlier pace but his new team-mate Markus Winkelhock seemed to be struggling more than ever this weekend, sliding all over the place and eventually clocking a fastest lap a massive 1.4s slower than Sutil. Both were knocked out along with the two Toro Rossos and disappointingly for Britain, so were David Coulthard and Jenson Button, whose Honda team-mate Rubens Barrichello was a lot faster in seventh. Coulthard politely said, when interviewed by ITV, that he had been held up by his team-mate Mark Webber in his first two runs and then his Red Bull team made the mistake of sending him out too late for his final run. At the sharp end, the two McLarens were fastest with Alonso going half a second faster than Hamilton with a 1:31.074s.
Three minutes had gone before anyone came out in Q2 with cloud cover starting to build over the track. Raikkonen went fastest initially before Massa took P1. Hamilton quickly split the two Ferraris before Alonso went second, less than a tenth slower than Massa. Those to drop out were: the two Williams, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello and the two Super Aguris. Mark Webber made a late run to take seventh ahead of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, who spun on his last lap at the chicane, bringing out a yellow flag and possibly preventing anyone else from going faster.
Heidfeld was fastest in the first five minutes of Q3, before Alonso lowered the mark to 1:33.054s. Raikkonen was just over a tenth slower, whilst Massa and Hamilton were over half a second adrift. Then with six minutes remaining, Hamilton was on a flyer, going fastest in sector one. However, going flat out on the approach to the Schumacher-S, his right front tyre suffered a failure, causing his McLaren to fly off into the tyre barrier. The session was stopped and Hamilton appeared to be shaken up by the impact as the ambulance made its way to the scene of the incident. 20 minutes passed before the ambulance took the young rookie away on a stretcher with Hamilton waving to the crowd to signal he was ok. However, there were doubts as to whether he would race in tomorrow's race due to the extent of the impact. Following speculation that the car might have failed instead of the tyre, it turned out the tyre had actually not been bolted on properly, which was the fault of the tyre-gun which tightens the wheel nut. Qualifying resumed in dim mood for Raikkonen to take pole ahead of Alonso, who made a mistake on his last lap, which probably stopped him going fastest himself.
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